We got the dreaded letter home from school tonight, ' Someone in the class has headlice so please treat all memebers of your family etc etc'

I haven't had this problem before so was wondering what products to purchase, also has anyone used the electronic nit zapper thingy?.  Any advise about what to do/use much appreciated.

cheers

Best to ask your local pharmacist :)

Daisy

Hi Mrs Mop,

I know just how you feel.  My daughter who is now 13 got them when she was about 6 and I had never had any experience with them before or what they looked like.  It was my sister who found them on Christmas day of all days and I was so upset.

My youngest daughter started nursery in September and got them within the first few weeks.  I never found one of the 'live' ones but found the eggs.   The best way of dealing with them is to wet comb them, that is wash hair, then put conditioner on and comb right through with a special nit comb.  If you find live ones you can get special shampoos from the chemist to kill them but if there are only the eggs they don't usually sell you these and just advise you to wet-comb the hair every night in the bath.

And dont wash there hair frequently!!!!!!!
Mine wash their hair at most twice  a week and it tends to keep them at bay!!!!!!
Also, for boys I use Gel on their hair every day and it tends to keep them at bay.
I donnot use chemicals anymore, I just wet comb everyday if I find one.
I hate the things Grrrrrr
Lea :)

In my kids school there are so many parents who don't bother about nits. I find myself fighting a constant battle not only with the nits, but also with the school. Apparently they are not allowed to send letters out informing parents that there has been an outbreak in their kids class and only occasionally send out information leaflets. I did use chemicals in the beginning, but the girls seemed to have it so often that I now wet comb with conditioner every second night and do a final rinse with Lavender and tea tree oil in the water, this seems to help keep them at bay. One of my girls is now so sensitive to them, that as soon as she gets even one, the back of her neck breaks out in a rash. I am sick to death of it now and am even thinking about getting their hair chopped off as they both have really thick hair which takes ages to go through every other night. I really think that they should bring back the nit nurse,at least then the kids whose parents don't seem to care would be  getting treated at school.

Alli

Make sure you use a metal "nit" comb, the plastic ones don't work. I think the combing throught every 2 or 3 nights is the best practice. The shampoos can be very harsh on the scalp. Tea tree shampoo is brilliant. I lived in fear of head lice because my youngest daughter has hair that challenges normal hair brushes, let alone trying to get a nit comb through it.

Here in the Isle of Man, and particularily in my daughter's school, if a child is found to have lice (teacher  might notice or another pupil might notice - they are not examined specifically), that child and any siblings are sent home and the parents must advise what measures they have taken to get rid of the lice. Gone are the days of the "Nit Nurse". It happened only last week, one girl was sent home, and all the girls in her year were advised to wear their hair up.

Bye
Patricia

Hi
I have 4 children, I am forever nit combing!!
Look at www.chc.org, it sells a kit called "bug buster kit", it contains 5 different combs different sized teeth-it was recommended by my sister whose a nurse.
I believe you can get it on prescription if you or your family have head lice, otherwise from the website its £5.95.
So far no nits-much better than using chemicals,
Lots of useful advice on the site ie nits don't mind if the hair is dirty or clean/they only live on human hair(my Mum always told me nits did'nt like dirty hair).

Also forgot-please don't waste your money on the electronic nit zapper I bought one about 5yrs ago its rubbish, waste of £20.
Only zaps the live lice-u still have to nit comb.

Oww it brings back memories of me in tears and mum desperately trying to get a nit comb through my waist length thick hair. Thank goodness I went to school in the days of the nit nurse and we only had a couple of outbreaks!

I found the best way is to use conditioner for I think about 7 to 10 days and then use a nit comb to make sure all the nits and eggs are combed out and then that will stop the life cycle of laying eggs and hatching :)

It is a few years since I had to do it with my now 12 yr old but will have the pleasure with my 18 month old ! :)

The one thing that really used to pee me off that it was always the same kids that were found to have nits first :rolleyes:

Lucy
xx

A preventive product that really works is Nitty Gritty. Otherwise there is no substitute for  bug busting every second night as a routine. If you get caught out with a severe infestation then in Scotland you can get free insecticide from the chemist on production of the evidence - I find combing does not clear this effectively. Dill swears by cider vinegar as a rinse for hair to deter em.

I've just had a good look through my boys hair and I can't see any evidence of anything nasty, so I am very reluctant to start using pesticides just as a pecaution, although the school seem keen to get you using chemicals at the first hint of an outbreak.  The bug busting kit looks good so I think I will order one and just start wet combing on a regular basis.

