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Original poster

To think they should bring back nit nurses?

388 replies

Rachtoteach · 21/02/2012 10:10

First day back after half term yesterday. A nice, lice free half-term I should add. Doing my little girl's hair for school this morn, she is caked in nits and eggs. I couldn't send her into school - how could I when it would then have just spread and I would have been as bad as the mums I moan about who dont appear to give a toss. I had to take my son in anyway so went into talk to my daughter's teacher. I expressed my upset that it has now come to the point (headlice has been going on and on and on since Sept) that I have felt the need to keep her off school. I know its not the teachers fault. She said unfortunately some parents simply dont treat/check and until whole class is treated at same time, problem will continue. So for WITW I have bought yet another treatment which has to be applied over night and washed off in the morning. I have my daughter at home (she is 5) and I am supposed to be at work. I really think they should bring back nit nurses so all children are checked and treated!!

OP posts:
GetOrfMoiiLand · 21/02/2012 12:37

I swear I read on MN once that a mother used the cat's frontline on her kids and it worked a treat.

Did I make that up I wonder?

Anyway, for DD derbac, plaits and hairspray worked.

Plus when they hit adolescence it all goes away anyway. I think nits run like crazy from pubescent kids.

LilyBolero · 21/02/2012 12:39

I think sadly nits are endemic in primary schools. We work on a basis of never fully getting rid of them, despite intensive treatments, combing etc, I always assume that the job is 'not done'. Every so often they have LOADS of them which is really awful.

I hate them. Generally I will be sad when primary days are behind us, but I will not miss the nits.

valiumredhead · 21/02/2012 12:40

getorf it's the smell of Lynx - drives them away Wink

TroublesomeEx · 21/02/2012 12:42

It's true.

DS hasn't had a single one since starting secondary school. I used to comb his hair daily, now it gets done weekly (just in case) but not even a sniff of a nit.

MrsHeffley · 21/02/2012 12:42

Yes but if you comb,you can comb them until they're free and if you miss one egg that hatches-bingo!!!!!!!

Some of the lice can be microscopic too.I once combed my dd for weeks and thought we'd cracked it then just to be on the safe side put a speck you could hardly see I saw in the sink(I always fill a sink so I can see if numbers are going down but rinse the comb under a running tap and wipe just to be sure every time)under ds's pocket microscope said speck you could hardly see turned out to be a nit.On closer inspection(magnifying glass) there were a couple more in the sink which must have literally just hatched out.Seriously you need a degree in zoology(and serious inclination) to get on top of it.

The op may well have thought she was free and relaxed the regime over half term thinking there would no risk of reinfection.

This is why the combing doesn't work you have to be fanatical about it and even then it can make sod all difference.

And sorry there are several parents who simply don't give a stuff and whose kids are crawling with lice so big they'd scare an ant. They're no worse than the microscopic variety though-still causes weeks of time consuming shitty combing.

EdithWeston · 21/02/2012 12:46

I must say, I'm beginning to wonder if there is a new super-louse about.

When we've had them in earlier years, combing for a couple of weeks got rid of them, and we'd stay clear for a couple of terms.

We've had them on and off mire or less permanently since the autumn. I can't believe that my combing technique has deteriorated so much. And the number of nit threads on MN seems to have increased too.

So perhaps they've evolved, into a new super-clingy extra-small version?

GetOrfMoiiLand · 21/02/2012 12:49

at superlouse. I have visions of one of those ugly bastards in a superman costume.

Yes it is the overdose of impulse and lynx which kills 'em off. Grin

bigscarymum · 21/02/2012 12:51

I'm not sure why people think a nit nurse would help. Yes, it would help with diagnosis but surely most people know if they have them, it's the getting rid of them that's the problem. Is the nit nurse expected to pick every egg and louse out him/herself? I'd rather the school spent the money on teachers/books etc. Having said all that if the teachers know that a child is constantly crawling with them, surely the school should do something.

Soutty · 21/02/2012 12:52

Oh no, this is the first time we've had head lice (me included!) and I treated us all with Full Marks lotion, combed before and after, washed all the towels and bedding on 90, spring cleaned and disinfected all the brushes and combs and I assumed that was it! DS has really fine hair and I've just been trying to comb out eggs that I assumed were dead from the Full Marks treatment but they are going through the comb. I was going to treat us all again after 7 days and another 7 days after that - had no idea that nits could be resistant to chemicals.

Aggh my head is itchy again now. I am combing my own hair twice daily with conditioner, a total nightmare as I have really thick hair. Have to bribe DS with chocolate but it's pointless anyway as his hair is so fine, ditto DD.

Bring back the nit nurse I say, I never had nits at school and that was probably because when I was little she came in to school and washed all our hair with a noxious substance whether we had nits or not once a month. That kept the little buggers at bay.

MateyMooo · 21/02/2012 12:53

we have cracked the nit problem after stuggling with constant outbreaks for 3 years. i think it was a kid in DD class...

