Damn it!! We have NITS!

[LimeSlice]

Ok, so Charlotte doesnt even go to creche and we have knits!

We only have 4 school age kids around us and apparently they dont have it, but I have no idea where we could have gotten them from.

I am very ticked off now! lol Cos Charlotte and knit treatments dont mix - she hate them! And getting her to sit there with a showercap on her head for 15 mins while they work is just about impossible without strapping her down.


So I have combed her hair after washing it tonight, and combed my own, will do a knit treatment on me tonight when she goes to bed. And hot wash all the linen in tea tree...

But what can I do to get rid of hers?
Give me you tried and true knit remedies please!!

[AnyDream]

Best tip is to lather them thru with conditioner and comb thru while they are sitting in the bath happily playing with their bath toys. You will need to do it every day until they are all gone and then do it again once about three days later in case you missed any that hatched. This is the quickest and simplest way I know.

[Ryatha]

I second the conditioner and combing. I gave up using the treatments for DD after she was reinfected every week at kindy and I was sick of using the chemical treatments so regularly. Just buy really cheap conditioner, and comb though with a metal fine tooth comb. Wash everything afterwards (towl, brush, comb) in hot water with a bit of tea tree oil and let dry.

Its worth washing hats and any jumpers that have hoodies, as they sometimes get caught in them as well. I only bother washing the pillow cases in tea tree, I found stripping her bed every couple of days to be a nightmare.

Good luck fighting the little things...

[LimeSlice]

Awesome! Thanks ladies

Does it have to be cheaparse conditioner doesnt it? I only have some pantene stuff here...

I have the moov stuff, used it last time and it seemed to work ok, will give her a go of that when DH gets back and can help me.
In the mean time conditioner and vinegar and the nit comb it is!

[Tinks]

Be careful with Vinegar. I put it on DD's hair for nits once and she broke out in hives.

Any conditioner will do. Last time my girls had them I used a product called Lice Breaker. It is like conditioner, goes on dry hair then you comb it through before washing it. It was really good, killed all the nits, amde their hair nice and shiny and DOESN'T smell! I bought the matching comb which was fantastic too. It got all the eggs out easily.

[Rouge]

Wash with vinegar, then using a normal comb, comb through cheap conditioner ($2 shop sells 1 ltr bottles), and then comb through with a metal round teeth comb. Do it twice the first day, then once every 3 days for a week and then again in another week and you should be right. Lotions and Potions don't work. The only way to get rid of them is to comb them out. The eggs are the buggers to get rid of. I think its about 7 days between until eggs hatch, which is why you can't just do it once and forget about it. And even after the last check keep an eye out.

[squidipa]

Best tip is to lather them thru with conditioner and comb thru while they are sitting in the bath happily playing with their bath toys. You will need to do it every day until they are all gone and then do it again once about three days later in case you missed any that hatched. This is the quickest and simplest way I know.

i was gonna say that too its GREAT also if she has long enough hair for a hair tie you can buy herbal hair lackys that are deterrents they are scrunchies filled with natural herbs, you can buy in woolworths and you can also spray water and teetree oil in hair as a deterrent too

[Kazbah]

So what's the diff between nits & headlice? How can you tell if your kid has them?

[luna moth]

Nits = term for the eggs
Lice = the little dudes that run around on the scalp.

(My scalp is itching just talking about it)

As a PP said, they love clean hair, so our fave trick at childcare is to leave your conditioner in and dry your hair. Makes it look greasy and feral, but it's too slippery for them to climb up and lay eggs, so breaks the life cycle.

Vinegar - can work. I loved it as a kid.
Fine tooth comb - also works very well.
Tea tree oil - *really* works. Spray bottle with 1:100mL tea tree oil:water annoys them.

The above three will work really well as follow-up to Moov, not quite as effective on their own. You can then do all these every 4-6 weeks after your head lice case and it will help to stop recurrence.
Washing everything in hot water at the same time also helps.

[Isadora]

Ohhh I am itching my head as I read this lol. So paranoid about nits, so far we've avoided them but I remember the hell my mum went through with us 3 girls & our long thick hair. The girls have given you some good tips LimeSlice, I hope you get rid of the little buggers quickly.

[toomanyshoes]

Best tip is to lather them thru with conditioner and comb thru while they are sitting in the bath happily playing with their bath toys. You will need to do it every day until they are all gone and then do it again once about three days later in case you missed any that hatched. This is the quickest and simplest way I know.

Totally agree with the above, but make sure you get the metal type combs because the plastic ones are useless! We always have nit dramas with our kids...it was driving me crazy, tried everything under the sun to the point where both kids came up bright red last time i tried a treatment. Combing them out is the only way!

[nic]

We recently had nits and headlice here a couple of months ago...drove me mad as DD had hair down to her bum...and it took hours to brush through it all.
First thing I bought was the Nits Wits stuff, which helped initially, but after a couple of treatments, combined with combing, we still couldnt get rid of them all.
So I went to the chemist and got the Moov stuff. That fried the little buggers.

You could try the conditioner in her hair and combing them out. we tried this inbetween treatments.
I also made up a spray bottle of water with a little lavender and tea tree oil, for her to spray on every day before school, so we can deter them.
DS ended up with them as well, and I just sprayed a little of this very lightly, onto a face washer and wiped it over his head.
I think he is finally nit free

Nic

[aussienic]

vinegar wet her hair.. put vinegar through her hair. It might sting a little if she has been scratching though. then rince and condition..