Headlice (merged)

Ruby_Moon

justjohn wrote: »

#22

why is it that in some schools or localities it is more prolific/frequent than other schools.
There is a reason....
Some people just do not bother....when a letter comes round from school that there is a problem, if everyone keeps on top of it it is gone in a month or so...

Some area's/schools its a constant problem week after week. Some children are constantly infected.

If you have a child with extremely thick hair it can be an absolute nightmare to maintain.
A dutiful parent can comb and comb and comb but short of shaving their hair off (which doesn't happen these days) its very very difficult to be sure to have got every single one of the bleeders.
Leaving just one in the hair can cause a whole class to catch them again.
Although it has to be said nits are less likely to live on boys hair than girls, probably because boys hair is shorter and girls tend to play closer together. Ponytails can flick nits a long way!
One nit on a child can multipy to hundreds of them in just a few days. Its not right to assume that some parents do nothing as they are likely to be just as frustrated as yourselves.

Intastella

Ruby_Moon wrote: »

For goodness sake, there is no one single culprit in the class or at school. Who might infect the kids one day might get themselves infect the week after. Its absolutely nonsense when people say "Oh, its this one person"...thats not helping the problem is it?
If you are having trouble getting rid of them so are other people and its no one person to blame for this very rife problem. Exactly. I couldn't believe the stick my girl got, and i do put it purely down to the fact that i was a punk, so must therefore be a skank with a dirty kid. It was one of the reasons that i was really on top of keeping us both spotless, coz i knew how prejudiced they were. Grr
Get yourself some tea tree shampoo and conditioner, the cheapest from Tesco or whereever is fine, and also get yourself some tea tree essential oil.
Wash the kids hair condition and rinse with warm water with a couple of drops of tea tree oil in it and comb through. I forgot to add to my post about the tea tree rinses..that stuff is magic!
There is nothing else you need to do because if you do this regularly, they will go within a couple of weeks as you are breaking the cycle.
Yes, they might get infected again, thats just the way it is, but don't forget, all you need to do is miss just one off your kids hair and your kids can pass that on. It doesn't mean you and your family are "ignoring the problem".

They are very hard to get rid of at the moment because of their resistence to chemicals. Hard to get rid of for everyone.

Very true. Prioderm used to be the daddy didn't it (i can still smell it now...brrr!)...not anymore tho...

oscarsmum

aliballi wrote: »

You really have to do the conditioner & comb treatment every night for 2 weeks when their is an infestation. I would then go through every other night for a couple of weeks & only then once a week. Tea tree oil is also meant to help stop infestation.

I agree with this. The life cycle of headlice is two weeks so to get rid of them you really need to comb through with conditioner each night for two weeks then twice a week for a couple of weeks to ensure you have got rid of them all. You only need to miss one louse and then a week later you will have just as many again.
I sympathise, have been through this many times with my two daughters.

skypie123_2

Neem oil is fantastic too. You can get it from health food shops. It kind of 'neuters' the headlice! You have to get every single egg out and this is where people often go wrong, they look largely for the live lice and don't pay as much attention to the eggs but you have to get every last egg out of the hair or it all starts again!

PrincessPlaty

Intastella wrote: »

Very true. Prioderm used to be the daddy didn't it (i can still smell it now...brrr!)...not anymore tho...

I actually unpacked half a bottle of prioderm from a box earlier both my girls just looked at me as if to say :eek: it has never worked on their hair though!

code-a-holic

I could go on about head lice all day!
I would say we have not had a break for 2 years in this house.
Have to say I have gone past the point of being annoyed, its a part of childhood these days and do not do any real harm.
But my most succesful tool in the fight has been a nitty gritty comb. You have to get the eggs out and this comb does it although quite uncomfortable for the child/adult. We use tea tree shampoo and conditioner every other day and catch great big end of the cycle things on school days, weekends is tiny, invisable things from eggs i would have missed in the week.
6 months ago i was in hospital for a week and my husband did not do the hair. When i was back and did the deed my daughter who is in school just 2 hours a day was crammed full, my two older boys had none at all. She has a head that lice adore and a ideal breeding ground. She was 5 months old when i found the first - one must have hitched a ride from the boys. I rarely find any in the boys hair.
Im itching away writing this!! eek

thrifty81

code-a-holic wrote: »

.
But my most succesful tool in the fight has been a nitty gritty comb. You have to get the eggs out and this comb does it although quite uncomfortable for the child/adult. We use tea tree shampoo and conditioner every other day and catch great big end of the cycle things on school days, weekends is tiny, invisable things from eggs i would have missed in the week.

I couldn't agree more both my girls were constantly plauged with them, I'd tried everything but beacuse there hair is fine regular nit combs were not gettig everything out but after hearing another mum talking about the nitty gritty comb I had to get one and sice then - 9 months now we've not had a problem. (touch wood). I still use tea tree oil shampoo and conditioner and combined with this comb all seems to be going well!!!

mrcow

I've luckily not had to deal with this with mine, but I do know that if your child has lice, then you need to be dealing with on a daily rather than a weekly basis.

If you're only cleaning/combing/checking her hair once a week, then you are not getting rid of them. It's not effective enough. No one is "reinfesting" her - she's simply still got them and is probably passing them round the rest of the school.

Get into a routine every night as outlined above and give yourselves a fighting chance.

Spendless

oscarsmum wrote: »

I agree with this. The life cycle of headlice is two weeks so to get rid of them you really need to comb through with conditioner each night for two weeks then twice a week for a couple of weeks to ensure you have got rid of them all. You only need to miss one louse and then a week later you will have just as many again.
I sympathise, have been through this many times with my two daughters.

This is what I did with my DD last year and each day I caught some and you can tell by the sizes if you've caught a 'baby' or an adult and an adult will lay eggs of it's own and so on. I guess this is why you are getting stuck.

I've never got on with any of the treatments for DD's hair (haven't tried hedrin) though they've worked well oon my son's hair. I liked the nitty gritty lotion and repellant spray as well as the comb.

achtunglady

But aren't the parents who cant be bothered to treat their childrens hair when infected with lice guilty of neglect??? Why should their laziness, unwillingness and cant be asked attitude spoil it for the other children?

My friend who is a TA in a school was sitting about 4 feet away from a girl and could see them crawling in her hair, her mother is a busy working one who has tried to get rid of them with no luck and has asked the school for help and has given her permission for staff to help treat her.

Makes my blood boil when parents dont seem to step up to the plate and take responsibility for their children but i do commend this lady for asking for help and allowing others to be involved.