Help! still got nits !

[Travelledtheworld]

DD 15 has just come got out of the shower and come downstairs wailing.
She had had headlice for about a year now.
We have been trying to treat this but she will not persist with the treatment and combing routine.

She refuses to let me comb them out. Complains that all the Over the Counter treatments make her hair feel horrible/ smell horrible etc.
Has been washing her hair obsessively with some Vosene All in One shampoo which is supposed to deter them. it is obviously not working.

Sadly she has very long, thick, shiny dark brown hair....

Any suggestions?

[MrsBright]

The combing out is horrible - but NOTHING else works. DD has very long hair and we get this issue about twice a year. 'Full Marks' does work. And the following day she can wash it with something nicer etc to get rid of the smell. We put a good DVD on the TV, she sits on the stool in front of me and we just get on with it.

Vosene is an utter waste of time. It doesn't kill the eggs which is why it keeps coming back.

Time to get tough Mum - insist she has to let you treat it and comb it all out. Otherwise all she is doing is making sure everyone else anywhere near her gets them as well.

[Travelledtheworld]

Thanks.
I keep telling her that combing is the only solution and that he cannot do it herself.

She is at all girls school and 98% of them seem to have very long hair which they flick around, so I am sure they all have them.

Will go out and buy some Full Marks tomorrow !

[JohnnyUtah]

Crikey. How many other people has she given them to in a YEAR.

[Claybury]

The chemicals they sell for lice are not very effective - pesticide resistance. They are a waste of money.
The best way is loads of cheap conditioner and combing to remove eggs. I used nitty gritty metal comb and wipe it on a tissue each time - then you can see what you are removing.

Keep doing weekly. She will keep getting them unless all her friends do likewise.
At least she'll have lovely straight shiny hair ...

[mrsminiverscharlady]

Full Marks is not a traditional pesticide like the older treatments and harder for lice to become resistant to. It's very effective IME and worked brilliantly where thorough, repeated combing just hadn't.

[teenagetantrums]

Well one of my DD 17 yr old friends has had headice for ages, i am sick of her sleeping over and then giving them to my DD, who will let me treat/comb them. That friend is now banned from my house, your daughter is old enough to let you treat the, and how do you all not get them? is she using her own towels hairbrushes?

[Cooroo]

Put conditioner on wet hair. Then comb whole head with a nit comb. She can do this herself if she doesn't want you doing it. For more fun, wipe the comb on toilet paper and count the nits you've caught! Get out every damn living one of them.

Wait 3 days then do it again to catch the ones that have hatched since. You should have a lower count of caught ones.

Wait 3 days then do it again.

Keep going till it's been all clear TWICE.

This is the only way that worked for us. Forget the vile chemicals, the damn things just come back.

[LynetteScavo]

Use Hedrin. Comb with a decent comb. www.chemistdirect.co.uk/hedrin-once-spray-gel_1_156418.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&utm_campaign=Brand%20%7C%20PLA&utm_content=sRxW8sVnY%7Cdc_pcrid_24645831011


www.amazon.co.uk/Nitty-Gritty-Head-Lice-Metal/dp/B001PML6Y6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387133102&sr=8-1&keywords=nitty%20gritty%20comb&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

Repeat the following week.

Tie hair up for school.

Conditioner and combing alone won't do it.

Don't give me the "she won't let me comb"....if I can comb my Aspergers DS, and remove all traces of eggs, then she can shut up, sit down and let you comb.

I have very think long(ish) hair, so that's not the issue....neither is the colour.

Vosene will do nothing to get rid of nits once you have them. Nothing.

[NonnoMum]

DO NOT LISTEN to all the hippy-dippy tea-tree-oil people.

Get the napalm out and zap the little critters.

Anything else is just a pamper treatment.

Wash all towels on a hot wash. Wash all bedding and pillowcases on a boil wash.

Tie hair up or even better, cut it!

And DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT giving it to my kids.

And breathe.

[IHaveSeenMyHat]

I sympathise about the thick hair but honestly, she hasn't I let you comb her hair. She's been crawling with lice for over a YEAR. How come she'd rather stay infested than let you sort her out?

[IHaveSeenMyHat]

*she has to let you comb her hair

Bloody autocorrect.

[Mabelface]

Take control and TELL her that you're going to comb her hair. don't give her the option

[Travelledtheworld]

We have a nitty gritty comb. She attempts to comb her own hair every day, but she obviously isn't doing a very good job.

We have tried Full Marks and Hedrin but but not the Hedrin Gel, so will give that a try.

DS and I both have very short hair. His is usually quite dirty and I colour mine, and we don't seem to get them.

DS has her own bathroom, towels, hairbrush etc.

[starfish4]

My daughter had nits a few years ago just as our water was cut off for two weeks, so we didn't have enough water to wash hair the first few days until the authorities got more than bottle drinking water into our area. I combed her hair twice a day with a nit comb and much to my relief we dealt with them this way and the never came back.

You really do need someone else to go through the hair and pick any nits out, they can move quick and someone else can see where they are at the sids (often above/behind ears) and under the hairline at the back.

[lovestea]

Honestly, 'bug busting' is the only solution. All the over the counter treatments and prescription treatments work but only for the day you use them. Then you are back to square one again, and you might as well have a big WELCOME sign on your head. Cooroo is right. Get a comb and a bottle of conditioner. Conditioner on wet hair every three days. Comb out. Oh, the pleasure of combing out those little buggers. Doing it every three days breaks their reproductive cycle and you will be nit free within two weeks.

However, you need to keep doing it. With two boys three years apart at primary school I did this for ten sodding years. Well, at first I did it, then they learned to do it themselves. By the time they were 14 it was all over.

[meditrina]

I'm amazed she's had lice for a year without adverse comment from her friends.

Though I suppose letting her continue with them might be a weird form of contraceptive. But will her self esteem survive if that becomes known as her most distinctive characteristic.

OK, it's are to force teens to do anything. But for nits, it's worth the fight.

She either needs proper Hedrin treatment, or combing every other day for 3 weeks (to break the breeding cycle).

[Travelledtheworld]

mediatrina,What makes you think her friends would notice ? They do not sit around preening each other !
I only realised when she started to complain about an itchy head and I saw some bite marks on her neck.
We didn't have them in primary school.

[teenagetantrums]

In my experience teenagers do spend ages sitting round preening each others hair!

[frenchfancy]

Puts hard hat on.

Frontline, for dogs or cats. One drop on the back of the neck (not the full vial, just one drop) and you will be free of nits.

Takes hard hat off.

[Travelledtheworld]

Yikes ! Just how toxic is it .
Tempted to use garden insecticide !

[frenchfancy]

If it were that toxic we would't put it on our beloved pets and if we did we would use gloves. Medicines cannot be licensed for animal and human use and there is more money in the pet flea market.

[Travelledtheworld]

frenchfancy I take it you have used this on your own children ?
I assume you still need to co to get rid of the eggs ?

[Travelledtheworld]

COMB....sorry !

[frenchfancy]

Yes I have used it on my kids and on myself. I had a bad episode just like you, couldn't get rid of them, then a friend told me about frontline. Apparently vets use it on their kids. No combing necessary, but you may need to wash your bedding as the dead nits tend to fall out.

It lasts much longer than the month for dogs as well; I do the family about twice a year. One vial does all of us including the dog.