Lice dilemma WWYD?

[DevilwearsPrada]

Dd1 (5) came home from school yesterday with a letter saying that a child in her class had lice. Could we check their hair and if they had it keep them off school until it clears. So I checked dd1's hair and of course she got a head full of eggs. As of yet unhatched. I kept her off school today and treated with lotion tonight. I'll be keeping her off until I'm sure the eggs are all dead (so possibly up to a week).

I've made arrangements with her best friend H's mum to go their house for lunch on bank holiday Monday. (Big thing for dd1 she's never been invited to a friend's before). But I don't want H to catch the lice so was going to phone and cancel. I've got a feeling she might say it's ok and come anyway, but I wouldn't be comfortable if he did get them. It would mean they'd have to keep him off school and I know it's really hard for her to find childcare when he's off.

Am I doing the right thing in cancelling?

Have you got Ovex on your list too Expat????

what is Ovex?

do you Nitty Gritty comb prophylactically, or just when you get nits/lice?

Nitty gritty is for itchy heads.

Ovex is for eachy bums.

I do Nitty gritty once per month (and end of term). I comb in between if DTDs are itching OR we have a letter home about someone in class.

oh god!

i got worms once, whilst travelling abroad.

it wasn't fun.

I have to say that I used to use the Bug buster as a detector as the lice are much easier to see on the plastic comb rather than metal.

Now I rinse my comb in a glass of water and the lice and eggs all float to the bottom. So I use the Nitty gritty for detection and treatment.

Interesting report - actually advocates chemicals as still most effective Plus, says keeping away from school is silly!

Right I am going to bed as my typing is apalling.

I of course don't mean "eachy" bums!!!

It can take me weeks to get rid with Nitty Gritty. Am wondering if the hair straighteners might be effective!

I'm only skim-reading these reports btw.

Depends on the lotion. Hedrin kills the eggs. But lots of combing (put a dvd on to keep dc occupied) will get rid of most of the nasties.

I woould like to see Nitty Gritty going into a clinical trial actually. It cannot be grouped with BugBusting IMO as it is quite a different technique.

That is yet to be independantly prved (the Hedrin & eggs comment) AFAIK. Manufacturers say that has some effectiveess against eggs.

Umm Tinker, that study doesn't really look at combing methods. It just refers to other studies and states that this method is of low effectiveness (also that people in their study reported combing hadn't worked for them). The study is actually a comparison of Dimeticone (Hedrin) and Phenothrin (Full Marks). It shows that Dimeticone is slightly more effective, with less side effects, and that most people don't use enough phenothrin for long hair and that bottles should be 100ml.

This study shows that Bug Busting works more effectively, but only against a single application of malathion or permethrin
www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/331/7513/384

That was the fist link btw. The second one is a good current impartial report (I read the original Stafford Report) but it is about population control, not what might work best for an individual family. I used BugBuster last time and it did work for us, but it was a pain as ds really hates to sit still. Nitty Gritty pulled his hair terribly, so I won't use that again. Think I'm more likely to use Hedrin + combing next time.