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Original poster

Head lice

91 replies

Fish · 24/05/2001 13:59

Go to www.nits.net/bugbusting for some vital tips on breaking the louse life cycle amongst the whole family. It's put out by a charity - Community Hygiene Concern - who do an excellent Bug-Busting comb kit for under a fiver with stickers for the kids and masses of advice for people with all kinds of different hair types - address CHC (BBG), 160 Inderwick Rd N8 9JT, tel 020 8341 7167.

OP posts:
monkey · 12/06/2002 08:45

blimey - that's something to look foreward to. I might get something in, just in case. Sod's law I'll discover they're heaving with nits at 5pm on Saturday night and have to survive till monday!

Tillysmummy · 12/06/2002 08:53

And they go for people with clean hair, so don't wash your hair ever again and you'll be fine

IDismyname · 07/10/2002 22:27

I have a few "nitty" questions which I'd love answers to, if any of you know....

  1. How long does a lice survive when its been taken off the head?

  2. Do you have to sterilise brushes? ... and if so, how?

  3. I changed the bedlinen when we discovered our outbreak, but do I need to keep changing it? What about towels that have dried possibly infested hair? Do they need washing each day?

Can't tell you how embarassed I am to have them with ds. He's just started big school, and attended 2 parties this last w/e before I knew he had them.

Am desperate to get my hair cut, but cannot work out if I am infested. I have very thick hair. Dh just HOPELESS at looking, and ds sent home "for a few days" by nurse who didn't even check ds's hair before pronouncing the above. Surely it should be for 2 weeks, or not at all....

We commenced with the pesticide approach, basically due to sheer panic in the household, but am well armed with tea tree oil

Deborahf · 07/10/2002 22:35

Hi Fms

Sorry, had to smile about the embarrassment bit As my ds has now had nits five or six times, I'm well over that!!

I've given up on the pesticide treatments and simply use hair conditioner and a fine tooth comb. Wash the hair and then add a reasonable amount of conditioner, comb through thoroughly. You will need to keep wiping the comb - and seeing the visitors This method works well, but you do have to keep it up every other day for about 2 weeks. My ds's hair was beautifully shiny the last time he had nits

Twink · 07/10/2002 22:40

Oh you really have my sympathy fms ! I never had them as a child but we've been fighting a month long battle with them (and new notice appeared at nursery today to say a new case has appeared !)

Dd never appeared to itch but I started doing and my mum found both dd and me were infested (yes, I was mortified, why, I'm not sure)

Knee jerk reaction was dodgy chemicals but following that I did a proper search on Mumsnet and found Marina's links here were really useful.

I too would really like to find a useful partner to wet comb my (very long) hair, it's impossible to do myself and I do't feel I can ask any friends to do it ! Dh is useless at it and refuses to believe wet-combing works. ARGGGG !

emsiewill · 07/10/2002 22:46

I used the bugbusting method to great effect on me & my 2 dds. The website is here . Worth every penny, and explains it all so clearly and logically. A great nature lesson for the kids, too!
PLEASE don't be embarrassed - there's nothing you can do about catching them, everyone gets them, and it's the people who don't care and do nothing about it that should be embarrassed.
As far as I understand it, you don't need to sterilise or wash anything, as they cannot live once they are no longer on a human head. However, I understand the feeling that you have to sterlise everything.

robinw · 08/10/2002 04:29

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Batters · 08/10/2002 10:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ejanes · 09/10/2002 10:52

i spent last night picking nits out of ds's hair having used a head lice treatment (conditioner). It said on the instructions that one dose should clear it (too good to be true?!) if not do again 7 days later. Do you nits experts think i should do the whole process again tonight or wait the 7 days? I hate to think of them all crawling round his head for the next week just because it's what the instructions say! But maybe it takes a while to work.....?!

I am also convinced that i have it now too, tried to check my head through a very elaborate mirror set up but couldn't see anything! DH is useless at this kind of thing. Everyone else i ask to look doesn't really know what they're looking for - and I'm p/g so can't use ds's treatment . Any advice for a 7month pregnant waddler who is very close to shaving her & her ds's head?!

PamT · 09/10/2002 11:49

To be on the safe side I would condition and wet comb both yourself and DS (and anyone else in the family). I used to do my own long hair by conditioning, then using a wide toothed comb to get the tangles out before using the nit comb. Wipe the comb on a tissue or peice of loo roll every time you comb and you will soon see if you have anything. Just make sure you go through your whole head, the temples and behind the ears seem to be worst affected. If you don't find anything you're fine but if you do, you need to wet comb every couple of days until you are absolutely clear. I would do the wet combing with DS every couple of days too until there is no trace of anything on the paper. Hopefully they will all be dead from the chemicals anyway but at least you can be sure this way.

When things are bad at school I usually subject my kids to weekly nit combing just in case. We do it whilst they are playing in the bath or even let them watch TV as long as they are sitting still.

