I know nothing about NITS!! Please can someone educate me?

[crokky]

DS is in the nursery bit of a school (he's 3) and I have had a letter back saying that there are some nits going around.

Ignorance coming...

What exactly do they look like? Am I supposed to look for little jumping nits or eggs or both? What does it all look like?

Also, if he gets nits (surely very likely!) how do I treat them? I remember a special awful smelling shampoo from when I was a child, but I don't know any more than that.

Would it help if I had DS's hair cut shorter over half term (it is already quite short, just though if it would help, I'd get it cut again!).

I remember people saying at school that nits actually prefer clean hair to dirty hair! Is that true?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Get yourself some cheap conditioner and a nitty gritty comb. You can get the comb on prescription or they're about a tenner on line I think.

Wash the hair and smother with conditioner, then just section the hair off and comb from the roots in all directions.

There is no mistaking a louse if you get one, it'll be small and black and will look a bit like a lobster if you look at it under a magnifying glass. You will see them in the conditioner, or in the comb when you rinse it off. The nitty gritty comb will get the eggs out as well.

I do it in the bath and rinse the comb in the basin.

If you find any you'll need to repeat that every 3rd day for a fortnight, then keep checking for another fortnight (I usually do it every 4-5 days).

I've never used any lotions on dd and it's worked for us.

It's not true that they prefer clean hair. You don't need to wash bedding or anything like that. But it would be best to check yourself and anyone else in the family to see if they've picked them up as well.

Good luck!

Thanks, they have asked that if DCs get nits, that they don't come to nursery, so I will need to get rid of them as soon as I can.

I use Vosene's Tea Tree spray for kids - nits don't like it apparently and tend not to settle on hair that has it in. Worked for me so far with both children. Ds2's school is rife for some reason aarrgghhh ....

Nits (or gits as we call them in this house) are the bane of my frigging life and have been for the past two years when both kids got them on holiday in france. They come, they go, they come again with tons more mates and no matter what you do (explosives? now theres a thought) the little buggers will return; i have resigned myself to the fact that I will still be wet combing when the DCs are at uni.....

Crokky, if your DS's hair has a tendency to be dry then you are likely to get to know alot about nits. On the other hand, if he has fine, silky (tendency to be greasy) hair you will be luckier.
Drier hair, which typically has thicker strands, are much easier for the eggs to stick on. Our family is split with 2 dc with dry and 1 with fine hair. It is always the ones with drier hair that get the nits and do so quite regularly, howeverm my dd who has dead straight fine hair has only had them once!

I too would recommend conditioner rather than the lotions which I think are a waste of time. However, I do find that the combs dont remove all the eggs and so I have to get some out using my fingernails.

Good luck and welcome to the club

I would dry or wet comb it every day for two weeks, that way you will get them as they hatch. Use conditioner for wet combing rather than lotions

Nitty Gritty comb and conditioner. Check once a week.

If you get them, use Hedrin. It smothers them and coats their body (which is permeable) so they can't survive. It's a 'physical' way of getting rid of them, rather than chemical. Therefore, they won't be resistent to it. Nits are becomming more and more resisitent to 'chemical' treatments.

Hedrin is oily. It doesn't smell is actually rather nice on the hair! Leave it on over night with a towel over child's pillow. Wash off the next day and repeat in a weeks time in case any of the eggs have hatched. (Hedrin doesn't kill the eggs but any hatched in the space of a week are too young to lay eggs of their own).

Day to day, use tea-tree based shampoo's and conditioners. As someone has said, nits don't like the smell and will resist hopping on to your child's head if they get a whiff of it! (In theory )

Clean hair / dirty hair....lice don't care. The clean hair thing is a myth.

Combing is the only way to get rid completely. Metal combs are best and can be bought from any pharmacy. Use loads of conditioner when washing the hair and then, comb and comb. Repeat every 2-3 days for about 3 weeks to make sure they're all gone.

To avoid them, use strong smelling shampoo and conditioner and/or a leave-in conditioner. They don't like tea tree or anything herbal smelling.

We regularly have nits at school but my kids have been nit-free for ages.