lice...and nits

[momz]

I witnessed an irate mother today. She said she has been battling lice in her daughter's hair for months. She was upset because the child's teacher said the child is not lice-free, and the mother felt like she is lice-free. Turns out, there are no living bugs in the child's hair. But there are nits present. The mother says the nits are old, as evidence by the fact that they are further down on the hair shaft. She insists that viable nits are only located near the scalp.

Is this true? Even I could see the nits in the child's hair. I know I wouldn't want my child sleeping over at her house....but am I right to be concerned about that?

I don't know enough about it.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Unless there is a lice comb available, you will never know.

My dd has had lice twice and as much as I looked in her hair even with a lighted magnifying light I could not see the itty bitty lice that were there, probably a 100+ of them.

 

[Donaldswife]

Our school system has a "no-nit" policy in the handbook. If your school has something similar then the mother has to get rid of ALL the nits, no matter where they are located. She should get home and start "nit-picking" her daughters head.

 

[Mandychelle79]

Yes, typically ones found farther down on the hair shaft are most likely older and non-viable. When we were dealing with Lice we only worried with the nits closest to the head. Once we started doing that we were able to focus on the real issue, and got rid of them quickly. When we were trying to get all the nits out, we kept having recurrences. Getting her hair cut also helped.

 

[Orange County Girl]

If she's not getting all of the nits out that is most like why she has been battling lice for months. They can be anywhere on the hair shaft. My daughter had them and none of the nits were very close to the scalp. I picked through her entire head of hair daily until I absolutely couldn't find anymore. We had no re-infestations.

A very hot flat iron is also a great way to insure that nits are dead.

 

[aprilgail2]

Thats not true--my daughter had one live bug and three nits in her hair and all those nits were located in the middle of her hair- none near the scalp and they were not old- we caught them very quickly as her friend had just gotten them and shared with us.
We went to a nitpicker and within an hour she was free and clear of all bugs and nits and we never had a problem again!

 

[HeatherFeather]

Thats not true--my daughter had one live bug and three nits in her hair and all those nits were located in the middle of her hair- none near the scalp and they were not old- we caught them very quickly as her friend had just gotten them and shared with us.
We went to a nitpicker and within an hour she was free and clear of all bugs and nits and we never had a problem again!

Wait...was this an actual person whose job is to pick nits??? Really???

 

[JessicaR]

I witnessed an irate mother today. She said she has been battling lice in her daughter's hair for months. She was upset because the child's teacher said the child is not lice-free, and the mother felt like she is lice-free. Turns out, there are no living bugs in the child's hair. But there are nits present. The mother says the nits are old, as evidence by the fact that they are further down on the hair shaft. She insists that viable nits are only located near the scalp.

Is this true? Even I could see the nits in the child's hair. I know I wouldn't want my child sleeping over at her house....but am I right to be concerned about that?

I don't know enough about it.

Poor kid much feel like a science project.

Thankfully never had to deal with nits and lice. Sorry for those that have.

 

[southern_redhead]

According to our county wide school nurse any nit an inch or more out is dead. I don't believe that. I think the majority of them may be but I don't think that is true for all of them. We used to be a school system that sent any child with bugs/nits home and they could not return without the product box and a clean head check. Now we allow any child without live bugs to stay, not sure if that includes kids who have nits less than an inch away from the scalp but a kid with nits more than an inch out is just given a letter of warning to the parent that their child had lice at some point. I think this is because we have so many families who KEEP lice and these kids were missing a bunch of school so we just re-wrote policy. I wish it would go back to sending anyone with nits home. We seem to have lice in our school constantly now vs. a first of the year outbreak

 

[aprilgail2]

Wait...was this an actual person whose job is to pick nits??? Really???

Yes seriously LOL---- www.licebustersnyc.com - they were great! 11 of us went there- 4 of us were checked and did not have lice and the rest did- got treated in an hour without using any type of pesticides (won't put that on my childs head!) came home, washed the sheets, pillowcases, blankets etc and vaccumedand that was that. No washing sheets every day etc and they gaurentee their work. It was a bit pricey but I would gladly pay that anytime over sitting there picking nits for days and putting poison in my kids hair.
I didn't even have them and I was still scratching just thinking about it!! The lady at that place is great that does the nitpicking- she did rechecks on both me and my daughter and my friend and her daughter and did not charge us for the recheck and even gave the kids ice cream while they were there!