The Teatree shampoo that was mentioned, was this any particular brand and do you know where I can I get it from.  ( I don't think a dose of Frontline would do it!!)

Thanks for all advice, I knew I could rely on everyone for good old tried and tested remedys and sensible advice.

The nits look like a bit like thunder flies but a bit more robust and slower in movement and the eggs are about a mm or two in length and are a whitish in colour.

Just keep a good eye on them and then just treat them if you see any foreign bodies appear :)

Lucy
xx

We have been using shampoo with teatree oil in which seems to help we havent had any problems and every other week at our school someone has them.
Mary

As you have boys, spike there hair up with Extra strong hold gel!!!!!!!!!!!! They love it Nits hate it!!!!!!!! As long as you smother them in it the nits hate gel!!!!!!
I have 2 boys and when there is an outbreak I do that and dont get any!!!!!!
Not so good on girls tho :( :(
HTH
Lea :)

Many's the happy hour I've spent extracting eggs and lice from my kids hair by hand when they were little!  I found it more effective to just slide them off the hair shaft rather than try to comb them out.  I used to examine the boys' hair every night.  My oldest son's red hair made them easy to spot - not so easy with the younger one's mousy hair.  There was a child in my older son's class who used to get them regularly, and as my son was very huggy, he kept getting them.  In fact, on one occasion, we all got them, and the ones in my hair were really hard to get rid of - we all had to use the shampoo.  My husband was away on business overseas at the time and I had to tell him that despite his protests, he probably had them too (he did).  In the end, we had their hair cut really, really short and told Paddy to stop hugging his friends.
Edit - if you're using the comb, putting a load of conditioner on the wet hair seems to help them slide off.

We have the electronic zapper thingy, it ruins the hair! It was only used once and probably won't be used again - We just used tea tree oil shampoo and that killed them all.

Reminds me of the first time one of my sons got them - I panicked and treated the whole family - cost me a fortune and was very painful as I have long thick hair.  Now I just check them weekly and if I spot anything just do the conditioner and nit comb routine. I find that because I check them routinely and catch it early, I have only ever found a maximum of about 4 nits on one night, then it is much easier to get rid of (a week or so at the most).

I think that we should all start a nationwide petition to bring back the nit nurse!  I find it extrememly annoying that I have to regularly check my 3 boys because others can't be bothered - it is usually the same children who have them.  The schools know who the offending parents are, but are not allowed to send children home or to do anything about it.  Although the Gov. would probably say its to do with their personal liberty/rights or whatever, what about all of us who continually have to battle against it.

On a lighter note, one of my sons (aged 7) wants to grow his hair long (like his student teacher) and when I said ' you are more likely to get nits' he said 'so what, they don't really hurt you' - is that a response I should be pleased about or not :) ?

Fiona

i kept getting nits off my boyfriend,....... who was getting them off a colleague at work (long haired hippys all working in an office, constantly leaning over one anothers shoulders to see stuff on computers).....

Having very very curly hair, down to the middle of my back, as did  he, we found it hard to get rid of them and the chemicals in the stuff from the chemist were very harsh on hair and scalp.

The best thing we found was, sitting in the bath, comb hair with nit combe for a good ten minutes, very thoroughly, when there is conditioner on the hair, and dunking the comb in a jug to get rid of any nits (i squish em to be sure they are dead).

Then comb again after bath, then before hair dries, spray with asdas nit repellant tea tree and lavendar spray. That really seems sto repell them.

Doing that every day for a fortnight will get rid of an infestation even if its quite heavy. Then just do it once a week if you KNOW you ahve been near someone who may have lice.

Em

I had the same problem last year, we had them every week and it's always the same lazy parents that don't check their kids hair regularly I had a terrible row with the school over it.

Of all the products that I have used, Nice n Clear is the best for me. You wash hair in tea tree shampoo apply the product and then use the nit comb, don't rinse Nice n Clear out, you leave it in and it supposedly deters the next infestation. I tried almost all the natural products on the market including Neem oil but Nice n Clear is totally natural (daughter suffers with eczema) and effective :)

As a teacher, catching nits is an occupational hazard :(. The best method of dealing with them is the conditioner/nit comb one but unfortunately unless all the family are regularly treated and ALL parents treat their kids hair then infestations will keep re-occuring.I know how annoying it can be but PLEASE  don't take it out on the school staff :( I have been threatened with being reported (to whom ??) if I 'let' a certain parents child catch nits again - believe me teachers can do nothing to prevent your child catching nits and schools are no longer allowed to send childen home because of them.

