Head lice nightmare! How to keep them away?

[Shootingstar2289]

My three year old son keeps getting lice at nursery. I think the problem is my son is very cuddly and often likes to cuddle the staff who perhaps have lice or he gets them from other children. I check his hair all the time and I'm almost guaranteed to find one in his hair.

My son has never had loads as I check regularly and use the nitty gritty comb twice a week. Which is a struggle as he's started to hate having it done :/ I give up with treatments such as Hedrin as they are expensive to buy often and never seemed to work properly.

I wash his hair every day as it's very blonde and he seems to get it so dirty when he's out and about.

I've tried using the vosene shampoo and spray which is meant to act as a repellent but hasn't seemed to work.

Any other ideas to keep them away? I'm going slightly mad at combing so often (as have to do my long hair too). I've heard tea tree oil is good but worried as me and my son appear to have sensitive skin and worry it will be harsh on our scalps.

Any advice?

@JontyMyers - I agree, it would be such a good idea but unfortunately some parents cannot be bothered :(

I know a woman who's kids have had them for as long as I remember (luckily never close enough to my son I add!). You always see her poor kids digging their hair and if you look close enough you can see tons of them and the Mother knows it too. Other parents at the school get so annoyed with her as her children are always passing it onto theirs. They are not the cleanest, fussiest people in the world - they also look like they need a good wash.

As a child I never got them.. I think it might be because I never got too close to other children as I was a bit unsociable :)

I'm going to try the tree tea oil to keep them away and see if that helps :)

I don't know if this has already been mentioned but an old wives tale my Grandma told me was a couple of drops of lavender oil in a bottle (I use an old Avon kids hair detangler spray one) and then fill with water and spray on hair once a day. Apparently it repels them, I was at first but (touches wood) DD hasn't had them.....yet!

Are you changing/washing pillowcases and towels too?

DD1 had them a couple of years ago. I read everything I could find about them and then a) Hedrined once a week for two weeks (only the officially infected people got this) b) wet combed with tea tree containing conditioner every second day for those two weeks (everyone in the family had this). I then wet combed once a week for several months until I was bored happy they weren't coming back any time soon. I usually wet comb at the beginning of each school holidays now but no return of the nits yet. I told school (as did her best friend's Mum) and school did nothing, I was not impressed.

My sister was one of those children that always had nits as a child, she said it was mortifying.

Wash his bedding often, including duvet and mattress pad, in hot water, and dry on high. High heat explodes lice and nits. Cut his hair as short as you can both tolerate. Vacumn often, and check all persons with hair in the house.

hair serum / oil to stop the buggers gripping on to start with

To remove - loads of conditoner and a comb. every night for about a week. Pharmacist told me that none of the treatments work, just comb comb comb

A friend told me that in Portugal, they put a dab of citronella behind their ears to ward them off. Not tried it myself though.

We've strugggled with nits too recently - DD kept getting them and eventually, the school did send out a message about it.

We just combed every night for a week in the bath - then repeated 2 weeks after. She got them twice more after this which was bloody annoying.

Someone suggested we use the Vosene Kids Shampoo which has tea tree oil in it which was a bad idea - DDs head reacted to it so badly over the course of a few weeks that her scalp started flaking and has only just stopped 3 months on - so instead of nits, we had terrible dandruff, which wasn't great for a newly image-concious 10 year old to deal with.

When Dcs were younger I had good success with the Robi comb electric nit comb which zaps them. I also treated with one that you left on overnight which worked - Derbac M it's called.

I would agree with posters who said keep hair as short as you can for now until it's sorted and hot wash bedding and towels. Tell nursery every time you find them. They should send a letter home for everyone to check and treat.

Sympathies, it's horrid. Never seems to be a problem in secondary school.

yes we strip all beds and wash as hot as the machine will go and then tumble dry, as well as towels, put all combs, brushes in hot soapy water, sometimes put them through the dishwasher as that's hot.

dd will be clear for a month or so but we always get them back. I tell school each time and they do send the odd letter home. It does really annoy me when you see other girls with long flowing hair just swishing it about and I think which one of you has headlice and not been treated? I know its not their fault, but I have heard mums at the school gate claiming that they couldn't have head lice as they are clean and middle class!!!!!! well we're bloody clean and I do everything possible to keep them away, we have followed the 21 day cycle, this is fine, but as soon as you return to the combing 3-4 times a week, you will sooner or later get another infestation.

