The first time I encountered nits as a parent I missed it completely. My oldest had just started school and I was cuddling his younger brother after day care and commented on how much dandruff he had, making a mental note to give his head a good scrub in the bath that night.
A few days later I happened to glance down again (when he stopped moving for a second!) and saw the ‘dandruff’ was still there. Puzzled, I tried to brush it out and it wouldn’t budge. Stranger still was that they were all roughly the same size and looked like a miniature rice grain.
The horror hit me, could it be nits?! In the house, potentially on everyone, everything. Nothing about schools checks and having random parent helpers trawl through my hair in the 80s prepared me for what to do.
Little did I know it was about to become an ever-disheartening battle between us and nits.
Sometimes I was lucky – the nits notice came home, and I managed to catch the nits before we had a full-blown explosion. It got to the point that we had spent mega-bucks on one of the electric sucker combs which were great for live lice, poor for egg removal and total money down the toilet for a kid with sensory issues.
Eventually, exhausted with fighting, we gave our oldest the option to keep trying with the smelly shampoo or have his head shaved. He chose head shaving and wouldn’t you know it, the school photo notification came out the next day.
Nowadays it’s about vigilance - if a kid scratches, or I see a piece of sand or dandruff I jump. If there’s a few eggs you’ve got a great chance of getting them out before you see any live critters crawling around and I’ve thwarted many a decent infection that way.
Problem was I didn’t have a whole heap of time and my kids weren’t thrilled being pinned down so I could paw through their hair every day for a week. Nits were not cool and associated with gross shampoo, boring still time and itching, with occurrences feared by both parties.
When I developed ISpy glo-powder, it was for me, and for them. I could quickly and easily confirm or deny nit eggs and if they were there, I was able to whip them out quickly whereas the boys immediately bonded with the idea of glow in the dark bugs and playing spies with invisible writing. I also realised how important it is to educate our parents and caregivers – even if you had nits as a kid, you didn’t get to fully appreciate what they look like, their behaviours or their lifecycles.
Now we’re all engaged in the process and there’s no negative associations which has been a total gamechanger and I truly hope it can be for you too.
