I have nits and I've completely fallen apart. Please help

[Wills]

I am phobic about nits/fleas/small creatures in general. This morning I found 5 nits in my hair. I've completely lost it. I've cried numerous times, been to Argos and bought a nit zapper, been to the Chemist and bought chemicals. I've "zapped" my head until it was incredibly sore. I've washed and conditioned it and then gone through with a metal nit comb. When dh gets home tonight I've got chemicals to put in. About the only thing I haven't done so far is shave my head! I feel sick to the stomach and every time my head itches I want to cry again. My dh has told me to get a grip and be rational, the problem here is that phobias aren't rational. Its nothing to do with worry about whether my hair was dirty or clean etc its purely the idea of something crawling around my hair makes me want to scream. How in hells bells am I going to deal with this!

Oh and should I wash the bedding and disenfect all hair brushes.

Oh, poor thing, please try not to worry. They can be very itchy, after they have gone...it isn't the bugs that make you itch, but your skin's allergic reaction to their bites/saliva. So when you feel an itch, it doesn't mean something is there biting you.

I had it for the first time about 2 months ago, and didn't know why my head was so itchy until I conditioned my hair in the middle of the night and found about 8 or 9 with a normal metal nit comb (had been used for the cat but I was desperate!! I had to know if there was something in my hair!)
I never found one on DS's head but treated us both with Hedrin. Oily and yukky but no smell and it worked.
I also conditioned and combed my own hair every third night, with ordinary conditioner, for a couple of weeks. This was satisfying and I NEVER found another adult bug, not after that first night - but there were a lot of tiny browny things which I presume were baby ones. They can take up to 10 days to hatch out, so it's very important you keep combing for 2 weeks, as any eggs left by the grown ups will then be covered by the treatment.
Also crucial to treat everyone in family I believe, evidence or not...you don't want to have it back!
It will keep itching for a couple of weeks and then be fine. Bear in mind they will have been in your hair for weeks without the reaction, it usually takes 6-8 weeks I think for the reaction to build up before you notice any itching. So there might be a lot of eggs/babies.
When you comb through, do it for about 10 minutes, with loads of conditioner (they especially hate tea tree!) and each stroke, wipe the comb on a piece of kitchen towel or something, it will absorb the wetness and gunk from the comb, and you'll see if there are any little brown bits coming out. As I said, expect a lot at first but after a few days you'll be getting a clear run.

Good luck xx

PS I found a metal cat-flea comb the best, not so sore as the plastic one, still got everything out, and the Nitty Gritty one was so tight it broke a lot of my hair - though I've heard they are liked by most people!
Basically if you're combing that often, you need to use something that doesn't hurt or you'll never keep up the routine/damage your scalp in the process!

wilkinsons and savers both do a "tea tree and neem oil" shampoo and conditioner. They are about £1.65 per bottle and do a great job of keeping the nits at bay.

When my children had head lice, i used the shampoo and conditioner every night for a week, and then we went to twice and week and now only use it once a month. Smells pretty awful but it has been a god send for my family.

God they are vile aren't they. One of my DDs seems to get them every few weeks. One fell out of her hair this morning whilst I was brushing it . Back to the hedrin/wet combing tonight.

Everyone's mentioning hedrin. Should I go and get this instead? I've just bathed the two girls and spent at least 10 minutes to 20 minutes per head of hair looking and didn't find a thing so I haven't put chemicals on them. Are you suggesting that I should have? The chemicals that I bought were full marks and it supposed to kill lice AND eggs.

Also I've used teatree stuff on them. Is this enough???

I really recommend the coconut oil based treatments - Hedrin and Lice Attack. My ds is very prone to lice - apparantly some people have a unmeasurably higher temperature than other people and lice particularly like them. He also seems to have a very sensitive scalp and combing him is a nightmare. That's why we use Hedrin every week. It takes a bottle and a half to do the four of us - that's two long and two short haired heads. Ludicrously expensive but worth it for not having to worry about the nasty things. Do try not to worry - easier said than done, I know, but it happens to us all. In my case, often!!
By the way, the chemichal treatments aren't always effective because the lice become immune to them - the little horrors evolve! And also, if you're going to be treating people frequently, I would worry about the exposure to pesticides.

I agree about exposure. Given that we're mainly organic, and that I'm cutting out chemicals around the house the sane part of my brain can see the funny side of my knee jerk reaction. When my first daughter started nursery I swore then that i would do it the sensible way i.e conditioner and regularly. But that all went to the wind the second I found one.

mindles, re the Lyclear advert, come to think of it, the other night I was on a thread about do you make your kids birthday cakes and there was an ad for a (very upmarket and expensive) baking supplies company.... I thought it was a bit of a co-incidence...
???

Sympathies your way. I had nits 14 years ago - long before ever being a parent, and took a day off work to blast head, comb through, etc, phoned office and owned up to colleagues (well, the ones with whom I had been sharing a light box) and anyone I'd hugged or bonked in the previous fortnight. NO other bugger got them, grr.
And then last year a friend got them so I bought a nit comb and a bottle of tea tree conditioner and did myself and DS, no beasties... but now my head is itching even though I have a no 8 crop so it's time for a quick combthrough before bed.
Remember, they only like clean hair...

I was gonna post same thing tonight. Spent all of sunday night doing mine and DD hair. I seem to be doing it every week
I have used some very strong stuff, it smelt horrible and DD hated it. However, we both had to sleep in it, and by morning there was egg and dead lice over DD white pillows . We have also been using replepant for nursery days
Rememeber you have to reapeat treatment after 7 days to ensure all is gone
Good luck, I know hwat you mean though, horrible nasty things I want to cry too

Hug

I used Hedrin on my DDs last night - you coat their hair in it (quite oily stuff but no smell and no chemicals) - there were quite a few dead lice on their pillows this morning. And mine, when DD climbed into bed at 5.00am!

Very effective and I like the idea of not using chemicals - would hate to coat their head in OPs regularly.