DS has come home from school crawling with lice

[ByPeach1]

DS9 has come home from boarding school with lots of lice. He boards during the week as part of a football programme so he hasn’t been home in 2 weeks and didn’t have them before. Does anyone know of a quick way to treat the lice? His hair is quite thick and just above shoulder length and I’m panicking as he has to go back on Monday 😫

Hedrin deals with both lice and eggs, so no need to keep combing every day. It's likely you'll need to do it a few times over the coming weeks though. My dd sat beside a girl in school one year who was from a 'challenging' family and let her dc's nits go untreated. My dd got them constantly that year, I used to routinely do hedrin every Sunday and tea tree oil shampoo in between. Haven't had them in the house since thank goodness.

If he is at boarding school he needs to be able to keep on top of combing his hair for nits regularly since, even if you get rid of the lice, the eggs will stay and hatch a few days later plus the other kids will pass them around again and again.

Oh God I remember nits when my DC were little. DD had waist length hair that I conditioned combed through with the nit comb everyday for what seemed like weeks!!
It wasn't a quick fix. Sorry!!

If he’s crawling with them, it’s pretty shocking that none of the adults noticed. I’ve worked in schools and when it gets to that stage you can see just by sitting next to the child, and even before it’s that bad you get a big clue when they keep scratching!

The students I am referring to came from families who were very disadvantaged and didn’t treat the head lice, even when aware.

Your DS isn’t in that situation though and you left him with adults who have a duty of care!

If he's in boarding school I would have no compunction about putting some onus on the school team to keep this in order and ensure that all kids are treated when he goes back and nip it in the bud by half term with a post half term treatment. Otherwise they'll all be crawling. This is possibly one of the one areas where Boarding schools have a huge advantage as they can take matters into their own hands.

Problem is given the numbers of kids, they may insist on a short back and sides cut to make life easier.. it might be time for a chat with your DS on the perils of having long hair and not having it tied back around other kids.

Indeed.

The dorms probably need to be fumigated.

Certainly all bedding needs to be washed, and all kit.

Call the school to report the issue and the scale of it.

And you need to ask tough questions about why this wasn't spotted by the school.

Don't mince words. This is not acceptable.

Wash and condition then comb out as many with a comb BEFORE using any kind of treatment. When we had an infestation at the start of fdc placement we made the mistake of using treatment first and they were running down their face and neck it was awful ! So try to get rid of as many manually first!

'Nit letters' used to come home from school with depressing regularity. I became concerned about all the chemicals in the treatments and decided to rely on combing often with a nit comb. Hair was reasonably short which helped. Makes me itchy just thinking about it!

We usually only use conditioner and nit comb, get all lice out in the shower, another comb through after and comb through every day until clear for 2 weeks. The solutions either irritated DDs or set off DDs asthma.

The last time we had them here I got them from one of my DDs, it was a nightmare I just couldn’t get rid of them, DH said my head looked like the eggs were fused to my hair. I ended up using Hedrin after weeks of not shaking them. I do have long hair, always have but never had a problem like this until a few months ago.

At 9 can you DS not comb his own hair through with a nit comb each day.

Hedrin once kills the eggs and the lice

She was still around in the 80s

Your poor DS. I’d be fuming that the people looking after him at school have not spotted this, let you know and started appropriate treatment.

we always found the nitty gritty comb with conditioner, wipe the comb between each pull through the hair and be meticulous around the back and ears to be the best solution. But, due to their life cycle it needs doing every day for a couple of weeks.

this isn’t something that can be sorted in a weekend unless you do opt for a drastic chop. You need to know that school is aware, all the other kids are being treated and bedding etc laundered and that they will keep on top of it.

Nitty gritty comb with conditioner combed in hair. Then hedrin
https://amzn.eu/d/eshn8XQ

These combs are much much better than the free or standard ones you get. Not sure it works but most invertebrates don't like tea tree oil so a little bottle of that for his scalp might help repel future crawlers making their way back.

As others have said unless everyone is getting sorted he is going to get them again, and many parents won't be as vigilent as you. Also stress no sharing caps or towels or kit.

Nitty gritty, conditioner, lots of conditioner. Try blasting with the Heston or whatever treatment y out can get first. How long will he be away for. He'll need to do it at leastt every other day

Came on to say hair straighteners too! The best nit treatment I've come across!

Yes I have clippers for Sunday just in case.

@yeaitsmeagain Thought nitty nora got killed off in the 1960s funnily enough, I had never heard of her until my daughter came home from school in mid 80's to 90's and said she had been at the school and took out her french pleat and couldnt get it back up again!

Before you sue the chemical treatment have him take a shower and use a shedload of conditioner, and brush hair through with nit comb whilst in shower to get worst of infestation out.
then use the chemicals.

Get the hedrin, the really greasy one that you leave on for 15 minutes. Treat tonight, once washed out comb through with conditioner.

Comb dry tomorrow you can see what you're getting more easily.

Treat again before he goes back. Can he come home next weekend? Do again then. I dont think you can leave it 2 weeks.

No I’m not going to leave it 2 weeks. I’m going to comb around the clock then give him a DIY haircut on Sunday if I’m not making progress and comb again 🙈

If you condition and nit comb his hair every day then they will be gone by Sunday night. The key is to section his hair and wire the comb every single swipe. Go cm by cm and wore every time into a towel. Brush through the lot and recomb. After 3 days you won't find anything in there if you do a proper job. Boil wash the towel afterwards.

Honestly this won't be an isolated event and he will have likely had these nesting in his head for atleast 4 weeks.

This and repeat a week later.

Tell school and make sure they change the pillow cases.

Ideally they need to tell other parents to check them kids otherwise all risk reinfection.

Hedrin once treatment plus a nitty gritty comb should sort it OP. But he'll get re-infested as soon as he returns to school if they don't treat the other children and wash all bedding and towels.

If you want to kill the lice then smoother his hair with olive oil

this sends the lice to sleep, as it clogs their breathing system

leave the. Oil on for around 8 hours

before washing off, use a nit comb and carefully remove the lice

where as the conditioner method they can crawl away with olive oil they can’t

now wash hair and shampoo twice

dry hair and now straighten using hair straighteners

problem is lice have a three week egg cycle, so you need to do this method ever weekend

also where at boarding school is he getting the nuts from?