 

[Tinijocaro]

I had two kids come to their lesson (violin) last week and both told me they were out the day before for fleas (lice). They showed up yesterday and the one girl was scratching her head like crazy. I sent her to the nurse to get checked again.

 

[mickeyboat]

We have a no live bug policy at our school. DD had lice a year ago and I picked and picked and picked - day after day until I saw no more nits. I still look all the time, figuring if I find it early it will be easier to handle. I really think picking is the only way you will get them to go away.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

The kid still has lice. Even if they are that far down on the hair shaft, if there is more than one or two, there are lice present. The lifecycle is 10-14 days, that is long enough for hair to grow out from the shaft. She needs to comb every single day for the next 2 weeks.

 

[3boymthr]

Definitely - she still has lice. My youngest DS got lice a couple of years ago. Now, being a boy it was much easier to get rid of them as I took the easy way out and just shaved his head. I shaved his head the day I found the lice. One of the reasons I shaved his had was because he had tons and tons of nits and when I shaved his head many, many, many of the nits higher up on the shaft of the hair not just close to the head.

 

[JessicaR]

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/head/gen_info/faqs.html

Eggs that are likely to hatch are usually located no more than ¼ inch from the base of the hair shaft. Nits located further than ¼ inch from the base of hair shaft may very well be already hatched, non-viable nits, or empty nits or casings. This is difficult to distinguish with the naked eye.

 

[Piglets Mommy]

Yes seriously LOL---- www.licebustersnyc.com - they were great! 11 of us went there- 4 of us were checked and did not have lice and the rest did- got treated in an hour without using any type of pesticides (won't put that on my childs head!) came home, washed the sheets, pillowcases, blankets etc and vaccumedand that was that. No washing sheets every day etc and they gaurentee their work. It was a bit pricey but I would gladly pay that anytime over sitting there picking nits for days and putting poison in my kids hair.
I didn't even have them and I was still scratching just thinking about it!! The lady at that place is great that does the nitpicking- she did rechecks on both me and my daughter and my friend and her daughter and did not charge us for the recheck and even gave the kids ice cream while they were there!

WOW! That sounds like a great service! Fortunately, we haven't had to deal with lice here, but I would definately take advantage of something like that, as the idea of putting poison on the kids hair and picking at lice/nits for days on end makes me .

 

[Pikester]

According to our county wide school nurse any nit an inch or more out is dead. I don't believe that. I think the majority of them may be but I don't think that is true for all of them. We used to be a school system that sent any child with bugs/nits home and they could not return without the product box and a clean head check. Now we allow any child without live bugs to stay, not sure if that includes kids who have nits less than an inch away from the scalp but a kid with nits more than an inch out is just given a letter of warning to the parent that their child had lice at some point. I think this is because we have so many families who KEEP lice and these kids were missing a bunch of school so we just re-wrote policy. I wish it would go back to sending anyone with nits home. We seem to have lice in our school constantly now vs. a first of the year outbreak

I just discovered this year that our school no longer sends kids home since it's not a health issue. I understand that but I can tell you right night that it is no fun to have to deal with washing, drying and picking through your kids hair for hours along with all the other washing and drying that you have to do around the house.

 

[punkin]

I had two kids come to their lesson (violin) last week and both told me they were out the day before for fleas (lice). They showed up yesterday and the one girl was scratching her head like crazy. I sent her to the nurse to get checked again.

Fleas are not lice. Completely different and unfortunately I've had to deal with both of them.

 

[dyna]

Sorry nits are nits they not stayin in my kids hair no matter where I find them not taking the chance...

 

[tlbwriter]

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/head/gen_info/faqs.html

Eggs that are likely to hatch are usually located no more than ¼ inch from the base of the hair shaft. Nits located further than ¼ inch from the base of hair shaft may very well be already hatched, non-viable nits, or empty nits or casings. This is difficult to distinguish with the naked eye.

I'm willing to believe that nits farther down on the shaft are more likely not to hatch. But I'm not willing to say, absolutely, that they WILL not.