Head Lice?!

[Palmwoods]

What do they look like? What is the best treatment for DD, she is 3? PANIC!!!

wet combing with lots of conditioner (el cheppo conditioner will be just fine) every 2-3 days for 2 weeks and the head is clear.

The nits look like small browning dots stuck to the hair shaft near the head. Once they hatch the remaining empty egg sac looks pearly white. They are difficult to dislotge.

The harched insects look like small wingless fruit flies IYSWIM. fully grown they are the size of a match head, but have 4 different sizes as they grow. Each time they get to a particular size they shed their outser skin and 'jump' in size. They fart their way out of the egg sac.

this is what the unhatched eggs look like, tricky to see if your dc has brown hair

I sympathise with you ds 6 had them a while back. They are lttle white eggs attached to the hair shaft, when they hatch they are tiny and brown. I used Bioclear and it worked fine. I hadn't heard as ths s the first time ds got them but a neighbour said to wash his hair with tea tree shampoo, it repells them apparantly.

I would as a precaution treat everyone in the house too and clean all bed linen immediately to prevent reinfection. It might also be worth noting that if in doubt retreat after seven days. I thought ds still had them as I found a few eggs after tratment.

However, the pharmacist told me that if the egg is further than a quarter inch away from the hair shaft it is more lkely to be the shell and that only unhatched eggs will be right next to the scalp. They are a feckin nuisance. Good luck with it.

Oh my god! The worst thing is, DD HATES having her hair washed and combed. I'm in for a treat. Are there any treatments that work from the pharmacy?

I used Biolclear.

There are shampoos out there, but you still have to nit comb the child afterwards to make sure that they have worked (soz). And very often the lice are immune. Hedrin is supposed to be good and is non chemically active, but I've not tried it myself. And I think you still have to comb after.

Plonk her down in front of her favorate DVD with a bribe of choclate bunnons. Worked for my two.

And get used to this. It will happen again! Sorry!

Is the tea tree shampoo a good repellent MB? My neighbour swears by it.

i have used hedrin for dd when she caught them.you can buy it from the pharmacy.its nearly £10 a bottle but it is silicone based and droens them instead of using chemicals, and it is odour free, so it wasnt common knowlege that she had nit lotion on her head.Derbac and full marks solutions arent very good asthey didnt kill the lice that where in her head.you will have to repeat the treatment the week after you have used it, but there is easily 4 aplication in it so to be on the safe side yu should treat your hair as well

In the holidays.
That's really bad luck!

try nitty gritty spray as a preventative in future, or Biz Niz conditioner through the hair (don't rinse) each day (if going to nursery)...

you could use tea tree shampoo as a future repellant.

worth a try, but I don't know of any clinical evidence that shows that it works.

TBH it will just keep happeneing until the kids grow beyond the 'heads together when playing phase' DD is now 10 and we have had a few nit free years. But I became quite the expert. Ds only even had one very mild infestation. DD had them lots of times. Bastard bloody lice!

works for us - ds is 10 and never had nits/lice - phew !

My daughter who is 3 has headlice and also managed to give them to me in the process (nice). I was wondering if anyone has tried a product called nice'n'clear seems to be neem oil based. So far I have been doing the standard conditioner/comb method but wondered if there was a decent product/method which might sort this sooner rather than later?!

The whole tea tree/ neem oil thing came up a while ago, and a few people say it hasn't worked for them. I swear by it, as a prevention and a 'cure'. After one infestation at nursery, my 2 dds have never had more than a couple of dead ones on them after school, so they must go on their heads and die from the oils. I use tea tree shampoo and conditioner every sunday as part of opur routine, and more often if I know there are nits about. And they are often about. Some of the cheaper ones don't have enough oil, but Dr Johnsons is great. If not, add a little bit more oil to the shampoo, but never directly onto the child's head! The nitty gritty comb is brilliant too, an investment you won't regret!

Sat in a restaurant today and just happened to glimpse at the back of GS's head - in time to see a headlouse right in the middle of his crown. aaarrrggghhh!!!!!!!!! Git rid of the little bugger (the headlouse not GS) and immediately came home to do the whole de-lousing thing. Literally found one egg - so looks like I just caught them. Paranoid now though.

Bloody nits and parents who don't denit....finally managed to get rid of first infestation after back from school after lots combing (DD has thick long black hair)...to see her itching like mad a week later and literally crawling again last night gRRRRRR bloody fed up now gotta do me as well (I have equally thick black though not quite as long hair).....why oh why can't all parents denit their kids regularly

My ds is a nit magnet and there are a couple of children in his class who have them all the time so ds does too. And so do the rest of us. I'm afraid that I have started throwing money at the problem and use either Lice Attack or Hedrin - whichever is currently cheaper - every Sunday on all of us whether I've seen any evidence of lice or not. They are both very effective. Neither are chemical or potentially harmful (except to lice) and because they kill the lice by suffocating them, there is no chance of producing immunity in the lice. Whatever method you use, you have to do it AGAIN exactly 7 days later, because nothing kills the eggs, so you have to get rid of the new hatchings. And always tell ther teacher - most schools will then send out a general letter to everyone in the class - it might stir a few people to do something about it.