Nits: treat or leave?

[joyfulspike]

My best mate's kids have nits. My nephew also has nits which my sister has a cupboard full of various lotions and potions to tackle them with.

My mate won't treat her kids' nits . She says there's no point coz they'll just get them again. She also says she's against animal cruelty and doesn't want to kill a liveing thing just to make her kids lives better.

Thankfully we have avoided nits so far, but its only a matter of time. I thought treating them was the responsible thng to do? It seems cruel to not. Personally, if a child in ds's preschool had nits I'd expect the parents to do the necessary.

What are your views please? treat or leave??

I suppose it should- no hair for the eggs to latch on to!

Ok if you have boys but I can't see the girls going for it.

We had a boy in my Dd's class when she was in Y1 who got nits & his Dad did that " no son of mine is gonna be lousy" poor mite came in next day looking like something out of Belsen-completely bald. stopped the nits though!!

Good God I would have to murder her if she was outed. The whole reason they keep on getting them is because one family in the class doesn't bother treating.

Nit comb doesn't really kill them - just removes them. ime

Yes but if you do it religiously every day or every 2 days, you remove them when they are too young to breed. So at least they are not being replaced. Eventually, there are no more eggs to hatch and so that's the end of them. But it does take a while - about 2 weeks I think (it's about 18 months since my kids have had nits, thanks to the draonian new policy at their schools, so I haven't done it for a while!)

Course i tdoesn't divide but according to the research NOTIHNG does!! Repearted combing removes the big buggers though & if you can get them while they're at that translucent stage they won't have laid eggs ergo sooner or later the rest wil die. (usually after the three weeks.)

From the BMJ

"Treatment failure is likely to be an important factor in the reported rise in the incidence of head lice infestation, but of concern is the increased risk of toxicity this may pose to children. Although current insecticides registered for use against head lice are generally considered safe for occasional use, they may pose a greater risk of direct or cumulative toxicity if used frequently.
Wet combing with conditioner was first developed as a method of detecting head lice and was subsequently advocated as a means of treatment ("Bug Busting") by the UK charity Community Hygiene Concern."

Treat. Then leave the country.

Ha Kerry I read your post as
"I think schools should execute untreated children.."

A bit harsh I thought!

Oh right so she would have rats living in her kitchen spreading disease just because she wants to be nice to the rats?

Sounds like she is just too lazy to take care of the nits.

Sorry Bella didn't read yours properly first!!

definitely treat

full marks mousse and then combing regularly

get a bug busting kit free from local chemists

it is cruel to the children, tehy get itchy and sore, and infest other children

at someone putting the life of a farking louse above her own childrens' comfort

she can;t be bothered , more like

Slur it'd stop the nits though!!

Flibberti I agree- she can't be arsed basically.

It's neglect basically, and I would consider speaking to social services about it if she is actually refusing to treat her children full stop. I certainly wouldn't want to be friends with someone with that attitude!

Don't all schools make you treat live headlice before allowing kid back? DDs does. Its private so maybe it makes its own rules but this one seems entirely correct. They don't insist on check by GP or anything like that, just common sense and consideration to others.

My DD gave me headlice. Cruelty to longhaired mummy. Itched like heck and not easy to get out of my fine hair. Well, no, the Full Marks solution got the lice out well but I had to use Fairy liquid to wash out the oily stuff. Yuk.

I'm surprised that she hasn't got them too. When my two had them it wasn't until they jumped onto my head that I realised how irritating they were. If you go for the bug busting and conditioner route (which is the recommended treatment) then you don't kill them anyway (you can see them crawling around after you remove them - lovely!).

Definitely treat. Can't think of any good reason to leave.

Even when they have gone it's a good idea to get into a bathtime routine of wet combing once a week or fortnight during the worst years (5 - 8). That way you can keep any infestation down without chemicals.

They can't jump & the Bug-busting method isn't supposed to kill them, that's the whole point the little feckers are indestructable so you keep combing till they're all gone!

"break the legs you don't get the eggs" crude but true!!

Another vote for hedrin (the lice just fell out dead!) and then wet combing (for the nits).

My god, with this and the threadworms???!!!! Honestly, the mind baffles at these people.
Im a veggie, as is ds. I have been for 12 years, and am totally against killing animals. HOWEVER, anyone that has had nits knows how uncomfortable it is (I presume your friend also has them?), and why ANY mother would allow their child to live so uncomfortably is beyond me!
If they children got worms, would she leave those too?!
If she has pets, does she de-flea / worm those?
Does she not disinfect any kitchen or bathroom surfaces, because she'll be killing bugs?!?!?! Im shocked that some mothers can be so...well...cruel. I think its cruel to make her kids live like that, and to all the other children that catch them off her children.
If you dont want to say anything to her, maybe make some kind of joke about it, like "Wow, theres going to be a nit epedemic with you lot running around", or something like that.

Sorry, not bugs on kitchen surfaces, I meant germs.
No, I do not have bugs running along my kitchen and bathroom surfaces!

I have never heard of this before - refusing to treat nits because it's animal cruelty. Sounds more like laziness to me.

Oooh, yes I am a nit comb advocate. Just thinking that comb might appeal to mother who did not wish to see the feckers dead

i used hedrin when i caught them from school, that worked. its supposed to be the same as j&j gel moisturiser, suffocates the little gits

I think she's cruel to leave her poor kids to scratch! DS1 has just had them and they drove him mad, he was pleading to have his hair wet-combed every other day until we got rid of the lot.

It's also not true that "they'll just get them again". DS1 hadn't previously had them for a couple of years. DS2 has NEVER had them - they just don't seem to like him.

Next time tell her that bacteria are alive. Does she give her children antibiotics?

Sounds like an excuse for being lazy tbh