Add a few drops of tea-tree oil to your shampoo & conditioner.

It WORKS!

Thanks all - I have tried the Tea Tree shampoo, conditioner, leave in spray etc. etc. but no difference.

I will just have to persevere and hopefully over the Summer get rid by trying everything LOL.

I just did a groups search on facebook for 'bring back the nit nurse' and it came back with 74 groups!

You're certainly not on your own hun, I for one feel your pain!

Good luck with the little critters!

I have managed to keep them at bay buy just using the nitty gritty comb after each hairwash....and my kids only have their hair washed twice a week....( we ain't grubby just that kids don't sweat like us adults and there is no need to wash kids hair every day )

Nits lay eggs and they take about 7 days to hatch....so the trick is to keep doing it every 4 days until clear....( i do it it twice a week every week though as part of the bath time routine)

Each morning i brush their hairs well and then put into a pony tail and plait it...then spray with hairspray...(they don't jump, its only head to head contact...so hair that dangles is more likely to get them) then when they get home i take the pony out and brush well again.

My girls love hugging their mates at school...and although its cute i don't know if their parents are doing nit checks like i do....so i have to tell mine to just try and keep their heads away from other children's heads.

It actually pee's me off that some parents don't bother doing it regularly and so my kids who do have it checked and acted on all the time get it from them...its just one of those things thats part of being a parent IMO...like brushing their teeth and clipping their nails....some parents just don't bother though....i heard one mum at the school say "they are harmless anyway so why waste my time"

Mine have been free from them for ages now...but like i said its something that i think needs to be done ALL the time until they are past primary school age....my eldest is at secondary school and hasn't had them once since being there.

This site is good.... Head lice - symptoms and treatment of nits

Fi - hope you get it sorted out soon

I know this doesn't help much but I thought that it was interesting that the Victorians would shave all the childs hair off and then use gentian violet painted all over the scalp

You will get rid of the pesky mini beasts soon I'm sure - fortunately for me, the boys with having such short hair, have escaped them!

Love n snuggs to you Andy and the girls

I know of a mum at the school who did shave her daughters head to get rid of them...poor child, the trauma of that must have been far worse than a itchy head and its not even a solution...its only a temporary fix...as soon as they hair grows they can come back.

My kids had these critters from time to time and i found this is THE BEST method which helps to rid them.....it's not a one off and you need to keep on it Fiona.

Break the life cycle of the lice
Day 1: (for example say Saturday)

Get a nit comb & afteer washing the hair, use loads of cheap conditioner. Thoroughly comb through the hair, but after each swipe through with the comb, wash it in a bowl of water to remove any lice on the comb, keep this up until you have covered the whole head ...twice.

This will remove the larger headlice that are adult egg layers.

Leave the hair without washing for 3 CLEAR DAYS - this will allow time for the lice too small to get on day 1 to have grown big enough to get with the comb & conditioner method. But they will not of become egg layer, so no more eggs will of been laid since day 1.

Day 5 ( ie: Wednesday after the Saturday of day 1 bug busting - leaving 3 clear days - Sun, Mon & Tues)

Wash hair & repeat the process of day 1. The lice you remove will be a bit smaller than the original adults removed 1st time, but they will not old enough to be be egg layers but will be big enough to get out with the comb.

Day 9 (ie the Sunday after the 2nd bug busting Wednesday - leaving 3 clear days -Thurs, Fri & Sat)

Repeat the process of day 1 & Day 5. These lice removed on this day will be the ones to have hatched out from the eggs of the original adults you removed from day 1 - the Saturday effectively.
You will notice that the size of the lice are a bit smaller, non-egg laying.

Day 13 (ie Thursday from the original saturday you started - and this will be 3 clear days since the last comb through which was the previous day 9 Sunday)
Repeat the shampoo & conditioner and removal with the nit comb.

Assuming your child has not picked any other lice since the 1st day of treatment, they will be headlice free. So it will take 2 weeks in all.
IF, however, during your 2 week process of 'Busting the Bug' you see that you have got a lice bigger than the others, such as the ones pulled out on da 1, it means your child has been re-infected by another child with adult egg laying lice - so you have to start as from day 1 again, this long drawn out process is an effective, chemical free way of breaking the actual life cycle of the lice, by removing the lice that will become egg layers before they are fully mature enough to lay.

Inbetween the washing periods, use all other methods of protection like tea tree oil.

I hope you get this sorted Fiona, I know what a true pita it is. It's not fair the concientious parents such as you should have to go through this rigmorall because there are parents who couldn't care less about their child nit infection or are just plain ignorant of it & the processes to deal with them.

One evening, my son had been bathed & in his pj's sat watching tv. I knew he was 'clean' with no nits as I had checked him that morning. Then he scratched the back of his head!!!!!! I brought him into the kitchen and moved the hair in the nape of his neck and a mahoooosive lice fell out. I was gutted, dragged him up to the bathroom and begain day 1 - I did not find any other lice, but that did not mean he had not had eggs laid by the big lice, so i went through the 2 week cycle of bug busting with him anyway - I never found another, but continued until the 2 week process was over.
In the meantime, i went ot my neighbours house as that has been where he'd been playing that day & told her, nicely, that my son has come home with lice. She said 'Oh, my kids don't have anything like that', then she called her son over - moved some of his hair & he was covered in the buggers! OMG she said, what are they??? - Ingnorance is bliss, i spent the rest of the evening, with her son and her in her bathroom showing her how to bust the bug and deal with it. It was my insurance that if i showed her, my son would not get them from him again.

With 5 children I have had my fair share ( funnily enough though hubby or myself never had them )....

I find once they reach secondary school age they don't get them....it's primary school children it seems to affect....

I have found tee tree oil used once a week effective.
But it is a shame you cannot hop on a plane. There is a cheap head lice product in Mercadona, there is a shampoo and a lotion which kills the lice and the eggs literally within a few minutes.

I only ever need to do it once.
However I have not found a total prevention other than keeping hair in a plait.It's only my 8 year old who gets them at the moment...
My son only had them when he was very small...now he is so anti-social he keeps friends at arm length anyway....

I do get annoyed about the other parents though.
When my children have had them I have actually kept them off school...drastic yes but it stops them from passing it on.
I also have a very good eye for seeing the eggs and I literally scrape them off with my nails ( I know yak..but I wash! )...and I mean every hair
I can't settle until I know they are de-bugged....

I managed to go through my school years never having got them....I was such a model child for my mum

Ooops forgot to say....hair dye didn't work....!!!!