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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think children with headlice that mothers refuse to treat should be sent home with a bottle of Hedrin

218 replies

MrsHeffley · 18/11/2011 19:55

and not allowed back until treated.

I type this as my dd 6 is shrieking and sobbing in the bathroom yet again whilst dp combs her hair.She was clear yesterday after several days combing,she came back today infested with several fully sized adults(quite clearly not recently hatched from missed eggs).

I have to treat my dd as it effects her concentration.She has waist length hair(always tied up) which she likes and wants to keep.We treat/check her hair regularly but it hurts and is expensive when we resort to Hedrin. It's affecting our home life.

There is one child in the class who continually has nits and never gets it treated.My dd likes her and wants to play with her but this evening just said she doesn't anymore after 2 years as she's fed up with us hurting her.DD watches the nits crawling on this girl in lessons.Many parents/kids know and I feel sorry for her.

I feel this PC do nothing attitude is contributing to the nits epidemic and does many children no favours. A quiet phonecall home like we had when I was little and the whole class would be nit free. Kids wouldn't need continuous painful comb outs and more importantly infested kids wouldn't have children avoiding them for fear of catching nits.

Hard hat firmly on.

OP posts:
Pixieonthemoor · 19/11/2011 08:54

Sorry - don't have time to read whole thread but just wondered if anyone had mentioned the Nitty Gritty repellent spray? It has tea tree, lavender and rosemary and does seem to keep the buggers away! Fabulous as I have another screamer - dd will say 'ow!' if I even enter a room holding the hairbrush!!

Olderyetwilder · 19/11/2011 09:00

We should have National Nit Day. Invite all parents into school, Government supplies Hedrin for all (or we fund-raise) make a fun day of it and get everyone who's likely to be in touch with nits treated at the same time. It would hugely reduce the pool of headlice, possibly even eradicate them!

Moln · 19/11/2011 09:02

Sometimes, as in our case, Foxy, the parent tells you as much.

Other times, when an infection is bad due to being left untreated, the lice are obvious.

It wouldn't be unusual to have to treat an infestation a few times. Nits are very easy to miss, they are so small, so whilst you may have rid the child of all the lice first time around, there will be nymphs noticeable in a week

I think the nymphs mature into lice in about a week or so. So a nit will be a egg laying louse in just over two weeks shudders

deemented · 19/11/2011 09:08

YANBU OP.

In the past six weeks i have paid out nearly £75 for hedrin to treat us all yet again.

DS2 has short straight hair. DD has mid back length curly hair. DS3 has short tight corkscrew curls. DSS has his head shaved. Manshape has very long very curly hair and i have shoulder length straight hair. It takes between three and four bottles a time to treat us all.

I am quickly getting to the point where if school won't bother having a word with the parents, then i bloody well will.

I am hearty sick of it.

Minus273 · 19/11/2011 09:35

I was told that schools weren't allowed to say anything as it was considered 'singling the child out' and therefore unfair. Was also told that the school cannot check or treat as that is commob assault. Don't know how true that is.

Strawbezza · 19/11/2011 10:01

I've heard similar Minus273, maybe a teacher can shed some light? Given that everyone knows a child isn't at fault for catching nits, how come the whole class has to suffer weeks of treatment and prevention measures, just because one infested head isn't treated? How is that fair?

My kids were at primary school 10-15 years ago and it didn't seem as much of a problem then - IIRC they got nits once. When I was at school in the 1970's we still had the nit nurse and I never got nits. Didn't know if anyone else did, again IIRC the nit nurse didn't announce who was infested to all and sundry, it was quietly dealt with.

jenfraggle · 19/11/2011 10:12

I loved it when the nit nurse came in. It was absolute bliss to have her go through my hair and never lasted long enough.

WhatFreshHellIsThis · 19/11/2011 10:25

Another vote for Vosene here - DS2's head is nit paradise, whenever he has got them they've invited all their mates and had a party. Since we've been using Vosene 3 in 1 we've had not a single infestation. Me and DP use it too Grin

valiumredhead · 19/11/2011 10:39

Interestingly I used to use Vosene as a kid and never got nits.

BRING BACK NITTY NORA THE BUG EXPLORER!!! Remember the nit and verucca nurse and you were checked in front of everyone and got a brown envelope home if you had either? - or both! We need to do that again, nits have become 'acceptable' and 'one of those childhood things you can do nothing about so you might as well not bother' which is rubbish!

StealthPenguin · 19/11/2011 10:58

I was "that nitty kid" in school :(

I caught them almost immediately going into Primary School and I ended up being bullied all throughout Primary and Secondary school because after three or four treatments my dad just stopped. My mother would try and treat us whenever she could but we only saw her once a month, possibly even less. It wasn't that my dad didn't have the time, because he did. He just didn't give a flying fig. I wasn't treated properly until I went to live with my mother at 15, and she couldn't believe the state of my hair. I had really thick, straight, auburn hair that reached the crook of my knees because hairdressers wouldn't go near me.

