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I wish my dd's school had a school nurse who did nit checks. I'm so bored of her getting them - at least once a month. I'd probably do well in America

I've always yearned for a little business with a funky van I could drive around to do stuff I liked for money with my mates.

LIke being a plumber, but better.

you could have a huge louse picture with a smiley face and a jaunty hat on your van

*I ashamed to admit this but I don't how to do a proper check on DD hair, I check her hair but don't know what I am locking for.

She has bright blonde hair so please reassure me that I would have seen something.*

No you wouldn't necessarily have seen anything. You need to buy a nit comb and comb through conditioned hair. The large ones will be dragged out on the teeth of the comb and you can then see them.

If you do it once a week you should get new arrivals before there is a major infestation but they may still have laid a lot of eggs.

Going back to the OP's point about a conflict of interest. You can't say for sure that any child doesn't have them. If this company says they have removed one large louse from your child's hair you can't argue even of you find none. It may have been the only one there. You would still need to comb and condition for a few weeks as a precaution.

Yes, my head is itching now!

Thanks to this thread I had the worst night sleep ever up 1/2 the night itching.

America is a very big place with many different customs that vary greatly from state to state and city to city. Just like you might find different ways of doing things in England than in France or Italy, or perhaps even Kent to Newcastle. I live in Los Angeles and have not found the attitude or approach regarding lice at my dc's schools to be any different than what I experienced in London when we lived there. Although, I suppose I could judge the entire English population by the stupidity of ds's teacher in nursery who did a lesson on careers that involved all the kids trying on the same handful of uniform hats on the same day she sent home a note about lice in the class.

Itchy!!!

All sounds very extreme. Maybe the lice are a different variant. Tough ole critters...

I am old enough to remember Nitty Nora the Bug Explorer at school too. I didn't get headlice, in fact very fee pupils got the dreaded brown envelope on their desks. What has changed over the years, it sounds much more common nowadays.?

The US policy sounds a bit overboard though, and an excellent commercial idea.

Maybe ill set up in business as a mobile Nit eradicator same as the prev poster. ;)

My kids were at primary school in the Netherlands, I was part of the parent-volunteer nitty Nora crew, we checked every class, every month, and if we found lice that kid's parents were called to take them home. Sibling classes were rechecked. Affected classes were rechecked the following week.

Affected classes all got letters with instructions for de-nitting, freezing, boiling etc as mentioned above, and kids would put coats on hooks in plastic carrier bags. No stigma, so far as I know, in fact sometimes we would be called in to do extra checks because a parent had reported nits.

A couple of times we found nits on the teacher, usually infant classes where the teachers would be closer to the kids (sitting on knee for stories etc). Teacher would immediately go home for treatment.

Everyone knew who had the nits each time, no one made a big deal of it though. Tbh I'm quite surprised UK schools don't check.

Pixel, my experience is the same! DD1 goes to Special school and she had nuts for the first time in September. She's 7!

So there you go folks, save yourselves time and money -send your children to Special school

OP I agree. It's in this company's interests to feed the hysteria and back up the "urrrgh lice" attitude. Maximum disruption for parents, maximum shame and misery for children = more parents who will just throw money at it for the "experts" to sort out.

seeker, are you anywhere in the North?

Grew up in the US, and indeed this is the norm. I have 5 siblings and if the nurse found one of us with nits then we all went home immediately. Then there were noxious chemicals, painful combing, manic hoovering and anything we might have touched was boiled or bagged for two weeks.

Maybe the lice over there are more virulent/treatment resistant than the ones over here? I caught them in my 20's, and it took weeks to get rid of the feckers. They just would not die.

It doesn't say anywhere on that website how much it costs.......but they do look like quite expensive post codes they operate in!

I've always yearned for a little business with a funky van I could drive around to do stuff I liked for money with my mates.

LIke being a plumber, but better.

What happens in the US usually finds its way over here eventually. Give it 10 years or so ........

Oh I love de-fleaing cats. Mine is a big disappointment as he won't stand for it and gets very vicious if I try, so I'm forced to use Advocate on him.

I never had them either and don't remember knowing anyone else who did, but I do remember Nitty Norah the flea explorer coming to the school so I guess they must have been around.

seeker and Pixel I'm in if you'll have me. I nit comb my cat and we both love it. (Well, I flea comb her obv.) I'm sick of pumping her full of chemicals that don't work and a twice daily comb is the business.

StuntGirl, No, I never had lice as a kid either.

I think you have to accept it as part of the cultural differences in America OP. You could try going to the school with the info you posted and request your daughter isn't sent home, but I suspect they'll say something like it's school policy.

As an aside, I never had lice as a child and I don't remember a single other person having them either. Is the frequency children get them these days a new thing or was I just unusually lucky in avoiding them?

Does anyone else have an itchy head whilst reading this?

After the appointment you then need to comb out all the dehydrated nits (the eggs) and over the following week to 10 days comb out that potential 5% that comes through. The Hairforce Home Assassination Kit (available at The Lounge) will enable you to do this confidently and effectively

sojust nit combs then I could do it with my hoover and bug buster set myself up.

Mrs Jay, just looked at that link and sniggered a lot at 'lice assassins'.

I could be a lice assasin would I get a costume like a ninja

I suspect my parents would have gratefully forked over a fortune to a nit removal company in the 80s. My sister had it three times in as many years, and being in Canada, we did the whole bagging things up / boiling thing / eradicating every last one. (In fact I didn't know that wasn't the done thing here!)

I don't remember anyone ever being horrified by nits though. I used to get very nervous when we had checks, but outbreaks were not a rare occurence. In fact the first time my sister had them she got to go to the school office while waiting for our parents to collect her, where the headmistress spent two hours corn rowing her hair. She felt like the celebrity of the school!

Mrs Jay, just looked at that link and sniggered a lot at 'lice assassins'.

Also noticed that once they've hoovered your child's head and 'dehydrated' the lice , you have to do the rest of the work yourself, with a kit bought from them of course.
After the appointment you then need to comb out all the dehydrated nits (the eggs) and over the following week to 10 days comb out that potential 5% that comes through. The Hairforce Home Assassination Kit (available at The Lounge) will enable you to do this confidently and effectively

But, BUT, There is one of those places in the town where I live and I could do with another job! I wonder if I could keep a straight face long enough to get through an interview? especially considering the 'uniform'

I've just checked the policy for the County where my DS goes to school and it states children must leave school immediately if they are found to have Lice, they will be granted 2 days authorized absence to have treatment then must be escorted back to school by a parent and checked by the Headteacher before they will be allowed back in the classroom!

years ago my dd s had them from christmas till end of term in june I combed and combed and fecking combed and treated I would have paid for the lice hoover I was desperate and the DDs were miserable,

sorry but ARF at the louse buster you could get the dyson out and do it yourself lice cleaning companies I really have seen it all now