Sunday night routine.... bath 5pm, put a dvd on and start nit combing with nitty gritty and bog standard conditioner. by the time the DVD is finished so are we and its bedtime.

I hafta say... I only have 1 DD!

SoozyWoozy · 21/02/2012 12:53

We had a letter out before half term pleading with parents to check and treat over half term and then keep on top of it. We've had letter after letter saying again there is headlice in your child's class, please check and treat, if you need any help school will show you what to do / what they look like. Other than a nit nurse, I think that our school are doing all they can.

So, standing in line to go into class this morning my daughter is standing behind another girl with her hair in bunches... the girl's hair is dark brown... the parting in her bunches was thick with eggs and you could see the nits crawling around I have no idea why parents aren't taking responsibility for their own children - this little girl clearly isn't a case of one missed egg or nit, and how her mother could miss that amount of nits, I don't know. It takes me 2 hours to comb through my daughter's long, thick curly hair so I know how our evening will be spent! An extra check this week!

There was an article in the Daily Fail the other day written by a teacher who is looking after Reception children who haven't been taught the most basic of skills by their parents... if these people can't be bothered to teach their kids to use a toilet, read to them, basic hygiene skills etc etc, then what hope is there that they will be nit free??!!

Birdsgottafly · 21/02/2012 12:55

There would be no point in treating the children at school, for them to go home and sleep on an infested pillow.

Mine were infested continually through primary school despite daily night time combing and their hair put in plaits for school.

I don't think that there is an answer because there have been reports about lice becoming immune to the solutions. It is the scalp crawlers that cannot be removed by combing that are the problem.

Birdsgottafly · 21/02/2012 12:57

Soozy- according to most on MN those parents don't exsist.

hettie · 21/02/2012 12:57

are there honstly parents who don't treat even when they know about them? Considering how itchy the buggers are I find that really suprising (and mean). We've just had our first infestation and I know it's a pain with the constant combing but really....

valiumredhead · 21/02/2012 12:59

Yes hettie there really are - they just seem to accept them as part of every day life.

hettie · 21/02/2012 13:08

poor kids Sad honestly some people.... and it's not exactly rocket science to get on top of it is it.....

MrsHeffley · 21/02/2012 13:11

Seriously there are-from all walks of life.As an ex teacher I don't want to be that parent hence the hours of wasted time I put into getting on top of it.

I think a lot of people aren't prepared to put the hours into combing(who can blame them if you just get re-infected,have several children which you need to do at the same time otherwise it's pointless or they work long hours)so they do nothing as all you ever get is the miracle of the Nitty Gritty comb(big fat case of emperors new clothes if ever I saw one).

I'm the biggest organic fan out but sorry in this case I've reached the end.If we haven't cracked it by Easter I'm going for the pesticides-the stronger the better!!!!!!!

GetOrfMoiiLand · 21/02/2012 13:17

The myth of tea tree oil is the worst. That stuff does naff all.

I used to quite like combing dd's hair through with conditioner.

valiumredhead · 21/02/2012 13:20

I agree getorf

And yes while it's not ideal to have to use chemicals, are they really that bad? Confused

HopeForTheBest · 21/02/2012 13:20

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ on request of its author.

valiumredhead · 21/02/2012 13:21

My sister said it's the same where she is in the US hope

KalSkirata · 21/02/2012 13:22

I used to use oil. It suffocates the bastards. dd1 always had them constantly. And not just school, she caught them off home educators too. Boys never ever caught them (and both had waist length hair)
So with dd1 we would oil her wet hair every 2 days and comb them out to break the cycle as they hatched and before the new ones could lay eggs.
dd2 has not had them yet (in Y3) but she doesnt touch heads with other kids.

lollilou · 21/02/2012 13:23

I can honestly say that Vosene has been a godsend to us. My ds(9) kept getting them over and over again despite combing and chemical treatments. So I brought the Vosene shampoo and now every week I condition and comb through, then shampoo, he has been nit free from then and he has very long hair. We have the nitty gritty comb too.
As for the schools doing something I wonder whether they could have a no nit day with lots of info sent home.

OhChristFenton · 21/02/2012 13:24

I have tried Voseen's Tea Tree Oil spray and I thought it was working for a while but it must have just coincided with a lull in infestations, because it is most certainly not working anymore. Angry

Does the hairspray work ? I have sons but I'll try anything

Soutty · 21/02/2012 13:24

I've just done some googling and apparently head lice cannot become resistant to Full Marks as it's not a pesticide as such, it works by forming a layer around the nits and the eggs which cause them to dehydrate and die. You do have to repeat the treatment after 7 days though to ensure that any eggs which didn't get caught by the treatment and that have hatched get treated too.

Our school repeatedly tells us that head lice treatments are bad for the environment and all we need to do is comb with conditioner (arse to that) but that is just not effective if kids have hair that's too fine to go through a nit comb. All you'd be doing would be getting rid of the adult lice, they'd permanently have eggs which means they'd just be passing it from one to the other.

Going to try Vosene shampoo from now on as a preventative measure.