First thing she did was chop my hair off to shoulder-length and she then doused me in Vosene every single night. She combed through my hair every single night, slathered it with conditioner and then combed through it again! I had sprays, leave-in treatments, Hedrin, Full Marks... the lot. And I've been clean ever since. I'm now incredibly meticulous with my younger brothers' hair, and as soon as my DS starts school I'll be beginning the treatments. I don't want him going through the hell that I went through - it was horrendous. I used to use pens in school to scratch my head, but I'd scratch so much I'd bleed and my scalp would turn blue from the ink. It was fucking awful and I never want anyone to go through that.

valiumredhead · 19/11/2011 11:00

Oh stealth that is fucking terrible Sad x

StealthPenguin · 19/11/2011 11:04

It's partly why I don't have contact with my father anymore, and why I wouldn't piss on him if he were on fire and I were desperate for the loo.

He was a neglectful, abusive twatwad who only managed to get custody of me because he was on benefits and therefore got his representation for free. And he enjoyed almost bankrupting my mother by dragging her through the court.

StealthPenguin · 19/11/2011 11:08

And I agree!

Bring back Nitty Nora The Bug Explorer!! :D

valiumredhead · 19/11/2011 11:08

I am pretty sure constant nits are a red flag for teachers in schools as it can be a form of abuse, and after your post I can understand why! Dreadful!

Speaking to my sister in the US it seems they are generally a lot less tolerant and you will be sent home and not allowed back to school unless the school nurse checks the child is clear ( where sister lives any way)

Scoundrel · 19/11/2011 11:11

Another vote for a national nit day. Hell, let's make it international.

If everyone used hedrin on the same day then again a week later I reckon the problem would practically vanish.

Thank gawd my kids have outgrown the nit stage, poor dd1 suffered for years. As soon as we got rid of them they came back over and over again Confused

I got so used to it that I began to think that we'd be living with it forever and that it was some kind of urban myth that they stopped in secondary (largely) but by some wonder we haven't seen a nit in a good 18 months now Shock

tallulah · 19/11/2011 11:20

I agree that some children are particularly tasty for lice. I had 4 at school at the same time and it was only ever DC3 who caught them, over and over again. Although I always treated all of us once he'd got them, none of the others ever had a live louse.

Interestingly he went to a private school from Y3 to Y6 and was not infected once while there. I put that down to the fact that every boy carried a comb and combed their hair several times a day - can't think why else there were no infestations at that school (never had a letter home about nits either).

He went on to an all-boys grammar at 11 and the regular infestations started again straight away Confused

megatron, as has previously been mentioned lice can't develop an immunity to Hedrin because it suffocates them. Their immunity is to the older treatments that poisoned them.

I used to be a TA at a high school and we had one girl who was so badly infested that you could watch the lice walking across her head and down her face. And she had dark hair. I think the other TAs use to treat her when they could stand it no longer- her family never did :(

After reading this I'm itching like mad Grin Off to check DD's hair- timely reminder.

bilblio · 19/11/2011 11:29

UnexpectedOrange - I have extremely sensitive skin, and nasty patches of excema on my hands. I really struggle to find things that don't irritate them, but I have no problems with the Vosene.

I shouldn't have come back to the thread, I'm scratching again!

warmandwooly · 19/11/2011 17:20

I remember the nit nurse. She used to check her hair the day we went swimming so my lovely plait was pulled out

valiumredhead · 19/11/2011 17:32

biblio probably because Vosense is coal tar based ( well it smells like it is!)

EvilVampireFrog · 19/11/2011 18:54

My kids had nits constantly through the spring this year. What got rid of them was the Easter holidays and being away from the child who had them!

I have never, ever picked them up - not at school, not through years of teaching SN, not even while working very closely with a child who was crawling with them. It's weird. I put it down to the masses of garlic I eat. Grin

jchocchip · 19/11/2011 20:14

It is neglect if the parents refuse to treat / comb childrens hair and could be grounds for taking children into care.

hugglymugly · 19/11/2011 20:21

I think it is about time that attitudes were changed regarding nit infestation. I know that schools are under pressure about attendance (whilst not discriminating against pupils with headlice), but that shouldn't be to the detriment of parents who are continuously and desparately trying to eradicate repeated infestations.

Sending home generic letters quite clearly doesn't work for the very small minority of parents who couldn't be bothered. But from what I understand, sending home a specific letter and/or banning a child until free from nits isn't allowed. That makes no sense at all.

Maybe the government should re-introduce the nit nurse, and add the nit-infestation data to the school's Ofsted rating.

Tortington · 19/11/2011 20:24

the parent should be made to speak to the nit nurse - when they reintroduce it - in fantasy

Foxy800 · 19/11/2011 20:44

As well as treating her three times in 2 weeks I have been using tea tree shampoo and conditioner on her and combong her hair every time we wash her hair which is regularly.

It is a nightmare though that is made worse by people not treating their children's hair.

Foxy800 · 19/11/2011 20:45

I also agree with something like the nit nurse, maybe dealt with more sensitivley than when I was at school though.