I'm very concerned about viruses and lice at nursery

You need to say “headlice” not just “lice”.

Body lice are a completely different thing and a much more serious issue/indicator of neglect.

Lice are are part of nursery and school life. Get some clear spray leave in conditioner and nit comb. Go through once a week.
As for coughs and colds that's just qprt of normal life too

Now I have debilitating fear of insects, obviously that's one of the reasons I'm shocked this is considered the norm.

How debilitating because there is a chance you’re going to have to deal with them

But then again, am I unreasonable thinking that nursery has to address this issue somehow?

They are by handing everyone a note to say they have been found. Now it’s the parent’s responsibility to check their child’s hair and treat if needed.

Be it by implementing extra cleaning routines, or removing the source of this occurance, until they are treated and confirmed to have tackeled the issue?

Extra cleaning? It’s not a virus that can be antibacterial wiped away. As long as everyone regularly checks their child’s hair and treats if they have them that is all that can be done really. They can’t banish a child for a week or two until all headlice treatments have been done.

Yeah, unfortunately it’s pretty normal. It freaked me out too when my son (now 9) started nursery when he was 1. I felt the same but having had two go through nursery and now school it’s kind of how it goes.

If I was able to, I would keep mine off nursery if I thought there was something going around.

I’m a little longer in the tooth and chilled about it now.

My daughter started school in September. She was off school last week with hand, foot and mouth, tonsillitis and according to the Dr ‘a third, run of the mill virus’. Both the school and Dr told me there was no policy in terms of her returning to school with h,f and m but I kept her off because she was quite poorly and I am self employed so I’m fortunate that I can be flexible and do my bit to reduce the spread.

Wait until you have to deal with threadworms, that’s a whole other ick 🤢

In the nicest possible way you need to relax a bit otherwise nursery/school, etc is going to be an absolute nightmare for you. I’d probably get some therapy for your fear of insects too, toddlers love picking spiders up and bringing them to show you 🙈

My sons both go to nursery, if I didn’t send them every time they had a sniffle then they would never be there especially my youngest who gets a runny nose and rash around his mouth everytime he gets a new tooth and has bad hayfever so spends much of spring/summer with a runny nose and cough despite piriton…he literally would never be there if I kept him off for this. I wouldn’t send him if he had a high temperature or D&V or a rash that is different to his usual teething rash.

As for lice, it’s unlikely you will find a different nursery where they’re completely ‘lice free’. A lot of the kids will have older siblings who will have picked it up at nursery and passed it along. The nursery have down something about it, they’ve put a sign up informing parents to keep our eye out to keep on top of it, they are not going to exclude a child for this…same as a primary school will not exclude a child for this.

I absolutely agree they shouldn't be giving calpol and sending the child in without saying anything, especially if the nursery has permission to give calpol without calling. That's incredibly stupid of the parents.

Sometimes it might be fine to give calpol eg if teething, or if they had a vaccine the day before - basically anything mild and non-contagious. Obviously they should let the nursery know though.

Nursery had lice recently and I pulled my daughter out for 3 days because we were about to go on holiday.
They always do extra deep cleanings when anything like this happens and work hard to prevent hat sharing etc.
But its a nursery, the kids get up close and personal, they're always going to catch things off each other, even when they're not showing symptoms yet.
It's very difficult to control.
The first winter I found the hardest, but it gets easier as their immune systems build up. There is always like a solid month in the winter where your kid will have a constant runny nose or cough though and no one can take a month off work because their kid has a cold.

My DC didn't have constant illness and lice in nursery but we chose a fully outdoor setting.

Plenty of viruses and lice once they started school!

You are going to have to toughen up and start living in the real world @greeny369.
It’s nothing to do with the nursery. Every single nursery and school is the same. It’s what comes with having kids.

And molluscum

Oh dear. You're going to have to unclench or you'll end up a gibbering wreck before the school stuff is done.

Kids are cesspits. They need to go through it to build up their immune systems. You could always get into the habit of checking for lice before they take hold and worm regularly. Other than that, it's just one of those things.

My kids have avoided lice but they’ve had plenty of viruses: even impetigo! We’ve had threadworms many times as well which is horrible, I had them while pregnant and you can’t really treat them in the same way. Not a fun time.

It's important that children get exposed to minor colds and viruses in order to build up their immune system. The same goes for a bit of dirt and dust.

Mum of 2 here. My ds spent most of last winter with a runny nose. He was absolutely well in himself but if I kept him at home he wouldn't have gone to nursery for months. This year he has been better because his immune system has matured.
My dd is at school and has only ever had nits from school. It's a part of being a parent I'm afraid. They will get ill and they will probably get nits, its something that every Parent has to deal with.

My daughter works in a nursery. They sometimes have children dropped off who have been given calpol and the parents haven't said anything - just dropped them and hoped for the best as they head off to work. Then nursery have to deal with an unwell child, often screaming the place down. And if they are sick, it's all pink so they know they were given calpol. And then that's a safeguarding issue because if they gave the child calpol (they are allowed), it could mean an overdose....basically parents often bring unwell children in. You might be better off with a childminder tbh.

You will never avoid viruses and lice if your child is mixing with other children, nursery setting or not.

Young children have runny noses generally constantly between the months of October and February in my experience, it's unrealistic to expect them to be kept off when not otherwise unwell. I've had 2 kids through nursery and they've never caught worse than a cold. There was hand foot and mouth recently and my youngest avoided it! We've had an almost monthly letter home from the primary school saying there have been headlice detected in my child's class and to treat accordingly if any live lice found.

I give them decent multivitamins and keep off when vomiting and for 48 hours after, but other than that mine have gone to daycare and have a decent immune system now.

@Itsmahoneybaloney thanks! 😊

The OP hasn’t returned poor woman probably came on looking for a solution to just nits and colds and now we’ve introduced her to worms!

Remember before covid when people went to work with coughs and colds and no one thought anything of it?

People get sick, kids get sick. Not all sickness is a reason to isolate. We've just had a bout of hand foot and mouth. Now THAT was shit. And yes i kept her home for 9 days!!

OP, I think the issue may lie with you, rather than with your nursery. Can you look into getting some help with your fear of viruses/insects? It may also be that your fear of your LO catching these things is mostly built on fear of the unknown and that a couple of rounds of viruses of unknown origin and a go of head lice and you will find that these are not nearly as dreadful as you imagine.

OTOH, my kids (five of them) only got lice once, collectively, during all the school years). That was fun. But they never got them before or since, so we got it all out of the way in one go.

All part of childhood and parenthood

Also OP, places that can be better ventilated with fresh air help reduce illness. As do HEPA filters (they're cheap to run). Could be worth speaking to nursery about putting a HEPA filter in, or donating one, or class fundraising.

Indeed my kids never had nits ,but they did have thread worms 🤮
I would have preferred nits.

Kids catch viruses, lice and worms all the time. This isn't anything to do with the nursery or any other childcare setting. It's simply because children - including your own - are basically a magnet for disease and parasites. You need to accept this. Your child's nursery can do absolutely fuck-all to prevent head lice, unfortunately.