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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
SoozyWoozy · 21/02/2012 13:29

My best treatment so far was recommended by a child minder...

Add tea tree oil to shampoo and conditioner. Comb conditioner through, in sections, with nit comb. (I have one of those long-toothed combs which doesn't rust). Rinse it all out. Next step - Rinse through with a handful of malt vinegar.

I have honestly only had to use this treatment once and then combed through the day after, then every two days - and had clear hair on each comb through. I'm not sure if its the acidity of the vinegar that helps or if it stops them sticking...

5Foot5 · 21/02/2012 13:30

seeker "It's often people like the op who cause the problem. If the child is 'caked in lice and eggs" after one day of school then she has actually had them for a while and was probably spreading them before half term."

Agreed!

I am actually dubious about the claims for the effectiveness of Nitty Nora. I remember when I was a child that the nit nurse spent 2 or 3 minutes inspecting dry hair with her fingers - no comb. IME you really need to have damp hair and a proper comb and lots of patience to check a head properly. If you can see the lice or nits in dry hair in the way the nurse examined you then you are either very lucky or this is one really infested head.

If its any consolation it seems to get less common as the children get older, presumably because they don't play in that "heads all together" way. And the length of time a teenage girl seems to spend grooming her hair I doubdt anything could survice....

jeee · 21/02/2012 13:34

After yet another infestation, DDT seems an increasingly attractive option....

KalSkirata · 21/02/2012 13:36

i dont think repellants work. Lice cannot fly or hop. They crawl. And once they have crawled on I doubt they take a sniff and crawl off again cos they need another head!

MrsHeffley · 21/02/2012 13:39

I got the Vosene shampoo and spray after the last thread and it definitely doesn't work.If anything it's worse,have now resorted to the big bottles of cheap conditioner as we're combing so much.

Debsbear · 21/02/2012 13:40

Best way to get rid of them is to treat every four days for just over 2 weeks. (Until the next time) and make sure that the whole family is treated at the same time. I wouldn't even bother checking the rest of the family's hair. If your daughter had that many then I'm afraid it is very unlikely that the rest of you haven't picked up a couple and it might be very difficult to find them. Far better to just treat everyone. The lifespan of head lice is about 10 days, and they will lay 10 eggs everyday from 4 days old. If you treat the hair and kill all the live lice, the chances are that the eggs will still hatch, so you need to kill all newly hatched lice before they reach maturity. AN egg takes up to 2 weeks to hatch, so by treating every 4 days for 2 weeks you should get rid of them all. Check everyone's hair very carefully at teh end in order to be sure you haven't missed any as the whole thing will just start all over again.

valiumredhead · 21/02/2012 13:42

I can inspect dry hair - I am now an expert, I can spot one a mile off Grin

Also if you check in the sun light, it shows up the eggs!

clam · 21/02/2012 13:43

Actually, with regard to Head Teachers "doing something about this," ours invited a particular family in after school one day to deal with all the dc's lice. Two TAs and the HT washed, conditioned, combed etc... like mad, put old uniforms in the bin washing machine and provided "new" ones from lost property (un-named/unclaimed). There were a couple of follow-up sessions too. This was all to show the parents what should be being done at home.
Now this was a "needy" family, who actually welcomed the help (although they didn't keep up with it subsequently and all the kids were re-infested afterwards) but I'm wondering how many families would accept such an offer from school.
I can just see the AIBU boards now, with insulted MNers furious because their dc's school had "humiliated" them in such a way.

GetOrfMoiiLand · 21/02/2012 13:43

Shove a load of Debac M on for a few hours.

Kills everything.

It can't be that bad for you, fgs. It is also used to treat scabies (so is applied straight to the skin) and crabs (so applied to mooey).

I also don't get the hand wringing about 'chemicals'

GetOrfMoiiLand · 21/02/2012 13:44

Mind you I always very LOUDLY proclaimed that I was buying the Dermac for headlice when purchasing from pharmacy Grin

Yousaidwhattt · 21/02/2012 13:45

As has been said. The irony is, it's people like op who actually spread them.

If the head was "caked" in nits and eggs. Then that's not a recent infestation, it's probably more like weeks.

So the ops child was probably one of those spreading them round school before half term.

Not treating nits for weeks, is half the problem, you need to be ontop of it.

More rigorous checks from parents is all it needs.

GetOrfMoiiLand · 21/02/2012 13:47

Ah I think the OP is guilty of hyperbole.

There was probably one louse and a couple of eggs.

valiumredhead · 21/02/2012 13:47

I also think that the chemicals can't be that bad if they are sold to put on kid's heads. I have never heard of anybody coming to any harm after using them, although I will wait with bated breath while someone posts about their second cousin's great aunt once removed who had a HIDEOUS reaction Grin Wink

GetOrfMoiiLand · 21/02/2012 13:49

Where is the OP anyway?

Journo writing an article for the Express 'mothers demand return of nit nurse after louse infestation reaches epid proportions'

Poor people need to be shamed into keeping clean. It is a myth that lice like clean hair. Evidence suggests that the education of middle class children is being disrupted by itching. Distressed mothers are starting to hit back.

Bossybritches22 · 21/02/2012 13:49

I'm an aromatherapist and have used tea-tree & peppermint in a shampoo very effectively for years, it has to be good quality oils added to a basic shampoo.

I'm not saying it kills the little feckers just prevents them coming back after you've cleared the head. Grin & helps detect them.

I used to slather on the shampoo pop a clingfilm hat on (cheapest cling film) to keep the head warm & let the oils sink in. Then rinse & condition & comb thoroughly after. For some reason it- made the little bastids quite sluggish & the harvest per comb through was impressive!

PLEASE everybody read this website it is researched based & an NHS run one so it's not just old wives tales. good advice

GetOrfMoiiLand · 21/02/2012 13:49

epic

MrsCarriePooter · 21/02/2012 13:50

Can I ask a stupid question (in preparation - never had to do this yet)? When you use the conditioner and comb through, do you then have to rinse off the conditioner as the last step, or are you talking about leave-in conditioner?

shockers · 21/02/2012 13:50

At the primary school that I work at, parents are phoned and children sent home if a member of staff spots lice. They're not nearly as common as at my last school!

valiumredhead · 21/02/2012 13:50

How can oils detect lice? Confused

shockers · 21/02/2012 13:51

At the primary school that I work at, parents are phoned and children sent home if a member of staff spots lice. They're not nearly as common as at my last school!

GetOrfMoiiLand · 21/02/2012 13:51

Always showered it off Carrie.

Used the cheapest conditioner I could find and slathered the stuff on. A lot came off with combing but you still had to rinse off the rest.

shockers · 21/02/2012 13:51

I have no idea why that has posted twice

GetOrfMoiiLand · 21/02/2012 13:52

I think the same would happen if you shoved a load of mazola on a child's head, tbh.

I didn't want to make the lice sluggish. I wanted them to DIE.

Doobylou · 21/02/2012 13:58

DS gets them terribly, and he's at secondary school. He bathes in his undercrackers now because I have to de nit him nightly.

Mind you have you seen the price of the treatments? No wonder some don't use them! £9 a bottle!

I buy them when they're cheap (usually september time) and stock up.

Vosene helps, and I use the leave in spray on all, but DS still ends up infested. I'm afraid I do know where he's getting them from and the parents are just utterly lazy :(

MistyMountainHop · 21/02/2012 14:00

yeah i agree OP

cant be doing with this softly softly approach schools adopt "these days" ....why they can't approach the parents who's dc have got nits and just TELL them they have them is beyond me. never mind sending a generic letter home which half the parents then ignore anyway Hmm

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