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Original poster

NITS - aargh!

7 replies

Chinchilla · 05/01/2004 21:52

My friend called me today, to tell me that her ds has nits. We saw them on Friday evening, but she only found out today. I checked ds' and dh's heads immediately, and could see nothing. Both of them have really short hair, so I am confident that they are clear. However, my head has been itching ever since! I know it is probably psychosomatic, as ds did check my hair.

What I want to know is if it is wise to use the comb/shampoo on all of us anyway.

TIA

OP posts:

JanH · 05/01/2004 22:08

Chinchilla, I found today that ds2 actually has nits - he has been scratching the back of his head for a few days but he's always scratching something. (Dear child.)

If you get the tea-tree conditioner + nit comb it will be fine to use on all of you. Apparently the chemicals don't work very well any more - as well as being horrible - the tea-tree smells nice and seems to do the job. The leaflet with ours says to use it twice a week for 2 weeks and that's only if you know you have them - if you do all of you now a couple of times it should nip it in the bud. (I got the conditioner, comb and leaflet from Consumer's Choice for £2.99 - not sure if that's a good deal or not but their things usually are.)

Lisa78 · 05/01/2004 22:28

I think the advice is not to treat if there isn't any sign since the little sods build up a resistance. Think short hair is more prone to nits as they can get to the scalp easier but that might be old wives tale. If they have them, you will see them

Pacific · 05/01/2004 22:45

We've had lice on numerous occasions and in my opinion the chemicals simply do not work. Apart from that, they are very powerful insecticides which I was always nervous about applying to children's heads.

I find an electric nit comb is great for detecting them. Then you can simply dry comb the hair with the electric comb over the next fortnight and they will be gone.

Alternately, you can use conditioner and wet comb with a nit comb over a fortnight.

Either way is much safer than using chemicals.

HTH

Original poster

Chinchilla · 06/01/2004 22:41

My head has been itching like mad today, but dh can't see any. I still can't see any in ds, so do you think we are clear?

OP posts:

tamum · 06/01/2004 22:45

From personal experience I would say that dhs can be total rubbish at recognising headlice, they'd have to be the size of fieldmice before mine spotted them. If you're really itchy I would definitely do the conditioner/nit comb bit, unlike the chemicals it can't possibly do any harm.

JanH · 06/01/2004 22:51

lol at the fieldmice, tamum - my eyes are a bit dim so had to rope in dd1 to check ds2's head but one of his was so enormous that I shrieked at it and made him cry - your dh might have spotted that one!

tamum · 06/01/2004 22:55

Nice, thanks for sharing that with me janh

Strangely, I was checking dd the other morning (they've been rampant in her class ever since she started school) and my ds said "It must be so nice to be able to check peoples' hair for things. Do you think I could have a go?" (umm...be my guest). If only they hadn't done away with nit nurses, he could have had a glittering career ahead of him!

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