Headlice :(

[Toddy]

I'm not long home; a Greenspace day that kind of turned irritating.

One of the children we worked with had a head crawling with lice.....not just nits (eggs) but crawling beasties.
I'm home and seriously thinking about using the shampoo I use on the cat when she picks up something down the burn.

What would you use out in the woodlands?

cheers,
Toddy

[spamel]

Mud or clay. Smear that in your hair and leave it. Once everything has dried out, hopefully all of the critters will be dead. Then wash out with some nettle shampoo. Not sure how well that works, but I'v always wanted to give it a try. Might have to now!

As for the kids covered in bugs, this happens oh to often these days. You try to stop them latching on to your kids, but if the rest of the parents don't sort their kids out then you are fighting a losing battle. My kids had them a while back, I don't know if you remember I posted about it. My mum called and said she had them aswell so she did her hair, that incidentally looks like a nest!

A couple of weeks back, she called again and said our kids must have nits as she had them again. Our kids were completely clear, so it looks like she didn't do her hair properly. It's not as if she didn't have enough practice as she has four sons, and we went to a school plagued by the bloody things! I suggested a skinhead!

[Tadpole]

I'm not long home; a Greenspace day that kind of turned irritating.

One of the children we worked with had a head crawling with lice.....not just nits (eggs) but crawling beasties.
I'm home and seriously thinking about using the shampoo I use on the cat when she picks up something down the burn.

What would you use out in the woodlands?

cheers,
Toddy

personally I don't use 'toxic chemicals' for treating head lice, I just buy the cheapest and thickest conditioner I can find apply it to the wet hair, and comb through, every day for a week then every other day for a week and then depending on the blighter's that remain, once or twice a week till the head is clear for two treatments
In the wild, as it were, I'd use olive oil with either oil of ylang ylang or eucalyptus. the lice need to breath, and the oil stops that. leave the oil on for at least 40 minutes as lice can hold their breath for half an hour.

It's my understanding that anything that clogs up the lice's breathing will do, so just about anything thick and gloopy even mayonnaise will work if you leave it on long enough, 30 to 40 minutes. Not sure what your fellows would think of you walking about the a head full of salad dressing though.

[JonnyP]

Diluted rosemary oil, or fresh parsley juice rubbed into the scalp are a couple of remedys in my folk remedys book...

[Cairodel]

Paraffin or diesel when you are out will also do the trick....

[Wayland]

I use Tesco's tea tree shampoo all the time at home and I don't get any problems these days.

Considering I work with about 6000 kids in schools a year and have hair well below my shoulders, I call that a result.

Before doing this I did get the little blighters at an event in Largs once, but we shifted them with the conditioner / comb combination.

I have friends with kids that swear by using baby oil to suffocate the wee beasties.

[Porcupine]

washing your hair with vinegar should work

[Green Arrow]

Wet combing with conditioner should work well , use a nit comb if you can get one the teeth are closer together. If you can get a metal nit comb it will last longer, as the teeth separate over time with the plastic ones. Once every 2 weeks after contact should do it. Herbal treatments include T tree oil like Wayland coconut oil or Ylang Ylang, check the concentratrion that is safe to use though. Insecticides are becoming less effective as the lice are building resistance.

Am just researching an exhibition on hair at the moment so am well up on nits!

[Toddy]

I'm 48 and I've never had lice, yet friends with school age children tell me that the problem is endemic and they also tell me that the schools aren't allowed to send word home to parents that there are infected children in the school Something wrong here surely
Apart from the Ranger in charge all of us working today had long hair. This isn't funny, I'm positive I haven't gotten anything but ye gods it's hard not to feel like something is moving (scratch scratch).
Thanks for the ideas folks......gonna sit with my hair covered in conditioner for a bit

atb,
Toddy

[Green Arrow]

If you avoided head to head contact you should be ok as they can't jump or fly , just crawl !

[spamel]

I called our kids school and they sent a letter home to all of the parents in her class that nits were present in a child in their class. No names mentioned, but it seems rather silly that they only tell the parents of one class as they all go and play together at break time.

Nit nurses aren't allowed anymore, the only time they can do anything is if the child is literally crawling in nits, then they send them home and tell the parents not to let the child back into school until it is sorted. It's just parents these days are to idle to look after their children. It should never get to that stage.

[Glen]

I use Tesco's tea tree shampoo all the time at home and I don't get any problems these days.

Considering I work with about 6000 kids in schools a year and have hair well below my shoulders, I call that a result.

Before doing this I did get the little blighters at an event in Largs once, but we shifted them with the conditioner / comb combination.

I have friends with kids that swear by using baby oil to suffocate the wee beasties.

