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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be angry at parents who do nothing about their kids' headlice?

144 replies

atthecarwash · 14/02/2011 20:03

I've just spent the last 45 min getting rid of the headlice and nits on my two youngest.

I've used a 15 min treatment plus conditioner and comb and it's the 3rd time in a month I've had to do this.

There are parents who simply can't be bothered to get rid of them and they are infecting everyone else. Aren't they disgusted by these pests?Am I overreactng?

OP posts:
izzybiz · 15/02/2011 08:13

My cousin works in a school and they ordered a bulk load of these and sold them on to parents, she has used them on her own DC for a while now and they have been nit free since.
Am going to invest for my two, got to be worth a try?

belgo · 15/02/2011 08:13

Trinity I used that method last year and after two months, gave up and bought the lotions.

Maybe they were being reinfested, I don't know, but at least they were clear for about a year.

belgo · 15/02/2011 08:15

Bonsoir my girls both have short, chic hair, but they needed to be totally clear before I dared step foot into the hairdressers or we would have been blacklisted forever.

belgo · 15/02/2011 08:16

The nitty gritty comb is agony in my hair, I can't bare to use it. I cannot be the only one?

kreecherlivesupstairs · 15/02/2011 08:17

Izzybiz, with all due respect that looks like a load of complete bollox.
It is very vague.

Northernlurker · 15/02/2011 08:18

DD2 had them just before Christmas. I was mortified as when I combed her hair it was a really bad case. Have never seen so many tbh. But she's in Yr 5, hadn't been scratching and having had years nit free I'd got out of the habit of looking. Obviously I treated immediately then.

Bonsoir · 15/02/2011 08:20

belgo - we have very fine blonde hair and the nitty gritty comb works very well, but the plastic combs that come with some of the delousing products are worse than useless. I can imagine that if you hair is thick/curly that the nitty gritty comb would be very hard work.

belgo · 15/02/2011 08:24

Bonsoir - me and my children are blessed with very thick hair, and believe me, if I were to use the nitty gritty comb on dd1, I would have to hold her down screaming. Even done very clearly on my own, hair it makes my scalp feel like it's on fire.

It works very well on dd2, because she has very short hair.

Most children in my dd's school have very thick, very dark hair, and most of them have very long hair, and that hair type is very hard to treat effectively.

SudashesaliveItakeyoutoher · 15/02/2011 08:27

Annie how lovely of you - I bet that child looks back when she's older and remembers how lovely MiniAnnies mum was and how she loved being at your house.

SudashesaliveItakeyoutoher · 15/02/2011 08:28

Aimee - sorry

belgo · 15/02/2011 08:37

Kreecher - I don't really agree with keeping children off school when they have nits, it would penalise parents like me who had a very important exam on the day I discovered the nits. (I did have some lotion in the cupboard but not enough for all of us).

I would rather see the cost of the best insecticide free lotions significantly reduced, and the nit nurse brought back.

BreakOutTheKaraoke · 15/02/2011 08:43

Ugh. My DD is a magnet for them. Long, thick blonde hair, lots of it, so the nitty gritty comb doesn't seem to work on her. Hedrin doesn't seem to be as effective on her now, I was literally at the pharmacy for the minor ailments scheme every fortnight for it. Now they say they want to see DD before they prescribe any- but when I have her with me they simply ask if I've seen live lice. What is the point of dragging her along for that?

So it's back to wet combing again for now. Every other night usually, takes about an hour, we both hate it. Problem is that I don't work set hours, and often will have a few 8 o clock finishes in a week, don't get home til half past, so its pretty much straight to bed for DD. Can't check on those nights, often by the next night theres bloody more of them! They seriously are controlling our lives at the minute. DD hasn't had her hair cut dor around 9 months, as we get her clear, book her in and by the appointment at the weekend they are back again.

belgo · 15/02/2011 08:48

Break - very similar situation with us, also the shifts work really gets in the way of being able to wet comb daily.

I feel guilty that my girls have short hair, but I feel even more guilty when they are screaming when I'm wet combing them.

