To think they should bring back nit nurses?

[Rachtoteach]

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!!

Works the same as Hedrin - you keep doing it every day until no more are jumping off!

An image of lice forming an orderly queue to leave has just popped up in my mind

Ha ha ha ha Apparently if you rinse over the bath it's quite funny to watch them all jump off!

QUASSIA BARK that's the stuff!

Is that like cassia bark, which I think might be mace, the outer skin of the nutmeg? I could be wrong, cba to google yet

As you were. It isn't.

As I said before it always makes me laugh that people on here's children get lice- (and the parents always know where they come from !)- but never pass them on..........

How can anyone think that nit nurses are affordable in the current climate? It's hardly a priority, especially as they were shelved because they were ineffective. People just have to check their own children's heads, not look for someone else to do it for them.

Me too seeker.

I know for a fact that my DS caught them from a girl in his class and passed them on to my mum

I am so sick of bloody headlice! DD1 was clear for months but now is hanging around with a girl who ALWAYS has lice. Her mum works at the bloody school ffs. I am currently doing DD1's hair every few days and every time it's like I've never done it before; tons of the vile little things in there.

Nit nurses don't work.
Schools used to have a nurse each and she (usually a she!) would spend a few moments on each child, 'checking' the ehads for eggs and lice. The ones who had them were then given a letter to take home - usually in such a way that everyone knew who the 'culprits' were.
This was embarrassing for the children. It was not effective (it takes much more than a few seconds each to check a head) but gave a false sense of security because parents felt it was being dealt with at school.
School nurses now cover many schools (I am one and I cover 9 schools - 8 primary and 1 secondary) so that's a lot of heads to check! The nit nurse was abolished because it was not effective. Bringing her back would gain nothing.
Parents need to recognise that it is their responsibility to check their children's heads. You don't expect school to clean their teeth or cut their finger nails.
Yes it's boring for you and your child, yes it takes time every few days, but it's your job! If you fine tooth comb it ( wet hair with conditioner) every few days then any live lice will be removed before they can lay eggs and any eggs will be removed before they hatch. It's painstaking and sometimes the eggs need pulling off the hair shaft with finger nails (my dd1 has ling fine hair and the nit comb slid over the eggs!). But it has to be done...

I think its more a social work role than a school nurse role to teach parents how to get rid of nits. The problem is that you need to regular comb the entire family and change bedding and clean the house as well.

I think pesticides do have a place for extreme infestations, but combing is the only way of getting nit free. A pesticide will take out 80% to 90% of the buggers.

they are not fleas, you do not have to clean the house as well. They die when off a human head.

Mine passes them on - to the rest of the family. Of course no-one's dumb enough to think their children never pass them on, but you know for a fact the child whose head is crawling (so badly you can see them from a couple of feet away) is the one that's preventing the cycle breaking. Not the child's fault, obviously...

and yes, lice die once off the human head. They don't live on or in pillows.

Pesticide will take out 0% of the resistant types.

I was at a boarding school, and at the start of every term the 6th Form in each boarding house would be issued with a nit comb and a bottle of carbolic and would check each and every person as they arrived from home. Any found with nits were despatched to the infirmary for treatment before they mixed with their friends.

It sounds archaic, but it worked a treat - there were never any nit infestations at the school.

Mine always catch it from their cousins, which is really irritating - my DSis is so blase about it. Every summer holiday.

Anyway, Derbac is best, IMHO.

we have had them several times.

The first time I tried the conditioner and nitty gritty approach, and it didn't work. D1's hair is so thick, and you only have to miss one which can then go on and lay eggs. We were combing every few days for about 3 weeks before I gave up and used chemicals.

Now, at the first sign of nits, I treat with Full Marks, then repeat after 7 days and again after 21 days. Never fails. It doesn't get the eggs, just the crawlers, but after 7 days they will have all hatched and not laid any new ones yet. The 21 day treatment is usually just a check and I don't find any. I can see that it works, as I am mostly combing out dead lice rather than live ones.

The advantage of full marks is that you only need to leave it on for 10 mins, then you can start combing. I normally do it in front of the telly, so the girls don't get too bored.

I'm not sure bringing back the nit nurse is practical. It wold be nice if the school could nominate a particular weekend/half term, and ask everyone in the whole school to treat/check at the same time.

Secretsquirrels. Even though your children are 13 and 16 it doesn't mean they are safe. DD3 actually caught more nits at high school.

It is not a social care role, or a school nurse role, it is a PARENT'S role!

I guess it's all,part of the nanny star mentality.

this is why nit nurses don't work

T'was one of the reasons i liked dd's school, their nit policy! They send them home. As soon as they have been treated they are welcome back, same day even. But it works.
We've been there 6 months and never had a letter or a case brought to our attention yet.
I think it shows strong leadership to make this decision/policy.
Having been a hairdresser all my life, i've heard so many pathetic excuses from people about why their children are diggered in the bloody things!
I certainly believe some kids are just more prone to them than others, bit like mozzie bites, which is just unlucky. But comb comb comb is the only way to be sure!

My grandmother had my mum coat us in liquid paraffin once, it really worked, but I wouldn't advocate it. We were forever being treated, just the clarty beggars who couldn't be bothered to treat their children.

my mum used to be a nit nurse. Anyone who has treated their own children will see that it takes a LONG time to check just one child- the nit nurse would only ever be able to take a cursory look, anything more would be far too time consuming and disruptive, not cost effective and a poor use of a skilled person's time.

Really the only solution is for families to take responsibility- just as we take responsibility for other aspects of health. Whole school bug busting days are a good idea. But it would help too if people had a better grasp of the life cycle, the need to be thorough, and understand that anyone can get them, including adults...

WOW! You really got us all going didn't you Rachtoteach!
Unfortunatley for you, oldmum42 is completely right. You hd them over 1/2 term - there was an adult roaming around laying eggs happily in your daughters hair and you were oblivious.

When my DD first had nits I had suspected for 2 days prior to finding anything. I was shocked and appalled at my inability to have found anything until she was teaming with the little beasts. I had NO idea what a louse looked like and even when I initially pulled one out I thought it was a scab from her scalp!

Now I have a Nitty Gritty comb (a life changing product - I can't recommend it enough). The website has a whole FAQ's page which answers ALL your questions about head lice - I am a true expert now! www.nittygritty.co.uk/site/.

We ll have to learn about the FACTS to do with head lice so the best thing you can do is print off the FAQ's page from nitty gritty and share it with your school and get them to recommend the product and regular combing. It is the only way. If parents aren't checking or combing regularly, I am sure it is primarily due to ignorance rather than laziness.

There is no way a nit nurse would be useful. I would be furious if that is where my tax money was going when parents can just as easily identify head lice with a little bit of educating!

Allowing your child to have a heavy infestation of lice is neglectful parenting imo and should be reported to social services. Kids with lice should be sent home. This is what happens in many other countries and suprise suprise lice is not an issue in these countries like it is in the UK.

Wet combing is a simple, cheap and very effective way to check for lice and also to treat them. It requires combing every 4 days so is not especially onerous. I think there should be repercussions for parents who can't be arsed to do this for their children and I think the current attitude of schools and authorities is PC gone mad tbh.