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.

[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..

[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.

[Astrid]

Olive oil also works. A friend on mine with a school age daughter tested a lot of the commerical remedies along with the oil and checked out the nits under a microscope. Only the olive oil actually killed them. Don't think she tried vinegar, will need to ask her.

[Lulu]

A good metal comb is a must. Comb, comb, comb, comb.

If you see white eggs, they are dead. If they are more than a centimetre from her scalp they are dead.
If they are crawling - destroy the bastards.

Comb, comb, comb....pantene might be a bit thick, water it down until you can get the cheapo stuff.

xoxoxo

I HATE NITS

[Rivlas]

When you dry the hair use a hairdryer as this also helps keep them at bay.
Nits love clean hair so don't wash it to often.
With vinegar water it down a bit and then spray it through the hair after you have washed it and leave it in.
With girls, if they have long hair keep it in plaits until the nit cycle has well and truly passed.

Nits is just one of those things that some kids get and others don't.

[DoubleK]

argh.. we have had lice on and off since dd was 18 MONTHS OLD! how she got them i do not know!

i have tried about 6 different chemical solutions, on her and my head... and after washing it out AND combing.. i was still itching!

i brush her hair everyday with the lice comb, and mine. i havent tried the vinegar wash yet, and im buying some tea tree this week to try in a spray bottle.

i yank out all the hair from our brushes, and soak them with the lice combs in boiling water (not sure if that helps even, but i still do it )

i hate that after i have spent forever combing her hair.. i can STILL see little white dots through her hair.. i just cannot get them all out? they are usually at the back of her head/behind her ears. and every now and then a big black bugger will be crawling on her head near her fringe.. blergh i hate them!

we call them buggers in our house!

[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.

[LimeSlice]

Well she doesnt seem to have any live ones now, just a head full of eggs

So we are going for long drive in the car this arvo, so will does her hair with conditioner and teatree and will wash it out when we get home...
Have done all the linen today...
Will do myself again tonight and the comb is getting a good work out.

Thanks everyone! Will let you know which one is most effective

[SophieRose]

I wholeheartedly agree with aussienic, Vinegar is the best thing ever!!!

I come from a family of five girls with incredibly long and super thick hair, and being in school, you get nits all the time.

While conditioner does work, it's not as good as vinegar.
Vinegar breaks down that superglue like stuff that nits excrete to bind the egg to the hair. It dissolves the glue, and the eggs just come out. Usually even if you miss some, the glue has broken down so much that next time they wash their hair, the eggs will just fall out and go down the drain.

And you need a good brand new comb to get the actual nits out.
Just do the vinegar wash, comb through, leave the vinegar for an hour or so, and then wash out with shampoo and conditioner like normal and your kids hair will be beautiful.

Do a comb every day for a week or so and the nits will be gone.

And even if your kids don't have nits at the time, a comb through dry hair once a week will help stop the lice coming back.

It's been working for us girls for the last 15 years of schooling.