I keep dd's hair long so at least it can be plaited and kept as close to her head s possible. Each time she is usually the only family member, once ds1 had them as well, and twice I've had them, understandable as she's very cuddly with me and we often lay down to read together etc. BUt 9/10 times everyone else is clear and its her that has them. I hope this stops t secondary school. We are on third treatment tonight and have been following the 21 day cycle again starting with the first comb through of the 21 day cycle and have not had any live ones. I'm just hoping now we can make it to the summer holidays clear as I know we will be clear throughout the holidays, which is why it must be someone from school not treating.

www.chc.org/

I post this link every time there's a nit thread- but here it is again, these Bug Busting kits are great, I've had two in 10 years and you can get them on prescription. They are good as there are two combs, you brush with a normal comb, then use the progressively thinner one, the thinnest one of the two gets out eggs as well as tiny lice.

Never failed to get rid of them with conditioner and these combs within a couple of goings-over the head, perhaps three/four gos if the nits are extensive like the time I went on holiday and my husband didn't check their hair for 10 days like I told him

buy the cheapest hair spray you can find works brilliantly

Neem oil is fantastic for getting rid of head lice. If you have an Indian supermarket near you, they should do neem shampoo and neem oil for doing treatments. If not, you can find neem shampoo easily on ebay (shampoo bars will probably be the cheapest since they'll last ages). For a treatment, mix a few drops of neem oil with olive oil and rub into hair, making sure you cover the scalp. Leave for 10-20 minutes, then shampoo out.

The head lice shampoo and leave-in spray in pound shops (Anovia? white packaging) contains neem and is apparently very good.

Oh and ditto to washing pillowcases/towels/bedding etc on a hot setting - add a few drops of olbas oil (yes really!) to the drum as the essential oils in it repels head lice and also kills bacteria.

This is the head lice repellent shampoo with neem - there is also a leave-in spray. I've seen them in Home Bargains, 99p Store etc as well as Poundland.

Home Bargains and those cheap chemists that look like poundshops sell very cheap branded lice lotion such as Hedrin wash and go or whatever it's called, for around £2.99 compared to £7 in major supermarkets.

I emailed my children's school once and they put a lice notice up outside and in the newsletter, but if not everyone is regularly vigilant at checking and exterminating, headlice are just going to be one of those things like threadworms that we just have to put up with through their young childhood.

I don't know what difference the nit nurses made in days of yore. I only remember having lice once but I was 15 then. Petitioning for reinstatement of nit nurses probably wouldn't be cost effective for the government as ultimately it's down to parents to be vigilant.

I've heard of private companies that do nit checks and I wonder if primary schools have any budget for hiring them to do the whole school regularly? If people like Hedrin subsidised the private nit checkers it could benefit them as they'd effectively be selling their products at the front line. I might suggest it to them by email actually.

For what it's worth, if you find a live adult, lotions will kill them and you comb them out, but you have to repeat a week later to get any eggs that haven't hatched.
But as everyone else recommends, the only real way to stay lice free is to thoroughly check once a week and use a leave in conditioner daily as they don't like slippery hair, their eggs won't stick to it.
All this tea tree or lavender stuff is pointless. I've put live lice into a dollop of both and it doesn't kill them. It might also make you too complacent about checking.

I have noticed a pattern of live lice appearing at either the start or end of school terms too.

Hubbubs tea tree and lavender don't kill lice but it does repel them. Obviously it's no replacement for vigilant checking but it helps.

I 2nd the pure Tea tree oil it was the only thing that worked on all of us (me and 3 dcs) I just put it behind our ears and round the back and mid partings .End of the little critturs. I've got sensitive skin and I use it for everything I love it!!

Myths about headlice don't help the situation.

Excerpts from the 'bug busting kit' booklet:

• 'There is no consistent evidence that any substance, from essential oils to vinegar, repels head lice (and repeated use of concentrated substances such as essential oils is potentially harmful).'

