Head lice, would you send a child home?

THIS THREAD IS FROM 2010

As far as I am concerened anyone who has this should be sent home and MUST be treated and proven to be clear when they return (it's a simple as running a comb through a few times in front of the parent/ carer to confirm)
For one child to be passing this on to multiple other children is COMPLETELY unacceptable. Whilst I appreciate this may be an inconvenience for the parent concerned it is surely going to be more of an inconvenience if they are having to treat them every 2-3 weeks as it is being spread over and over again
So for all of those above who would consider the child being sent home as the childminder/ nursery not doing their job you need to take a long hard look at yourself I am afraid. Headlice are disgusting and parents/ carers need to take responsibility for it...even if that does mean taking a day of work!

Our LEA do not allow children to be sent home if they have lice and I know other LEA's who have this rule too. Parents are informed by a letter in child's bag and personally if they pick up at end of day. Instruction sheet for dealing with problem given to parent. I have been lucky that I have only got them once in many years of teaching.

Aww lisa your dd is gorgous!!!! :)

If you look at profile you'll see how curly her hair is!

Star behave you are trying to get me into trouble

lisa I have seen crawling. As I said hair was literally moving

it was horrible :( esp for the child

I know DD1s school sent one girl home as she was crawling with them (sick), but them her mum sends her to school with her hair down!

My DD1 has alot less now she is in Jrs, but shame as DD2 has thick, tight curls which is really hard to renitt !!

Ah see I was breastfed as a baby, so that's probably why I haven't gotten Lice ds is protected now, too.

Ew ew blick yuck to hair moving with lice.

So now you're saying sahm's are lazy?

What next? oooh benefits! Bf!

hey ho, its true

tbh the average family the mum doesnt work, so doesnt have cm/nannys/nurserys etc so its up to them to control

EVERY nanny i know is 100% diligent about head lice, as sure the cm and nurserys are, but does seem to me in my past experience that parents, well some parents (to be fair) just dont care and dont treat and send to school with the head literally moving!!

oh now look who's the risk taker! You may want to get that post deleted - you'll get flamed!

dont think more common, just more lazy parents lol

Is it more common in the UK?

you risk taker star , though i have also never had nits, but in nearly 20years of nannying, think EVERY family i have worked for has had it at one time or another

now that's living dangerously!!!

I've never had lice either, nor has DD2, but DDs 1 and 3 have. I think they like some heads more than others.

And I have long, thick hair, that I wear down 95% of the time

Perhaps. Perhaps they were missed when checked. But even so, I've never gotten it in 10 years

Glad my children aren't in your school starexpat.

I don't see why their education should be compromised because they have caught lice from another child whose parent didn't check or treat their hair.

I bet you've had far more than 3 cases of nits or lice in your school, you just haven't seen them

Glad I'm in a school where it's common practice to keep your dc off school for lice :) Only ever had 3 cases with this system. And all kept off school for a few days and it wasn't spread.

blondeshavemorefun it won't necessarily be over in a week despite treatment.

The life cycle of a louse is about 30 days, so combing will often only get rid of larger lice and not always remove the nits and nymphs (newly hatched lice). So they will then hatch and grow and may not be large enough to be removed for a couple of weeks.

starexpat children don't always scratch with lice, it's only itchy if there is an allergic reaction to the bites. Many children won't even know they have lice as they won't necessarily itch.

I agree parents should be combing and treating when alerted to cases of head lice but to exclude them from school is inappropriate.

initials can confuse

i often refer to my boss's as S&M (their initials) and once my friend thought i meant sado masochism

but yes nit combing to do a proper through job can take an hour a night, every night

I agree blondes. And thanks for clarifying. I should have known... D&V/S&D... duh.

It can become a health problem as it affects your scalp, can make it bleed from the scratching. It's something that affects your body and how can one concentrate when their head is itching like crazy?

I have never considered lice a "social problem". SO glad I don't teach in the British system. BLICK. I wouldn't be able to deal with my classroom crawling with lice.

If the proper care combing/treatment and time was taken to deal with the headlice, then it would be over within a week

the child goes back and then gets reinfected again with other childrens head lice

seriously bring back the nit nurse!!!

Head lice are a social problem not a health one so there are no grounds for exclusion.

Schools are no longer supposed to exclude children for head lice. An infestation can take weeks to clear and a child's education should not be compromised for something that has no health implications.

looneytune IMO your policy is spot on.