Head lice - what to use and can school sort it at all?

Even if the school did do this it wouldn't overly work as some kids take multiple treatments to clear it so still have overlap where can pass it on. Also unnecessary if you just treat your child and repeat every few days with combing for good few weeks

Adults aboslutely do get infested. Lice are not bacteria that are dealt with by the immune system. You should treat everyone in the family and then a regular nit combing of school aged kids should reduce the chance of a new infestation. If you found 2 then there are more!

I have always had luck with Hedrin and nit comb.

Back in the day Nitty,Nora used to ,examine kids hair in school,for Nits.

I never found a treatment that worked. I used them all over the years on four kids, and when combing after treatment I’d always find one or two live ones that would have continued the infestation.

The only way I have got rid of them is combing with cheap conditioner, ideally according to the schedule here - http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/theliceprogram/theprogram.html

Hedrin,follow the instructions,do the whole family at the same time.

Hendrin or any other smoother formula do whole family washed pillow covers and re-do in a week time.

Then regularly check with a nitty gritty comb and if it's constant in school try the anti nit sprays/shampoos.

I found some parents moaning about constant re-infection were only doing one off treatment for affected child only then balming everyone else for re-infection.

I always thought cheap condition and combing though thoughly was more a checking thing or in conjuction with other treatments - as just combing is actually very time consuming and hard not to miss something across multiple kids and own hair.

Every term our primary school has a no-homework night. Instead, the children have a lice check. There's a form that parents have to tick that they have:
Washed the child's hair
Used conditioner
Combed and checked for lice and
Did or did not find any.
That then has to be signed by the parent and brought in next day.

All the people here saying it's not up to the school - the schools could definitely do more. Thankfully we've never had nits in the house and I'm only aware of one outbreak in the class in the last few years.

It’s absolutely bloody ridiculous that schools can’t speak to individual families. Not moaning about the schools they’re just doing as they’re told, but seriously it’s mad. It’s very normal, nothing to be ashamed of and it beggars belief that parents would be annoyed to be told! My child goes to a really small school and I know the staff very well as a result. I’ve said to the member of staff that communicates these group messages that if she’s ever aware that my child has them then to please let me know as I’d rather be told if I hadn’t picked up on it myself, and get them treated!

We’ve dodged them so far, I’m not sure how as they seem rife! But mine always wear hair up, buns or plaits, I wash them with tea tree shampoo and also they get a spritz of hairspray which I’m told helps repel them too so maybe that combined helps.

The world has gone barking mad. Are parents really such delicate flowers these days that they can’t handle being told discreetly that their child has nits? It’s neglectful to leave children untreated. Ffs.

Head lice are not in the school's remit other than notifying parents when there is a case in the class/year group/school (dependingon policy). Keep DD's hair tied back to limit contact and make sure she is cleaning under finger nails when washing her hands.

No, it is nonsense. Adults can get infected too. However, not all people get itchy so it might not occur to them that they are infected too.

It's just how it is.

I had four sisters - weirdly I think I only got lice once, but my little sister seemed to have them constantly. School would write home, and even called my Dad in on one occasion, but neither him nor my mum had any urge to sit and treat nits, so it didn't happen. We already had quite hefty social services involvement but they didn't really care about this either.

It's a bit of a goodwill system... good parents will treat because they don't want their children to have headlice. Some won't, for a variety of reasons - the treatments aren't the cheapest these days, either, and I've seen posts in our local Facebook group saying doctors have refused to prescribe it.

All you can do is stay on top of it for your daughter, keep her hair tied back, and teach her to keep her head away from other peoples.

The electric nit combs are good.

You really don’t need chemicals (which are becoming less effective due to overuse). Just conditioner, fastidious combing and a knowledge of the life cycle of the lice
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/head-lice-and-nits/#:~:text=Do%20wet%20combing%20on%20days,of%20lice%20on%20day%2017.

Our immune systems keep them at bay? How? Could this explain why neither I nor my children ever got them?

Same!

Old thread but I had them once as an adult

All you need is conditioner, a good comb, patience and knowledge of the lice life cycle (see link for which days to comb) so you're combing at the right times to get all of the eggs / new hatchlings (and a school full of like minded parents!)

www.nhs.uk/conditions/head-lice-and-nits/

I took my boys to the hairdresser, warned about the lice and asked to cut the hair as short as possible. She never blinked an eye

What now?

And this is why schools are riddled with fucking headlice because people believe stupidity like this..

Your immune system can do fuck all about a parasite like headlice. Absolutely. Fuck. All.

They are not a virus or a bacteria. They are a parasite. Adults absolutely do get them.

We're currently trying to get rid of them, it's been weeks.

I've tried 5 different treatments that all claim to kill lice and eggs, I have 4 nit combs of various brands, I use the combs every single day on both children, wash bedding twice a week, have a different brush for each child, use tea tree shampoo, put tons of conditioner in and am still finding them.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to get them clear once the 6 weeks holidays are here and they're not mixing every day.

I wish they'd come up with a treatment like the Frontline flea drops for dogs and cats!
They both need to go to the hairdresser but I can't take them until we've got rid of the bloody headlice

Yes of course the school have all the time in the world to “sort out” the head lice issue……. Just condition the hair and use a nit comb every night until they’re gone and then check hair regularly thereafter. Part of parenting.

Once you have got rid of them, wash you child's hair in tea tree shampoo, I used to use it on my kids all through school, every time I washed their hair and they never caught them, apparently they don't like the smell.

Worth remembering that only 1 in 3 people who get headlice get an itchy scalp. Lots of people don't, so aren't aware they or their dc have them. DS2 never scratched his head when he got them

"You don't have to use the pesticide shampoos"

There aren't really pesticide shampoos any more. Lice became immune to them. The current products like hedrin etc, all work the same way - a concentrated dimethicone that coats & suffocates the lice.

Dimethicone is literally the exact same thing put in lots of ordinary conditioner.

No product has been evidenced to really kill all the eggs. Where people go wrong is treating once, then doing a cursory comb each weekend for a couple of weeks. This won't work & you'll keep "catching them again". You need to accept its a minumum of 3 crap weeks of spending ages combing the hair thoroughly in sections every 2-3 days. And thats if you are getting them all. If you are missing even one, you need to continue longer than 3 weeks.

The best solution would be if everyone was routinely combing each weekend.

Plaiting hair tightly really helps prevent them.

With my older children, I found that the one who has really thick hair was the most difficult to treat. The poor thing would catch it from her younger sister who was easier to treat but still at primary school. In the end, the only thing that got rid of it was to actually comb a treatment right through her hair.

My youngest dd is currently in a nursery where they keep getting cases of nits and it's likely to be one particular child by the tone of the emails. All of the other parents are a bit sniffy about it because it's a 'posh' private school. I've been using the Vosene shampoo and defence spray. It smells really strongly of eucalyptus. You need to buy the right one though.