• 'Anyone with hair on their head can catch them. Clean hair is not a protection against head lice. Lice do not thrive better in dirty conditions. Their sole food is blood which they draw when they bite.'

• 'Lice that involuntarily fall off the head or clamber onto head gear, pillows or cuddly toys are dying and harmless. It is not necessary to launder or dry clean these articles to eradicate head lice'

• 'Louse eggs are glued firmly onto hairs where the warmth of the scalp will hatch them.'

• 'To prevent head lice from spreading it is critical to remove them from the head before day 6 after hatching.'

It would seem that there are no universally consistent deterrents.....

.....BUT I do have a method that I would recommend for eradication that does not involve the time-consuming wet/conditioner combing every 3 days and that does not require any expensive or potentially harmful chemical treatments.

I have only used this method on my eldest dd, which got rid of the lice she had, and on myself to check if I had any, which I didn't.

I have posted about this before on another head lice thread a while back and it I will describe the method here if you are all interested, but in a separate post so it doesn't get passed over as it could help everyone.

Anyone interested?

Yes please mama. My dd had her first bout last week aged 7 (thought we were getting away with it because she only washes it twice a week, but apparently we've just been lucky!)

I did the conditioner and comb thing (she has a bob, so not too arduous) and then blow dried and straightened it. A friend whose dds have them all the time recommended straightening to fry any remaining ones as she's found all the lotions limited in their effectiveness.

So far there don't seem to be any new lice and no sign of any eggs so I'm hopeful it has worked! but if not I'd like a solution that doesn't involve 3 solid weeks of combing!

OK DoingItForMyself, here it is:-

All you need is to buy some pure castile soap in liquid form, I would strongly recommend Dr. Bronner's Baby Mild liquid castile soap as this is the one that I use but I assume that any castile soap would work as it would be the same principle. It's just I know that Dr. Bronner's is an all natural product, you can get it from online companies such as 'big green smile' and 'www.lucyrose.biz' (sorry, not sure how to link). I use baby mild as it is non-fragranced but they also do a tea tree fragrance which may add to the effectiveness, who knows?!

Castile soap works on lice because they have an exoskeleton which the soap dissolves, thereby killing them. It works the same way on anything with an exoskeleton such as ants and greenfly, so could be useful elsewhere too!

Anyway, the method....

....make a mix of the soap and some water in a spray bottle, 1:1 ratio. You then need to thoroughly soak the hair with this solution, rubbing into the scalp as you go.

Word of warning though, as this is pure soap you must make sure the eyes are protected and that the inevitable run off doesn't get in the eyes because it will sting.

Also you will need to cover the floor under where you are working with a towel and wrap a towel around the shoulders as the solution does tend to drip, especially once there is lots on the hair.

Once you are satisfied that the hair is completely covered and soaked with the solution, and that you have rubbed it in well, just wrap a towel around it and leave the soap to do it's stuff. Leave on for at least 10 mins. I usually give it about 1/2 an hour.

After this time you need to thoroughly rinse the hair of all the soap, as a bonus it will have cleaned the hair too!

When I rinse I do it with a shower attachment over the bath with the plug in, this way you can inspect the water afterwards for the dead lice.

They are quite easy to spot as little black specks in the water.

To be sure you are getting rid you need to repeat the above every 3 days for a couple of weeks. Slightly annoying but nowhere near as hard work as the pain staking combing with conditioner which, btw, I feel is the only other effective method to use.

Put simply; Spray on, rub in, wrap in towel, leave for 10-30 mins, rinse off, job's a good 'un

HTH

I use the neem based shampoos, these seam to work better than tea tree.. And to kill them the zapper comb no more chemicals on the hair then,. Or the good old fashioned nitty gritty comb and kill buy squashing.

I'd go with a nitty gritty comb , ideal for short hair. The nursery cant be held responsible, it's just one of those things. Head lice are becoming more resilient to chemical treatments so a physical remedy is the only solution. You could just try shaving his head! Joking, try neem from Asian grocery stores, it works on my carrot fly.

I swear by Loreal Elvive Full restore spray for hair. Bought it originally as a detangler... my daughter never gets lice, except for the time that we ran out and never used this for a few weeks. Back to using it and throughout school outbreaks she's not had the bugs!! could be coincidence of course!!