All this nit talk is making me itch!

ejanes · 09/10/2002 12:01

thanks PamT for your advice - do you have to to a chemical condition before the wet comb or can it just be after a normal shampoo? sorry for the dumb questions - i'm a novice!

Jaybee · 09/10/2002 17:28

ejanes - normal hair conditioner, wash hair as normal, smother the hair in conditioner (I tend to use BodyShop Tea Tree conditioner as nits, apparently, do not like the smell of tea tree oil), comb hair using a normal wide toothed comb to clear tangles then get to work with the nit comb - I tend to rinse out the comb after each piece of hair in clear water in the washbasin whilst ds and dd are sitting in the bath - lovely to see the little blighters floating in the water!!!. You need to check every bit of hair so divide hair into sections, start at the roots and pull through right to the tips. I am scratching too.......

ejanes · 10/10/2002 13:32

thanks Jaybee - i am now becoming an obsessed nit catcher!!!

mollipops · 15/10/2002 13:08

I actually found that conditioner on dry hair worked the best. When the hair is wet, the lice curl up to protct themeselves. The conditioner immobilises them. Also try putting vinegar in the water you rinse the comb off with; it loosens the "glue" that holds the eggs (nits) on the hair strand. HTH & happy hunting!

ejanes · 15/10/2002 17:06

thank you for the tip mollipops - i think i am going insane.... I have been de-nitting myself and ds every night for a week now and there doesn't seem to be any improvement. Sometimes it looks like it's getting worse. It's also very difficult trying to keep a wriggly 2 yr old still long enough to do the whole head but with a bit of malt bread and Bugs Life (yes really!!!) we usually manage about 45mins of de-licing. I'll try the conditioner on dry hair tonight. Once i've got him off to sleep i then start on my head - so it really is taking over! I can't use the conditioners because i'm p/g - i tried the electric comb but that didn't seem to do much so i just use a nit comb on my dry hair to try and comb them out. Then i go to bed dreaming about them and wake up itching!!!! so i am very open to anyone's tips

robinw · 15/10/2002 18:21

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IDismyname · 15/10/2002 22:50

I'm so depressed about these lice.

Looks like ds and dh are free, but I wet combed my hair this afternoon and found little. Just a few black dots - like soot came out.

Just thought I'd give it a quick dry brush over the bath this evening and about 4 or 5 lice popped out. This is day 10 and I'm desperate for all this to be over. Will try just conditioner, without the wash next time.

Wonder if any of you have tried the "smother the critters with olive oil and sleep for the night" Dosen't seem like a whole heap of fun, as I have beyond shoulder length hair.

Batters · 16/10/2002 10:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

tsarvo · 16/10/2002 20:22

I hate to say it, but the little white eggs just alittle away from the root of the hair are not killed by any treatments thay have to be combed out one by one, with lots of conditioner. Teatree oil is the best stuff to use as the lice hate it use it at lest once a week in the shampoo and thay should not come back. But you MUST get all the eggs out first. If you leave just one in a week your back where you started.

ejanes · 16/10/2002 22:48

how depressing!! I can't see that i will ever get every single egg out of ds, you can not possibly keep a 2yr old (with very thick hair) still long enough to get through every section - but i'll persevere

anoushka · 16/10/2002 22:50

hi i have a tip i know i will work better on boys than girls and it is a bit extreem but a very short hair cut i mean short and it is gets rid of half of the problem straight away and it is so much easer to do the treatment with short hair but i am going to moan about the school i told them he had them again this is the third time and they seem to not care i have to moan and say are you going to inform the other parents in his class i makes me so mad

mollipops · 17/10/2002 07:23

I can relate to how you feel ejanes - we had them when dh was away interstate and I thought I was going insane too. I rang my dsil in tears one night after finding yet another just when I thought I might have beaten them. It does take a lot of perserverence (sp?) but if you keep combing every day for 2 weeks (their life cycle) and make sure you get every egg out, YOU WILL WIN! I'm not sure I understand about why you can't use conditioner cos you are pg? Do you mean just the chemical lice treatment ones? When I mentioned the cond on dry hair I meant just your ordinary everyday type...and make sure you have a long-toothed metal nit comb - those little plastic things are useless IMO! Good luck and keep smiling!

Copper · 17/10/2002 08:37

We've finally gone for the number 2 cut - life is much easier

ejanes · 17/10/2002 10:21

thanks everybody - it helps to know that there are other households going throught the same thing and it's not just flea ridden old us!! Mollipops - when you said conditioner i thought you meant the chemical stuff which i can't use but i am plugging away with normal conditioner on me and chemical on ds. i'm just being particularly moany as i also have p/g itchy skin everywhere - i don't know if that's the nits or not but i feel totally infested!! But alot worse could be happening so i'll stop complaining. Thanks everyone.

tsarvo · 17/10/2002 10:43

any conditioner will do. just as long as you use lots of it and its really slimmy.i know its a pain in the BUT.(i was a hairdresser befor my liitle one) dont forget the teetree oil once a week in any shampoo.