Headlice :: The friends you don’t want your kids to make at school.

********** WIN A PROTECTIVE HAIR SPRAY SET *********************

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Every parent wants their kiddos to make friends at school right? It’s one of the biggest worries we all have, but certain new friends that you really don’t want to see.

I’m talking about headlice. Little bastards.

You can almost hear a parental groan of horror when a child starts itching in the school playground, and there we have it – prepare battle stations, to the chemist we go!

I was warned about headlice (or nits as they are often called) when Roo started preschool, but we never had a problem, not once. I was constantly checking him when he started pre-reception back in April 2015 and sure enough: BOOM, nitsville. Population: EVERYONE IN THE HOUSE.

After I noticed that Roo was itching (unfortunately after a visit to Grandma and Pops’ house… Sorry guys!) I decided action had to be taken, so I did some research. We tried all sorts of things, 2 weeks later, he still had nits. Grandma tried things when they were at her house. “It’s a re-infestation”, they said. ” Ohh it’s hard to get rid of “,  they said. They. Weren’t. Kidding.

Eventually, I went to chemist and told them in a hushed voice that we had “unwelcome insect visitors”. I probably should have realised that not having the children with me at the time, I needed to be a bit more specific, but I got it when she started to talk about hair removal in certain places… I quickly put her right and she gave me a treatment called Derbac – also applicable to adult insect issues… awkward – that zapped our little friends into the nether regions of hell where they belong. Problem was, this is nasty stuff (hello, it’s used for crabs, it ain’t going to be pleasant) and it can really only be done no more than once every 3 months which made me unhappy putting it on Edith or any of the kids.

Despite the Derbac, the fuckers appeared every so often and, well, truth be told every time Roo scratches his head he feels the hilarious urge to shout, “I’m only thinking” because we have zap, zap, zappety, zapped em so often it’s unreal.

Bit like stealth mode, prevention mode is the way forward. It’s not going to work every time – there are a couple of kids who are at our school whose parent’s literally just do not comb their hair (or so the kids say) so sadly re-infestation can happen, BUT we’ve been lucky to keep them at bay this term and this is how:

1.) Nitty Gritty nit comb.

Every night (yes, every night) I give the boys a once over with a nitty gritty comb. Tenner says you never thought you were going to be spending £10 on a bloody comb when you first felt those tiny kicks of joy during pregnancy.

2.) A natural nit-prevention conditioning spray.

There is a lot of discussion over whether or not these work, but we’re using one any way and as I haven’t had any problems with headlice this term, it seems to be working! We are using Kit & Coco protective spray because it is all natural, and doesn’t contain any of the nasty stuff that I really don’t want to dose my children with daily. I’ve been using it since the beginning of term and I’m genuinely impressed so would highly recommend it – especially above brands like “Lyclear” and “hedrin” which were useless last year.

3.) Braiding long hair or cutting hair short.

The boy’s used to have long hair, and honestly they didn’t want it cut at first BUT it is one of the ways to guarantee that nit’s will be easier to control. So the boy’s glorious locks of his have been sacrificed to the nit gods because we didn’t want a re-appearance. If your little one likes their hair longer and they would be happy for you to comb through then it won’t be an issue but I was told by a friend who is a doctor that the best prevention for nits is cutting the hair. Interestingly I discovered that braiding long hair is an old European/British method of nit prevention. My mum told me this when we were looking at old photos of her at school – all the little girls have braided hair! I’ve also read about this on several other blogs, so it’s seems to be a popular theory but as Edith’s hair isn’t long enough and my boys wouldn’t be happy to have corn rows, even in the interest of providing mummy’s blog readers with a good account of nit-prevention info, I can’t say one way or another if this is true.

5.) Treatments

Another Kit & Coco gem for us. I’ve only ever found Derbac to work from a chemical perspective and I found that it made Edith vomit and can only be used once every 3 months which made me feel super uncomfortable putting it on the kid’s delicate skin. Kit & Coco complete treatment is 100% natural, it’s made from coconut oil and genuinely seems to work for us, though we used our nitty gritty comb instead of the one that came in the set we were sent as I have never known it fail us. My one tip if you choose to use Kit & Coco (which I highly recommend for a safe and effective treatment) is to wet hair and stay out of the bath or shower. Reuben got some in his eyes and it was REALLY painful, which – in all my wisdom – I didn’t expect because it’s natural. Silly mummy.

So pretty much, nits are an ongoing struggles and there isn’t much you can do but try to prevent them and treat once they are knocking about.

To you my fellow parents, best of luck!! Any tips you can share with me?

Harriet x