To think this child should have been kept off school (nits)?!!!

I'm not in the UK and it's absolutely shocking to me that kids aren't kept at home for something so contagious! I'm with you OP

Every day of my life as a primary school teacher, I washed my (short) hair each morning in the shower, quickly combed conditioner through it with a nit comb. That way if I picked up any lice, I would notice straight away. Combing conditioner through wet hair three times a week for two weeks is the most successful way of getting rid of nits in kids. Sunday night bath time was nit combing night for my own kids and if we found any, then we did weds and Fridays too for two weeks then back to just Sunday nights. All the way through primary school. It's just a fact of primary school life. No way would staying off be necessary or practical. No need for nasty, expensive lotions...boots tea tree conditioner was our go to.

I got sent home for having nits, think I was about 9 or 10, I'm 36 now.

If you work with children you have to wash your hands often and don’t put your fingers in your mouth. I’ve had threadworms once from a child in my class and it was hard to shift. Awful.

Even worse to get rid of. GS came back from a music festival and a month later he was covered. Pretty sure it was the festival as you don't get the rash/itch immediately. They happily tell you one treatment with the cream gets rid of them and you do another a week later "just in case." Four months later having spent a fortune on treatments not to mention the electricity we used for 60 degree washes and everything dried on high in the tumble dryer we finally won the battle. I never want to have to cover anyone's back with scabies treatment again. My hands are destroyed and I think I have contact dermatitis.

Apparently university halls are full of them at the moment, well six months ago.

No if kids were not in school spreading them the outbreaks would be much rarer. Schools weren't half empty years ago when it was normal for kids to be kept at home until the nits were dealt with.

If they can email all the nits, it might work.

Gosh Op
You need to toughen up if you plan on working with kids

If I noticed nits in the morning before school I'd probably want to keep my child off for a day to start treatment ASAP.

If I noticed them after school/evening/weekend I would also treat with a nit shampoo or something and then send to school the next day, even if follow up treatments were needed. Schools are so funny about attendance nowadays.

I don’t find the Nitty Gritty comb that good. The white plastic ones are better IMO. You can see the lice and eggs. The teeth of the comb also work better IMO again.

I find a week or two of conditioner combing every evening to start with works best. Then you can change to every other evening. I use small hair bands to section the hair into 6 sections, then comb through one section at a time.

If you do that for 3weeks and your child still has lice, then they’re being reinfected by another child. There’s usual at least one child who has lice constantly because their parents can’t be arsed to do the combing. That one child will keep a nit infestation going in a classroom for months.

Oh op, if only it was as simple as parents spotting nits, combing and treating.

Sadly there are too many parents who don't give a shit and won't look for, never mind invest the time (doesn't have to mean £££ on treatments) in treating nits.

In the worst case I've seen, it eventually turned into a safeguarding referral for neglect (with several other red flags) as the nits were heaving on the poor kid's head.

Just wait for all the other joys - anyone handed you a baby tooth or a big bogie yet?

They are itchy.

Emails aren’t a remedy for nits!
Well it obviously works, my DC have never had them, once the email arrives, the parents are good at getting on top of it.

It’s not a case of neglect here, family are well to do and are quite nice people!

I hope you have better safeguarding training soon. I’m absolutely not saying this child is neglected but don’t make assumptions that because a family seems well to do and nice that the child couldn’t be neglected. It isn’t just “poor” people that neglect their children. Stereotypes like this can potentially be dangerous.

Emails aren’t a remedy for nits!

Nits can only crawl they can't leap. If you have had no head to head contact, you won't have caught them from her. If you do have nirs maybe you were the one who infected her

NRTFT, but cover your scalp and hair either in oil (anything will do) or conditioner. If you have tea tree oil use a few drops of that too. Massage it in and leave it in for a few hours. This will suffocate the fuckers.

You'll need to repeat this a few times every few days.

I caught a bad dose of nits from a wee girl who took a shine to me and was sat on my knee. I hadn't realised the abundance of white dots in her hair were nits/eggs. I only got really itchy a couple of weeks later so mine had escalated before I'd even realised I had them!

Don't worry though, I managed to get totally rid of them in 7 days.

Get a nit comb too to regularly use.

Yabu. You can't keep a child off for nits.

Scabies anyone

Same, I am not from UK, kids absolutely stay home with nits and we don’t have them constantly circulating! I only know one person who had them one time as DC and only have one friend who has had their own kids get them.

I’d be disgusted too OP

I haven't noticed threadworms in quite some time, whether there are a few of them floating around, I don't care to know.

And ringworm…….

Joys of teaching!

In our pre school they ask that children are kept at home until nits have been treated and child is clear. I personally think this is great, it's common courtesy. I for sure wouldn't send my DD in with nits, just to be safe we do a monthly leave in nit treatment, shampoo each time with vosene avs she goes in with hair up and repellent spray. Surely if everyone did regular treatments it would save a lot of hassle as it would be a preventative

I don’t really want to get technical but the combs only kill live lice, and some eggs (nits) will hatch into baby lice during the day.

I am a leading expert on headlice through research and lived experience. This is my final word on this matter.