MummieHunnie · 15/02/2011 08:50

My oldest used to play at school with a girl who gave them to her continually, it was so annoying, I was delighted when the said child left the school, the nit problem left with her, and they never were in our home again, her mother was well know in PTA, I never understood why she did not get rid of the nits in her child's hair effectively, maybe didn't know, no time, didn't care, could be many reasons.

Saggyoldclothcatpuss · 15/02/2011 08:57

I'm sorry belgo but I disagree. Having had to deal with a mindee who was constantly reinfected by the same child, I think you should have to stay home. You have to break the cycle! This poor child had lotions and leave ins and conditioner repeatedly.
Having been on a field trip with her class, I immediately discovered the culprit. The small girl I was allocated to accompany, was crawling! There was no excuse. She had fair hair and they were totally visible. Her hair was moving! I had just looked down at her. I hadn't got close and parted her hair. You could see them a mile off. The school did nothing and neither had her her parents. They would have to if she was banned from school!

belgo · 15/02/2011 08:59

I think you are mad if you expected me to miss an exam for the sake of one day waiting for nit treatment.

And I would probably have been chucked off the course as well, as the doctor would not give me a social leave note for my children's nits.

Guadalupe · 15/02/2011 09:04

It's not very nice for the child either.

One girl in dd's class in infants had so many it looked like her hair was moving and children wouldn't sit near her on the carpet.

Her mum did attempt to get rid sometimes, once she actually came to school with hedrin on Hmm but they were always back.

ivykaty44 · 15/02/2011 09:13

've used a 15 min treatment plus conditioner and comb and it's the 3rd time in a month I've had to do this.

That will be because they are not getting lice from other children but the nit eggs are hatching, the incubation period is 21 days. Your children are infected with the lice and it is not coming from elsewhere - but themselves.

You shoudl always treat your dc every 4-5 days after you find the first infestation and then continue to do this for another 3 weeks at least.

I used olive oil after I found it treated and prevented and had no further problems

superv1xen · 15/02/2011 09:17

no you are not over reacting

my dc have never had them, but i DREAD it, i am almost phobic about the thought of it and i would seriously freak out if/when they get them.

dirty skanky parents disgust me.

and i actually do not believe that they like clean hair as i make sure my DC are scrupulously clean, baths every day for both of them. and yet they have NEVER had them. and at my school i remember it was always the dirty trampy kids that had nits.

TrinityMotherOfRhinos · 15/02/2011 09:22

wow what a way to make friends and influence people superv1xen

so I'm a dirty skanky parent and my girls are dirty trampy kids

thanks for letting me know Hmm

kreecherlivesupstairs · 15/02/2011 09:26

supervixen, I am thinking of name chaning to dirty skanky and will call dd trampy for short.
I really don't agree with keeping her off if/when she is next infested, but their school their rules.
It will come in useful next week, she needs two days off when some visitors come so I'll just phone and say she has nits. Alternatively I'll just not wash her so she relly does look dirty and skanky.

5ofus · 15/02/2011 09:31

If so many of us agree that this is a real problem in some areas who is it that drew up the current guidelines on how schools handle cases of nits? - and how can we get these guidelines changed?

I'm feeling very fortunate we have never had them but I know it is a matter of time...

GnomeDePlume · 15/02/2011 09:31

God, flogging offence at the least. I dont see a problem with people getting them but I do see a big problem with not treating them.

If you are going to knowingly send your child into school with headlice would you please have the decency to hand out £5 notes to your child's friends to pay for the extra treatment.

Amieesmum · 15/02/2011 09:45

SudashesaliveItakeyoutoher thank you, i hope she does. Wish i could have done more for her though poor little thing.

supervixen i'm sorry? You Obviously didn't read my afore mentioned posts? I must obviously be dirty and skanky, to not only treat my child. But some one else's neglected child too.
It's proven lice like cleaner hair. The reason the "skanky" kids seem to have them more - is the "skanky" parents don't treat them. Nothing to do with clean hair.

Amieesmum · 15/02/2011 09:48

5ofus thats a good point and maybe should be looked into, although i'm feeling todays society has out grown the "nit nurse" which is a shame. I'd sit & de-louse every frigging kid in dd's school for free if it meant they were gone :D