GETTING DOWN TO THE NITTY GRITTY

Can you please help me. My daughters who are seven and five have nits. They keep getting nits – I am at the stage where they seem to have had them for a year on and off. I treat them all the time, I wash all the bedding and clothes and I think they are away and the next thing I see one hopping on the head of one of my kids. I think my sister’s kids have them but she seems to be ignoring the fact. Anyway even if that is not the source, what can I do? How can I get rid of these horrible beasts for once and for all? Please help me.

WHEN your email landed in our inbox this week, so many memories (most of them unpleasant!) came flooding back from when our two girls, roughly the same age gap as yours, arrived home from school with the dreaded nits issue.

And obviously we two being hairdressers added to the dilemma, meaning many nights of Mrs S washing, conditioning and fine combing the hair of each of our two girls for hours on end. If any children’s welfare officers were passing by our house on those nights, there would clearly be cause for investigation based on the regular screaming and tantrums, shouting and arguing and general meltdowns amidst the nightly routine of nit patrolling.

In her absolute pursuit of the irritating little beasts there was regularly an almost joyous outburst of ‘GOT ONE’ when Mrs S located a live parasite and duly disposed of it.

Like you, it seemed like this endless battle of wits — or should I say nits — went on for years but in reality it didn’t and the head lice, like a lot of issues with young children, moved on and we moved on to other problems.

But when in the throes of an invasion it can feel almost like a pandemic in terms of its allconsuming effort to finally rid the house of these unwanted visitors.

So let’s get a few facts straight — the personal hygiene of you and your family is not at the centre of this particular attraction of lice to your girls and in particular their scalps and hair. Head lice live on human blood — as far as we know they have no particular favourite type of blood, they are pretty harmless in most cases but using your children’s scalps and hair as their habitat can have some unpleasant effects on your kids, particularly itching.

And when this becomes unbearable, minor scalp irritation can cause infection if persistent. The head lice themselves can’t fly or jump — in fact the only way it can be spread is by direct contact, which is almost impossible to stop in young children. Also the lice can attach themselves to items of clothing and during winter this is an even bigger problem with hats, scarves and coats very often in close contact with other children’s clothes which ultimately continues the spreading cycle.

So it would seem that there is an endless vicious circle to the getting the problem under control and ultimately eliminating it forever.

The reality is that some basic but effective strategies have to be followed to insure that all corners are covered in terms of finding the source of the problem.

If you are taking every precaution on your side to tackle the problem with your children, in terms of regular washing, treating and fine combing the hair (which can be painful and frustrating but absolutely essential in terms of locating the parasite and its eggs) and ensuring that there is no shared clothing ,bedding, towels or otherwise and that all these items are washed and stored separately, then it’s likely that constant re-infection is coming from an outside source.

You have already identified cousins whose parents have a less cautious attitude than yours — a conversation with the family members via a WhatsApp group or similar may result in a more combined effort to attack the problem from all angles.

Of course it’s important to be subtle in these situations, even though we are much more tolerant of this issue than we were when we were all growing up and before.

However, it is still a sensitive subject. In our situation we took the lead — as hairdressers we approached the school, family and friends informing them of the infestation and that we had taken every possible step to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately this caused some upset with missed birthday parties, ballet and other events or social gatherings where the spread could be continued, but it also made other parents vigilant and set up a really good network of information and advice.

Ultimately, though, you really can only be responsible for your own family, and many of the head lice products and tools including electric combs are ineffective.

You might find that some specific head lice targeting shampoos also don’t work for you and in fact in some cases they can be harmful to the hair and scalp and can cause irritation.

In worst case scenarios these can make existing scalp infections worse. Avoid products that contain permethrin, and plant oil treatments, such as tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil and lavender oil herbal remedies. Head lice “repellents” are also usually ineffective.

Your GP may advise using medicated lotions and sprays. These kill head lice in all types of hair, and you can buy them from pharmacies, supermarkets or online, fine combing will remove the dead lice and their eggs.

If these treatments are ineffective a pharmacist may be able to advise on other treatments that are suitable. Unfortunately, this is often a case of trial and error and above all else, persistence.

WE must remember that this little beast is pretty difficult to get rid of. They have been around for some 100,000 years, plaguing every generation after generation, it’s unlikely we will be seeing the back of them any time soon, but the stigma embarrassment and shame of ‘nits’ has long gone.

But the discomfort and in some cases real pain to our loved ones can be distressing and difficult to address, speaking to our children in a simple effective ways that help them understand the problem themselves, giving them a sense of awareness of what they need to do to help irradiate the source of their irritation, being open with our children will make the problem feel less of a dirty secret and give them a sense of involvement and empowerment in tackling the problem collectively with you.

Teaching them the basic guidelines in terms of combing their hair what to look for and how to care for their clothing can only be good practice moving forward. Good hair care and scalp awareness is not something we need to discuss with our young children as a matter of urgency but health in all its forms is.

Viewing head lice as an opportunity to discuss personal health and well-being may be a good start in life for parenting and our relationship with our children in general.