I use tea tree shampoo too and also have worked in a school for 2 years with similar length hair and no problems, despite a general outbreak there last year.

I did have nits as a young lad. My parents panicked, gave me a crew cut and made me wash my hair everyday, having told the visiting nit doctor this she replied that people would be better off not washing their hair, rather than overwashing it, going on to explain that nits will live on drity greasy hair but they prefer not too and will tend not to lay eggs there, instead they will, for choice, go for clean hair stripped of it's oils as the eggs attach much more firmly and are more dificult to remove, even with a nit comb.

[Ogri the trog]

I know how you feel Toddy,
Our kids used to come home regularly with a nod about treating them, now the teachers can't mention it for fear of upsetting the poor urchins - how politically correct do you have to be for goodness sake.
A friend who practices alternative medicine, used to prescribe "Lice herbs" a dried chopped root-looking thing, to be steeped in hot water for a few minutes then daubed onto the scalp. It worked too, for a while, now I reach for the Tee tree oil. Convincing the kids to religously brush and comb is more than half the battle, I'm sure.

ATB

Ogri the trog

[Rebel]

I never had nits in all my days in school, hitchiking around the world and living in communes.

But in the last few years my kids get them constantly and I get a few now and again too. As soon as you think you've got rid of them the kids pick them up again from their friends and school.

The shampoo does work to some extent but I wouldn't recommend using it. It has bad chemicals in it and some strains of nit have built up a resistance to them.

For us it's Tea Tree oil, hair conditioner and wet combing with a metal nit comb every three days. For our son it's quick and easy and most of the time he doesn't have any but with our daughter, who has beautiful long blond hair, combing out her hair is a major event. When we had foster kids we had four kids to comb every three days.

Basically it's a losing battle but if you don't keep up with it then they become infested and that's not pleasant.

[xylaria]

AAAGGGHhhhh those bloomin things.

Bane of my life. I use conditioner and comb. The chemical treatments are useless, the only one that works are one based on dimethcone. Which is the stuff in infacol, it suffocates the gits. Oil works as well, it is what is used in india where they can transmit typhus (or something). But I find it makes you look like you put chip fat on your hair, and it takes a lot of washing to get out.

I tested various essential oils by putting live lice on a tissue and dripping oil on tissue. Tea tree seconded by lavender seem to make them move away. the calamas root from the herbalist had no effect at all. No herbal product killed them, but i found out they can drown, but they have to be water for a few hours. They seem to become paralysed in water quite quickly. I presume the oiling hair works on the same principle.

I have read some where that daisy chains and chamomile rinses, were made as lice treatment. Permethrins are extracted from a member of the daisy family. There is still various fleabanes that are still in use. the problem with head lice is that these chemical are the ones they are now resistant to. So mugwort that kills most things?

[spamel]

Crew cut or flame thrower seems to be the way then!

[Tourist]

.........they also tell me that the schools aren't allowed to send word home to parents that there are infected children in the school.........

My little ones nursery and the older ones school send advice notes home and stick notes on their doors to advise parents of lice and other disease's lurking around. I also know the nursery manager and she will have a quiet word with the parents of any child infested..........but it is amazing how many parents go into denial about their child having lice.

My kids get regular tea tree shampoo washes and if there is a definate reported outbreak we will use Full Marks mouse. The nursery staff swear by full marks, being ladies they all have long hair and they are in close contact with the younger children making it easy for them to catch the lice.

Touch wood (knock, knock) we have not had any yet.

[swyn]

I agree with the nit comb and conditioner routine. This is one we go through once every 14 days with our youngest who seems to attract them like a magnet!! Her hair is long although tied up in a platt most of the time.

I'm afraid just par for the course as the two older girls had similar infestations when they were at the same school.

Nora nit is normal we say!

Swyn.

[Fenlander]

According to Mors K. an infusion of Labrador Tea makes a very effective treatment. I believe it's found in some parts of Scotland



Jeremy Seeley was just telling me that his sons school recommend Dove conditioner.

[EdS]

Never had lice - quite suprising as I've long hair and spend a lot of time in working in houses the less posh areas of Bradford and Keighley (plagued by them by all accounts).

Might be having 2 Land Rovers means I spend alot of time covered in various motor oils. Gearbox oil will shift them.

[leon-1]

According to Mors K. an infusion of Labrador Tea makes a very effective treatment. I believe it's found in some parts of Scotland



Jeremy Seeley was just telling me that his sons school recommend Dove conditioner.

Glad you posted the picture Kev, I had a mental image of a large black canine being steeped in near boiling water

[BOD]

Glad you posted the picture Kev, I had a mental image of a large black canine being steeped in near boiling water

I'm glad too. Always wondered what it looked like.