DS is scratching his head, but I can't find anything,dumb question but what am I looking for ?

[rookiemater]

DS aged 3 is doing a lot of scratching but when I pick through I can't see or find anything. He kicked up a fuss when I tried to use the nit comb but I have managed to check his scalp with my fingers. Is it possible he has them and I can't see them ? What exactly do they look like ?

Thanks, shudder....

Wash his hair, then put conditioner on. Comb through with your nit comb and wipe off onto kitchen towel. See what you find Good luck!

Be patient

Eggs are tiny white balls, lice are black and noticable you can see them moving!!!

follow PestoMonsters advice and you'll soon know!

If he does not like the nit come just looking through moving the hair with your fingers should do the trick

Thanks cookie and pesto. I have been doing a lot of moving his hair with my fingers and haven't seen anything.

Maybe he just has an itchy scalp, rookie says naively as the thought of nits makes me all queasy.

They're very easy to miss just by looking. You need to get him distracted with the telly and a nice snack, maybe let him do the combing himself first, and then go for it. If you start finding some, get a magnifying glass (if you have one) so he can have a look and it all becomes "fun". I get quite obsessed when de-nitting - I sort of enjoy it .

can he be having a reaction to new shampoo possibly rather than lice?

My ds scratches like mad if i change shampoo.

Ooh now theres a possibility, we ran out of baby shampoo ( been using the same bottle since he was born) and DH said he used pantene the other night. Fingers crossed its not the dreaded nits.

It's really hard to see them on dry hair.

Agree you can miss them just looking- they hide fast! Here is an image of one in the scalp, but they are quite hard to spot as they have evolved to be rather hair-coloured! You really need to slow them down with lashings of conditioner and comb through meticulously.

very easy to miss so looking at scalp isn't enough. Lots of tea tree conditioner (it's supposed to numb them for a short time) then comb. They are very small little black things so a magnifying glass is useful to see if its lice or bits of fluff. If its red when you squash it it's a louse.

If you see small red marks around the hairline this may be a reaction to lice.

If a child this age is scratching it's probably lice. I hated the combing but it has to be done.

Just reading this has given me an itchy scalp!!

Hope it's not nits rookie!

Urgh, will bribe with crisps tomorrow and do it. Is it worth using any special treatment or is it just the conditioner and comb ?

special treatments are full of nasty chemicals and the lice become immune to them so they don't always work very well. Conditioner and comb works best, second best is regular combing with electric nit comb

Well as we had some treatment in the house went for that anyway . Managed to get some in, then had to bribe with jelly babies and communal bath to look through his hair, wouldn't let me do it with the nit comb.

I didn't find anything, although I know it would have been better with the comb ,and DS has stopped scratching. I treated myself as well just to be sure and have changed all the bed linen and towels.

Shudder have insane dislike of nits as was lucky enough to escape getting them when a child, even though Mum had them loads as she was a paedaetrician.

Thanks folks.