How the hell do I get rid of nits in 2.5 yr old DS's hair?

[RooTwo]

God, it feels as if we have had nits on and of for months. I had them, my 4 yr old DD had them, then I think we got rid of them, now they are back - and 2.5 yr old DS has them too. It's all very well sticking a 4 yr old in front of a DVD with some Smarties to do the combing, but how on earth do I get my extremely wriggly 2 and a half year old to do this?? We blasted all our heads with Hedrin last week but I still saw a fat live louse on his head this morn, and I can see a fair amount of little brown eggs to get out. Any tips on how to do this with such an uncooperative 2 year old??

Is your 4 year-old at school or nursery? If 'yes' then let school know because if they keep coming back then chances are she's in contact with someone with nits - little friends should be given a good eye-ball once-over if she's not at school/nursery. In the meantime, all you can do is treat everyone in the household at the same time, gaffer-taping down the toddler and ignoring the screams included. Comb through conditioner every night at bathtime with fine tooth comb to get rid of eggs and re-treat after 1 week (or according to the packet instructions) to kill any that make it through. If you've used the same product before consider changing.. ask the chemist.

Good luck. Persisent little buggers, nits.

I think realistically you'll struggle to comb a toddler every night - it makes their scalp sore, for one thing, never mind the general combing phobia.

Did you use Hedrin overnight? It didn't work on mine until someone suggested this. I know the pack says one hour but the small print says to leave on longer if you can.

Thanks everyone. Chil1234 yes both are at nursery so they have no doubt picked it up from there again (unless I never quite managed to get rid of them in the first place, which is what I am afraid of ). I do comb quite often with leave-in tea tree and it works OK with DD but DS will just NOT sit still (unsurprisingly). WhatsWrongWithYou yes I did leave Hedrin in overnight - only did it on Weds and now already seen a louse on DS's hair so feeling a bit despairing. I will just keep combing - get DP to hold down DS if need be! - and thanks shineon for the tip re neat tea tree oil ...

Can you stick ds in the shower/bath with you and some toys, and wet comb him there? Might be easier to keep him from running off. From personal experience only the Nitty Gritty comb was fine enough to get the eggs out (although dd hated it) so unless you're using one of those it could take until you've combed every day for a couple of weeks to break the cycle as the eggs will keep hatching and releasing new lice. Also, if you can make time a couple of mornings a week, massage a little bit of olive oil into their hair the night before (all the way through), leave it on overnight (with towels over the bed) and when wet combing in the morning the lice drop out.

"both are at nursery"

As well as all the combing and treating at home I'd be kicking up a bit of a stink at the nursery. They shouldn't let kids stay if they have nits. BTW... the tea tree stuff is very good and there's also a leave-in deterrent spray that you can apply before you drop them off in the morning.

DD2 is 2.7 and I have to do her once a week, twice a week if I find one, you don;t need to do it more often than that, if you have combed the buggers out you can leave it for 3-4 days before recombing.
I sit her in her booster seat up to the table so she can't get down, put pocoyo on the telly, give her a bowl of popcorn/choc and some felt tips and paper. The novelty of the felt tips means she is a bit more engrossed and I can normally get 10 minutes combing done.

for 2.5 year ds, just shave his hair off. it will grow back without the nits, yay!!
slightly more problematic with 4 year old dd. what everyone else suggests.

Do you really find, UnattendedToaster, that the NittyGritty really gets the eggs out? I find that it doesn't, mostly. I have to pick them out by hand. Am I not using it very well, I wonder ...

I think you're supposed to use the Hedrin again a week later - worth trying alongside the combing.

RooTwo- the NittyGritty definitely got them out for my dd, but she does have very fine, straight hair so that may have something to do with it, but I found it impossible to get them out by hand (maybe my fine motor skills are shot ) myself. I only used it now and again though because she hated it, had to comb very slowly and then make her wait while I cleaned the teeth out with an old toothbrush. In the end I stuck with fine-tooth combing with conditioner every day to get all the live ones out until I had a few days on the run with no live ones, then went down to twice a week and waited for the cycle to end and the hatched eggs to wash out.