Headlice (merged)

miserly_mum

Carmina_Piranha wrote: »

yes they were actually leaping! his hair was dry and i just used a nit comb on the dry hair, then wiped the bugs onto a tissue but they kept jumping off the tissue. could he have fleas then?

by the way i wasn't thinking that because their parents smoke they are more likely to have nits. i just said that because of the smell they're not in the house much so it's different to them spending hours here in close proximity to the eldest. eldest doesn't play with them outside or go to the park etc with them so he doesn't see much of them really.

my 2 year old has never had nits, even when i have seen the girls heads absolutely covered in them.

the girls may be using treatments all the time, i wasn't suggesting that they weren't. i can't imagine anybody having nits and not begging for treatment, i had them myself 4 years ago and it was horrible.

Fleas do jump but if he has fleas it wouldn't just be on his head

Does your son have any little red spots anywhere else?

miserly_mum

I caught them years ago when my older 3 (now late teens) were at primary school.

I had a luverly 80's perm at the time finishing half way down my back.

Had to use so much lotion I could hardly breathe, thank god the products have improved since then.

amaseal

I miss the times i spent combing nits out using lots of conditioner!
At first my initial horrified reaction was to use the chemicals but they don't work and they are organo-phosphates and quite dangerous in a young child's bloodstream.
I combed wet hair full of conditioner every 4 days to get rid of them, wiping the comb with tissue to make sure I got them. It may be worth checking any Grannies or Aunts as they may be the carriers, I must say they won't take it well though!

flower7

If you want to stop nits coming back try hairspray on your kids hair, it seems to stop them, the nits hate the stuff and the cheaper hairspray the better. If you are worried about your car or pillow cases spray some hairspray on those places aswell.

aurora_borealis_2

I have many years' experience of nits

It's true that they finish getting infected when they go to high school. Teens probably taste awful

Lice don't jump though. I'm not sure what you're dealing with here.

vaio

Carmina_Piranha wrote: »

.
.........…lots of stuff about nits & smoky kids removed……

……….I've dry combed today and they were leaping off the comb, huge leaps like fleas………..

Unless nits have evolved dramatically since I last combed a complaining 6 year old head (about 15 years ago) it doesn’t sound like you have a nit problem.

Nits crawl, I’ve never seen them jump. Fleas do jump and the techniques for getting rid of them are very different as fleas will live quite happily in furniture, bedding etc etc.

Daily vacuuming of everything paying particular attention to nooks & crannies was the recommended treatment, presumably chemical sprays are available as well.

Easiest way to be sure is to catch one and look at it with a magnifying glass, if it has big back legs then it’s a flea, no doubt the web will yield pictures of both

MERFE

This thread has been quite useful thanks, my dd has just started a preschool and has had 2 letters about headlice but I've checked and she hasnt had them yet so it must be another child they are talking about, but since the first letter I've had her hair tied up everyday but I'm sure it is only a matter of time. I have a bit of a headlice phobia since my younger sister was at primary school when I was 16 and kept bringing them home as her best friend never did anything about them and it really stressed me out at the time. I hope she is one of them kids that they dont like, at least with ds I can just shave his head and although dd ask me to cut hers like her brothers I dont think she would appreciate it if I actually did it!

Oh and yes this tread is making me itch!

Spendless

I understood that fleas couldn't live on humans for very long.

Edinburghlass_2

Perhaps not but they do live quite happily in furnishings

Spendless

That's true. We had several occurances of fleas in our carpet when we had cats.

This link shows a picture of a flea

http://www.ealing.gov.uk/services/environment/pest_control/types_of_pest/fleas/

and this of headlice


http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=headlice&um=1&ie=UTF-8