Yvonne

I often wonder with a shudder how women in the past coped with de - nitting large families of 6-10 kids who all shared beds. The Saturday night bath ritual must have started about tea time and been some operation without piped hot water or hair dryers, and just a block of green soap. Did they have as much of an issue with nits or not?
BTW Trevor I agree with you, its up to parents to stop nits and they should be given enough information when kids go into nursery or P1 to help them. I have ceased to rage about the irresponsible ones who neglect their kids, all I can do is look after mine.

my daughter had nits once and after my husband talked me out of the idea of having her adopted we treated her with the latest reccomendation from the chemist as these change but i have always been told full marks is rubbish. i then for a good couple of weeks conditioned and nit combed for a good hour every night till i hadnt found any eggs for days. i now to this day put tea tree oil on her hair on wednesdays nights which is nit night in our house. i wash and condition as normal then drop 2 drops of tee tree oil on her head and blow dry it through and it blimming stinks but the nits dont like it either and although it has been round her class quite a few times she hasnt got it again and so i feel the tea tree oil works and i darent stop using it. the conditioning and combing while you are getting rid of the nits helps the comb go through and stops the little buggers getting a grip. you will know its an egg if it wont come off with just knocking it. you have to get the eggs between your nails and drag them down the hair

Tee tree is great at putting little bugs off I used to brush a little onto the paws of one of my dogs, who was very irritated by harvest mites during the summer, and it worked very effectively.

My Mum always recommended Tea Tree oil to me, but for some reason the school put out letters that it wasn't to be used!!!  don't know why and still used it.

Fiona

Although not common, tea tree oil can cause skin irritation in some people, especially children,  although it could be that the teachers didn't like the smell :D :D :D

>Although not common, tea tree oil can cause skin irritation in some people,

I'm one of them. :(

Me too, although I can still use it in certain circumstances - and I'm an aromatherapist (althought not practising now) :)

In its pure form it can be toxic, I did read that there had been deaths in Australia so like all remedies, phamaceutical or otherwise, it should be used with care, I would apply it to the hair ends as a deterent rather than to the scalp as a nit killer, but I suppose if the school does not want you to they may have their reasons, perhaps they have found it is simply not effective enough on its own and parents are not doing conventional treatments to rid themselves of the little blighters to start with or possibly there is a child in the school with an allergy to it.

Isabel it contains an monoterpenol that is a kidney irritant, and should not be used on anyone who suffers kidney infections or impaired kidney function.  Unfortunately, many assume that 'natural' means 'safe', and it is not so. :)

Thats interesting, JenP.  I agree about the common misconceptions about herbal remedies.

Anybody else reading this got an itchy head?? I used to be paranoid about them, used to get my mum to check my hair every night!

yes my head itches too!!!!!!! :confussed: I never used to have much of a problem because I used to always where my hair up and top stop "fly away" bits I glued it down with gel!!! :D  I also permently condition my hair it used to be really smooth and silky (still is!)so nits couldn't clamp on!!!!  Although i did have to get "the treatment" because mum insisted when she found one I never had it as bad as some people in school!

i have 5 children from age 6 to 18 nits are a big problem if you dont keep on top of them i have done wet combing lots but it takes a lot of time especially if you have 5 i treat them with nit lotion it doesnt kill the eggs as it claims but if you do it again in three days when the eggs hatch it completly clears them.it does work out expensive and the goverment should make it be sold at a much lower price then a lot more parents could afford to use it maybe then there wouldnt be so many children left untreated.

i agree with that the price of the medicated nit treatment is shocking! we spent a fortune when lucy got nits

When I was using chemicals, my doctor gave me a prescription which saved me a fortune.

I was going to say if you go to your Dr they will have to give you a prescription so there is no excuse for people not treating it.  Interesting about the tea treee - I wil bear that in mind.

Fiona

Just make sure you say all your kids have nits. That way they will do a prescription for all of them, and you will have enough in the cupboard so you dont have to ring up for a prescription constantly!!!!!! They will only prescribe for the child that has actually got them, which is fair enough, but normally if one has them the others get them as well!!!!!! I have 3 bottles in my cupboard just in case. Only used 3/4 of one so far and got them a year ago.
But I do only use it about once a year if that, as I donnot like putting the chemicals on my kids constantly.
Lea :)

The best stuff is probably the moose advised on telly I think it's called FULL MARKS.
kirsty