Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
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:
CheerfulYank · 22/02/2012 03:15

The nurse doesn't tell the parents if the kid has lice? Confused Why the hell not? Here if you've got them, you go home and can't come back til you've been treated.

I would be furious if my child had nits and no one told me!

theodorakis · 22/02/2012 06:52

When I was a boarding school nurse (yes appreciate that it's easier to control when they are all in the same place) we had nit nights on Tuesday and Friday. Everyone was covered in conditioner after their shower and was combed while watching a dvd, having a story etc. Despite having 400 day kids and 60 boarders, in 3 years not one single child was infested apart when they had been home for the holidays. My main mission was to remove the stigma. Before me was an ancient matron who used to put them in isolation until they were clear. We managed to create a culture where bed wetting and nits were perfectly acceptable, the kids used to comb each other and finding a nit was an exciting event, even for the host. I am not asking for boarding school comments, simply saying that my experience if combing and conditioning worked.

HSMM · 22/02/2012 09:06

Our local primary school got a nurse in to talk to the yr 5/6 class about how to control head lice. DD was catching them all the way through primary school and then suddenly after the nurse had been (and the children were giving their parents instructions), she hardly got them at all.

Sadly ... they still turn up every so often at secondary school.

CrunchyFrog · 22/02/2012 09:39

Dsis had nits All The Fucking Time at school. Hair tightly plaited, treated with wonderful harsh 1980s chemicals, checked daily - she had them constantly. Weirdo.

I've never, ever had them, despite working very closely with a child who was constantly infected, and despite DD getting them very often in nursery (her BFF was never treated, one day his mother proudly marched him in with a grade 0 haircut as her "cure," and the infestations stopped.)

The kids have had them a couple of times in recent years, but two doses of Nasty Chemicals seems to see them off.

Worse than nits, DS1 had fleas off the cat once. Grin

ThePinkPussycat · 22/02/2012 09:56

I had fleas off my pet rats once Blush

theodorakis · 22/02/2012 10:04

I took a couple of fleas into hospital with me, noticed them hopping around on my bed, had to get my OH to come and get rid of them before anyone saw! Kids get nits, dogs get fleas, wouldn't be without either of them. Ticks another story.

Soutty · 22/02/2012 10:06

Sounds like Hedrin is rubbish - probably because it doesn't kill the eggs. We all seem to be clear after using Full Marks last week but going to repeat the treatment again on Saturday. Full Marks is meant to kill eggs but they advise you to repeat after 7 days in case they haven't all died. Combing is all very well but when the hair is very fine it just doesn't get them all out. Plus which my DS goes ape as soon as he sees the comb. No way could I get him to sit there for half an hour.

I know that nits only survive for 24 hours but I still aired the pillows, soft toys and cushions, washed all the bedding and pyjamas on 90 degrees, got the coats dry cleaned, hoovered and washed all the brushes and combs in bleach. It's just the thought of the little critters crawling around - I want them dead, dead, dead. Good excuse for a spring clean anyway.

seeker · 22/02/2012 10:11

Nothing kills the eggs. Honestly- Hedrin, or any of the other things that physically rather than chemically kill the lice- can't not work if they are done properly. But you still have to repeat to kille the next lot of hatchings and comb to get rid of eggs.

liveinazoo · 22/02/2012 11:01

we constantly have nits/lice in term time.bane of my exsistance.surely seriously nit ridden kids must get aneamic eventually.dont their mothers care?

i comb every day over damp paper and condition and comb 3x a week

we still keep coming home with big lice at least couple times a week

there should be an inforced nit amnesty-all society done monday and again on thursdayGrin

valiumredhead · 22/02/2012 11:33

I LOVE pressing a lice egg between my thumb nails and listening for that oh so satisfying 'click' Grin

ThePinkPussycat · 22/02/2012 12:13

I like the thud when a louse hits the paper over which I am combing the hair. I suppose I am weird to like hunting lice, though the actual combing is a pain. I like combing out the cat for fleas, too, but that is much easier (I then hit them with a lump of blu-tac before they can jump)

Probably TMI :)

TroublesomeEx · 22/02/2012 12:40

I like it when they're trapped between the teeth of the comb and their little legs are going.

Or when they wander around the sheet of paper looking for hair. "Must... Find... Hair...."

ThePinkPussycat · 22/02/2012 12:49

The teeny ones I have to extract from the teeth by running a sewing needle down. and have to surpress thinking Oh aren't they sweet

LDNmummy · 22/02/2012 13:14

Oh goodness I just had a simultaneous flash back to my school days and a flash forward to my DD's future school days Sad

LDNmummy · 22/02/2012 13:16

But in a strange way, hunting them down and destroying them is a very satisfactory activity.

jamdonut · 22/02/2012 13:39

Haven't read the whole of the posts so don't know whether its been mentioned...

The best lotion I have ever used is Lyclear. It suffocates rather than poisons lice, and it kills the eggs too. My daughter,when she was at primary , had bottom-length hair, which we always kept pulled back in a tight thick plait. For about two years we struggled to get rid or headlice using one thing after another, plus tea tree oil, but to no avail,also combing every couple of days. Then someone(I think it was a pharmacist in Boots) suggested Lyclear, and within a week (i.e the two doses suggested) they were gone!! And we never used it again.
She got her hair cut to her shoulders, towards the end of year six, (yes, I know we should have done it before, but she had the the most gorgeous auburn hair, and everyone would comment on it, which made us all feel proud.They still do ,to be fair, even though she has it shorter now!Blush) My youngest son used it once when he was unlucky enough to get them, and it did the trick just as well for him too.

theodorakis · 22/02/2012 13:54

I have just emptied the washing machine, there is a bloody bastard dog tick on a towel STILL ALIVE after a 60 degree wash!

KalSkirata · 22/02/2012 13:56

ticks are indestuctable

theodorakis · 22/02/2012 13:57

pink-I once found a matchbox with nits in the kids had kept as pets, not sure if the fruit pastille was the most appropriate dinner for them, hopefully they became obese and all their teeth fell out. maybe next time will suggest a turkey twizzler.

auntpetunia · 22/02/2012 17:08

Even if. School brings in a nit. Nurse they have to pay the person, provide fine toothed combs and the disinfectant last time my school did it cost us overall £400 as only certain practitioners will do it.and school has to send a letter out advising parents that we were doing the checks and they had to give permission. Guess which families didn't give permission? Yep the one's we as staff all knew where crawling so was a waste of money.

CheerfulYank · 22/02/2012 17:09

Why are they so much more prevalent there? Confused At the school I work in here (in the US) there are four cases among the 6 year olds (no other grades) and this is a Huge Deal. Papers sent home, parents going crazy, etc.

Are you breeding Super Hardy Lice over there 'cross the pond, or what? :o

CheerfulYank · 22/02/2012 17:10

Although honestly I quite like the thought of hunting them down and combing them out.

ThePinkPussycat · 22/02/2012 17:19

Yes I think we are breeding resistant lice, as someone said upthread Sad

EssentialFattyAcid · 22/02/2012 17:40

CheerfulYank the problem here is that kids don't get sent home and the parents don't tend to go crazy about it.

Lice are resistant to all chemicals but wet combing works very well although only if you can be ar$ed to do it. There is little social pressure to keep your kids nit free sadly for us all.

loopylou6 · 22/02/2012 17:46

I like pouring the derbac over the ones I have pulled out

< evil >