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 😫

He can use olive oil in hair to prevent reinfestation

or a nice thick hair gel will help if you don’t want to use oil and keep hair tied up

My daughter used to catch headlice alllll the time, drove me mad combing her hair every night, but since i started using nitwits once a week she hasn’t had any! I don’t even comb her hair anymore, just spray her hair once a week, brush, leave for 20 mins n wash it out!, i can’t recommend it enough seriously xx

Hedrin, the gel. It's the best we have used. Make sure you follow the instructions for washing it out as its a nightmare otherwise

https://www.oliveoilsource.com/info/lice-and-olive-oil

100% Nitty Gritty comb and conditioner - lashings of it! It takes a while but works, you can't just leave after the weekend for two weeks though - it'll need a few repeats in that time!!

They came from the school so they should know they have a problem, they will when you tell them if they didn't before. They need to tell all the parents there are lice about so they can all check and treat if necessary. They should treat bedding as well.

Nitty gritty comb and lots of conditioner

I don't think chemicals are necessary - we have treated lice very successfully without

You can get rid of them, but clearly they are being passed round at school and he'll just get them again. Clippers here, for this reason.

Hedrin mousse is great. Leave it in over night and wash it out in the morning. No need to use a bit comb. Apply a second time. Week later do everybody in the house at the same time and put all bedsheets and towels that are being used in a very hot wash.

You can also get a spray in conditioning spray that is meant to deter nits…Hedrin prevent I think.

It's very hard to get every egg, and if you miss just one the whole cycle starts again. Ime you have to treat once a week for 3 weeks, occasionally a fourth week is necessary, to break the cycle. As pp said the school and other parents will need to know otherwise your ds will just catch them again.

It doesn't sound as if there is any point treating them at home - the school needs to be aware so that the school can orchestrate a fumigation and treatment of everyone there. It won't be the first time and the school will have a plan.

I thought the suggestions of crops and undercuts are good ones, so at least it makes it easier to treat.

But the school shouldn't have let it get to that point? Don't any of the teachers ever look at their pupils? Surely the house staff have noticed the place is crawling with lice?

When did nits stop being so ubiquitous that a child can get to boarding school age without ever having come across them?

I thought all mums who'd had a child at primary school would know the drill

By far the most effective treatment we have tried is vamousse, gets the lot in one go.

What would you do?

I have just completed the first night of combing 🙃

Hedrin. Two treatments a week apart. Boom. Gone. Use a Nitty Gritty comb to remove the corpses and boost the treatment. Hedrin is the business.

Nitty gritty comb
Nit wits (lice product on Amazon)
Combing with conditioner and nitty gritty comb every few days
For a week or two
Worked for me doing above.

The conditioner treatment is less than useless, you need hedrin or similar. GOODLUCK.

The boarding students have a resident nurse and dormitory parent to help with such things. Housekeepers to keep up with the bed changes.

Section. Comb. Repeat. My daughter had waist length thick hair so I feel for you!
No need to shave him, he will need to keep his hair tied back to prevent catching again.
When is he home again?

They’re not much good at this school if op’s son has come home crawling with lice.

I’d be fuming and making it very clear that their care has fallen well short of what I expect.

@mathanxiety Lice cannot live away from food source - blood!

@Jb2182 Hair straighteners don't get close enough to the scalp to 'fry' live eggs, only the hatched egg shells a bit further down. They melt them onto the hair strand. Using straighteners just means you have to keep using them for when the live ones hatch!

I have an 11 and 7 year old and by pure luck and fluke neither have ever had nits which I’m thankful for. If they did catch them though I’d be straight on here for tips and tricks.

Worms on the other hand.