Headlice (merged)

friendly.gal

I don't know if this has been mentioned on another page but I live in the Medway area of Kent and we have something called "Minor Ailments Scheme".

Providing you don't pay for prescriptions (children, people on benefits etc) you can get free headlice treatments, which is usually Derbac M lotion without getting a prescription

It might be worth asking in your local chemist/ GP surgery if they offer a similar service.

Zaphod_Beblebrocks

We had that in Gosport but the nit stuff was in so much demand they removed it from the scheme, I have tried everything on our daughter but the teacher says there are a couple of kids in her class whose parents don't treat, I have even e-mailed the health authority whose only reply was to state that when a letter is sent out ALL the parents children and teachers should be treated the same night, they do not believe in telling individual parents because of "rights" issues, when I enquired about the rights of the other 20 kids I heard no more!

conradmum

Spendless wrote:

The treatments used Debac M and Lyclear were bought over the pharmicist counter. My GP even gave me a perscription for Derbac M the other day. They worked on everyone elses hair-from when son brought home first bout but not on daughters. They were still alive at the time you were told to rinse off.

Nitty Gritty I saw recommended on this thread and it's an aromatherapy lotion used in conjunction with their comb. i used the lotion and it picked up another 2 lice that I missed the previous day. It was the white cases I was concerned about. glad to discover they are empty. Is there anything I can use to get rid of them?

Not too clear on this but am I right in thinking you used the treatment again for a second infestation that was just on your daughter's head? If so, it could be that those lice were resistant to the pesticide. There are strains now that are resistant to some pesticides but not others, so it might be worth trying something else although, as I've said, I'm very cautious about using them at all.
I really believe anything else that's marketed as a 'deterrant' or something that comes with a comb is probably ineffective once your child's actually infested. Lice are tough little things and if you had a choice between living somewhere unpleasant and certain death, what would you do? With these things it's actually the combing with a nit comb that's having the effect.
There isn't any need to get rid of the egg cases but if you want to you could try scraping them out between your fingernails or cutting just the one hair off with nail scissors. A pleasant activity for a night in front of the telly!

Spendless

conradmum wrote:

Not too clear on this but am I right in thinking you used the treatment again for a second infestation that was just on your daughter's head? If so, it could be that those lice were resistant to the pesticide. There are strains now that are resistant to some pesticides but not others, so it might be worth trying something else although, as I've said, I'm very cautious about using them at all.
I really believe anything else that's marketed as a 'deterrant' or something that comes with a comb is probably ineffective once your child's actually infested. Lice are tough little things and if you had a choice between living somewhere unpleasant and certain death, what would you do? With these things it's actually the combing with a nit comb that's having the effect.
There isn't any need to get rid of the egg cases but if you want to you could try scraping them out between your fingernails or cutting just the one hair off with nail scissors. A pleasant activity for a night in front of the telly!

Son brought them home from school and daughter got her 1st infestation. On both kids we found live lice so using pharmacist advice we used Derbac M. this should only be used if you detect live lice and you put it on the head to kill them off as per the instructions. You put the stuff on for 12 hours and at the end of the 12 hours you should comb out the lice which should be dead. On son they were dead, but on daughters hair they were still alive.

A few weeks later she got another infestation. Having not been impressed with Derbac M the previous time I asked the pharmacist for a different solution. This time we got Lyclear. Again this is a treatment to be put on only if live lice are detected and is supposed to kill them off. That treatment is left on for 3 hours after which they should be dead. After 3 hours the lice were still alive.

Neither Derbac M or Lyclear are deterrants they are to be used only if live lice are found.

On each occassion these 2 treatments I bought and used at different times didn't work on her hair. So this week when she was sent home from nursery I used conditioner and metal nit comb to comb them out, again there were live ones, but I didn't want to use either solution (Derbac M or Lyclear) that I'd tried before.

Someone on this thread had recommended nitty gritty, so I sent off for the nitty gritty comb and a bottle of lotion. You put the lotion on the head leave for 20 minutes and comb thru with nitty gritty comb. I did this and found 2 more that had escaped detection the previous day using ordinary nit comb and conditioner. The nitty gritty comb claims to remove eggs too, but I could see the white shells and assummed they were the eggs and that the comb was not removing them as claimed. What I didn't realise was that the white shells are empty.

conradmum

It sounds like you've been really unlucky with those treatments. Is you daughter's hair long and your son's short? Maybe they had more places to hide!
When I was talking about the deterrants, I was referring to Nitty Gritty. Isn't this what it is?
You quite frequently get more the next day that escaped detection earlier. The advice is to do the conditioner and nit comb thing every 2/3 days for two weeks. It takes this long for eggs to hatch.
Hope you managed to clear them okay.

patchwork_cat

I have never tried this but seen it mentioned on these threads a few times that straighteners help to get rid of nits. It might be worth a go if you have an ongoing problem even on boys hair . It probably fries them - I just read that back and sounds like it fries the boys!

Spendless

conradmum wrote:

It sounds like you've been really unlucky with those treatments. Is you daughter's hair long and your son's short? Maybe they had more places to hide!
When I was talking about the deterrants, I was referring to Nitty Gritty. Isn't this what it is?
You quite frequently get more the next day that escaped detection earlier. The advice is to do the conditioner and nit comb thing every 2/3 days for two weeks. It takes this long for eggs to hatch.
Hope you managed to clear them okay.

Oh right. the nitty gritty pack I bought contained one lotion, one nit comb and one repellant spray.

The lotion is used in the same way conditioner is you put it all over the hair and then leave for 20 minutes, then comb out using their comb. It's just a lotion that the lice stick to which makes them easier to get out.

The seperate repellant spray is for when the hair is free of the lice to discourage them to come back.

Son has either a #2 or #3 cut at barbers so I was surprised he got them to start off with. Daughters hair is shoulder length bob. i have gone thru her hair today and there was nothing (apart from the empty white shells) so fingers crossed.

tesuhoha

Dont know if this has already been said but I once used Original Source tea tree conditioner which is lovely and thick and easy to trap the lice followed by a final rinse containing tea tree oil. This worked a treat and the lice didnt come back

pthompson

I'd be willing to bet that hungry ladybirds would devour nits. I suggested my daughter put some in her hair overnight, but she thought I was joking :-(

Spendless

pthompson wrote:

I'd be willing to bet that hungry ladybirds would devour nits. I suggested my daughter put some in her hair overnight, but she thought I was joking :-(

LoL I'm torn between :rotfl: and going into the garden to find one to give it a try