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Original poster

Nits: treat or leave?

71 replies

joyfulspike · 19/12/2007 19:58

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??

OP posts:

misspenguin · 20/12/2007 15:01

To help ward off nits from your heads put tea tree oil in your shampoo and more importantly, conditioner. Lice hate it and usually choose someone else's head instead!

Original poster

joyfulspike · 20/12/2007 22:56

Have just had text from mate, the head called her in after school and told her that shes had complaints about the kids (I think she means the lice) and that they are effecting their school work. She's been told to use the holiday to sort it out otherwise they will consider taking 'action' in the new year. Mate is horrified and feels everyone wants her to abandon her principles! FFS she just doesn't get that her kids are suffering. God knows what her dh thinks of all this - hang on will text him and find out.....

He's p'd off as he's got them too and causes probs for him at work. Would you buy from a salesman with nits?? Have suggested Hedrin and he's gonna get some tomorrow. She's due to go on retreat on Sunday, so he and his mum are gonna treat the whole house and kids!! Thank god! Why its taken so bloody long is beyond me.

OP posts:

ISawSantaKissingKerrysNorks · 20/12/2007 22:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

RudolphtheBluenosesaintdeer · 20/12/2007 23:08

There was a recent case of a woman being prosecuted because she hadn't treated her daughter - the infestation had gotten so bad that her poor childs hair was completely matted and thick with lice.

Of course she must do her utmost to get rid of the nasty little bugs ...beggars belief to think that anyone would think otherwise ...

NorthernLurkerwithastarontop · 20/12/2007 23:14

Yuck!

morocco · 20/12/2007 23:16

no need to treat whole house - just heads!! was wet combing ds1's hair the other week and he was really upset we were killing the bugs, even the babies, and said 'but mummy, we wouldn't kill dd would we, and she's just a baby' - he wanted me to liberate them in the garden.

pukkapatch · 20/12/2007 23:16

if you dont want to kill the buggers with nastsy medicines, then there are two ways to get rid of them.
1 using conditoner a nd a comb, and a bowl of water or tap, keep removing the adults. you will be left withthe eggs, so will need to keep doing this for probly what is the ret of your life.
2, shave the childs hair off. nits need the hair to live in. no hair, no nits. for boys not really a problem, as will grow back to normal within a couple of weeks or three. not so nice for girls.

morocco · 20/12/2007 23:25

she could create a home for them, like those worm and ant worlds you can buy, just clean out old hairbrush, stick on radiator to keep nice and warm and voila, all nits can relocate
right am off to bed now, obv tipsy

ISawSantaKissingKerrysNorks · 20/12/2007 23:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

nooka · 21/12/2007 00:13

Nit comb and conditioner only takes two weeks (three or four combings) to work. We did ours in (first infestation) and they've not come back six or so months later. It doesn't kill them - you can see them crawling around afterwards - I guess the new home is the only problem - love Morocco's idea, but I think you might have to give them blood too!

pukkapatch · 21/12/2007 00:26

santa, i kid you not. ds2 got nits aged 11 months. i used the stuff in my hair, but couldnt face putting poisonous stuff on a babies head. so i shaved it off in the bath. they must have all swum away withthe hair in the bathwater. worked a treat.

Blandmum · 21/12/2007 10:39

The one thing that you cannot do is try to drown the little bastards.

You can hold a head louse under water for so long that its body swells and its legs stick out at right angles to its body, and the bastards are still alive!

I have found conditioner and a nit comb just fine in shifting them. You have to be methodical and do it every 2-3 days for 2 weeks, but as long as you do this, and the child is not re-infested, it does work.

But you have to care more about your kids than the lice, obv the faird of the OP doesn't

pukkapatch · 21/12/2007 10:46

mb, they didnt drown. just with no hair, they had nowhere left to live. so i am assuming they just died, and dropped off in the carpet to be vacuumed up, that is those that werent swimming in the bath water downt he plug hole!

ValnBen · 21/12/2007 10:50

Yup constant combing with a fine tooth comb is the only way to go.

Do NOT take the advice given out by DS?s school head teacher last week!!

?Dear parents, there seems to be a continuous problem with headlice.
It is vital you check your child on a regular basis and notify the school immediately if headlice are found.
Children who have live lice should not be sent in to school.
It would help if your child hair is vigorously brushed before and after school each day?
Eh? vigorously BRUSHED!! since when???
No wonder there?s a constant problem with advice like that!

bossybaublesinherbritches · 21/12/2007 10:56

Well I suppose it wouldn't hurt if it was AS WELL as conditioning & combing but not INSTEAD of!!!

Maybe she's trying to encourage SOME sort of attention to their kids heads, especially if they're all like the OP's mate!!

ValnBen · 21/12/2007 11:01

Nope, no advice on conditioning and combing etc?just vigorously brushing ?.did wonder whether this was an effort to make some parents notice that their kids actually have hair though

Anna8888 · 21/12/2007 11:04

Crikey, someone would leave their own human children with the misery of nits in the name of animal rights?

That's either an unbelievably warped sense of priorities (a nit's comfort versus a child's, and the nit wins?) or a ridiculously ill-thought out cover-up for gross maternal negligence...

bossybaublesinherbritches · 21/12/2007 13:44

I tend to lean towards the latter suggestion Anna!

(in others words the womans a lazy ignorant slut!)

Sorry js I know she's you mate but

ADDICTEDtosayingHAAAAAAAPYxmas · 21/12/2007 14:42

buy her some lice attack or derbac m for christmas

heard vinegar, listerine and vodka works too

tb · 30/12/2007 02:11

Nice one about leaving the country, but it doesn't work. We did that just over a year ago and in March found I had got them from dd. She's 9 and has a great mop of very thick hair. 9 months later, and a couple of hundreds worth of malathion, pouxit etc etc we're still fighting. Even dh has had them and he hasn't much hair!! The worst time was when we used Malathion for the first time and about 200 fell out of her hair on to the (thankfully) tiled floor -yuck. Have bought nitty gritty comb and hope that does the trick. I want to get my hair cut in the village, but daren't - don't want to be know as the Englishwoman who went there with nits for the rest of my life!

Flower001 · 15/01/2008 14:09

Nits are a real pain and having dealt with them since DD1 started school we have used most everything on the market from plain ol oil/ conditioner, essential oils to the nasty pesticide filled lotions.

First thing to note is that there are only two pesticide chemicals which are used in most commercial products. Both of which lice have become resistant to.
It is for this reason, and the fact that we didnt want to use pesticides on our daughter that we searched for a better solution.
The only thing we have found that REALLY works and kills the lice is from a lovely company called www.naturallydoesit.co.uk the product is Not Nice to Lice - NNTL . It works because of the biodegradable enzyme they use kills the lice and the best thing is that the little horrids cannot become resistant to it. We use it like a normal shampoo, and the kids love it because it has a fresh peppermint scent, and it doesnt feel like a nasty lotion or smell of Tea Tree which my kids now associate with nits.

This stuff has come as a revelation and I will never go back to using the nasty chemcial laden stuff again thank goodness.

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