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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that kids with nits should be sent home

188 replies

JugglingNStruggling · 13/06/2012 22:29

I don't know why kids aren't sent home if they have nits and prevented from coming back to school until their parents get rid of them
at the moment there seem to be a fair number of parents who don't seem to care if their child goes to school with nits and gives them to everybody in sight
I don't think there should be a stigma to catch nits, but there should be one if you keep coming to school and inflicting it on everybody else's kids
The school & other parents expect me to keep my kids at home if they are sick or have diarrhoea (not a notifiable disease) and I think this is quite reasonable and abide by this
The school and parents expect me not to give my kids peanut butter sandwiches in case somebody is allergic to nuts and I think this is quite reasonable and abide by this
Why can't this be extended to nits
Why do some parents seem to think that it is not unreasonable to inflict nits on everybody else

OP posts:
Rabbitee · 14/06/2012 11:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

3teenhell · 14/06/2012 11:21

Does anyone actually use frontline? and does it work?

ChunkyMonkeyMother · 14/06/2012 11:23

Rabbit I have psoriasis on my scalp and have in the past scratched until its bled - it is the most uncomfortable and distracting thing to have an itchy scalp! As a result of itching/scratching my psoriasis gets infected and it's hell!

Like you, I ensure my 2 y/o DS has his hair washed in tee-tree shampoo every other day and his hair is combed through every 2 days - I have a bottle of spray wit tee-tree oil in it which I use when I comb him - he's not had them up to now ug I dread the day he comes home with them - it will mean having to treat my own head as well and with my scalp plus hair down to my bum it will be a nightmare!

I don't know where I stand on removing kids from school - especially as DS is in nursery, would they still charge for a day missed for treatment? That would make having nits cost over £50 for us and tht would be if it was treated in one day! I do think that kids with extreme cases where OBVIOUS neglect plays a part should be seen by SS - if only for some support, perhaps run a class which shows how to effectively remove, repel and treat head lice

Oppsididitagain · 14/06/2012 11:27

rabbitee get some ketopine shampoo it will sort that out quickly.

worra i used to comb out on to a large white sheet of paper so my kids could see exactly what was in there hair it worked a treat and i have never had a problem with them letting me check (even my son who has autisum and adhd) they were so grossed out by it that they used to ask me to check just to make sure.
i think you hit the nail on the head people say they comb through but either dont do it as well as they could or as often as they should if they did then the matter would be dealt with a live infestation needs comb out more often than every 3 days

notfarmingatthemo · 14/06/2012 11:30

A friend of mine kept on and on at me as she didn't think I had been doing the combing properly as I was doing it after my child had her hair washed sat in the front room using a nit comb. about 6mths later discovered she was using a metal comb but not a nit comb so it was her child who had them. She had only just been telling me that she had checked her dd. I saw her dd in school as I was reading with children her child was crawling with them. I am convinced that her dd had been the one all year re infecting everyone. This mother had also started a which hunt against a parent who's child she said had them. She didn't the child had had a reaction from being treated repeatedly with chemical. The child had to move schools in the end as her mum couldn't cope with all the stuff from other mums.

My dd now get checked with a nitty Gritty comb and not had them from a few years

Rabbitee · 14/06/2012 11:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bogeyface · 14/06/2012 11:33

To the person who asked what peroxide blonde hair has to do with it, nits are far easier to see on blonde hair which is probably why the poster mentioned it. On dark hair you have to be up closer.

I just accept that nits are something we will have to deal with until the youngest is at senior school (when they tend to tail off). With 4 kids at school, I always have atleast one and usually 2 lousy heads. DD2 has them the most despite being the eldest at primary because her best friend is crawling with them. I was delighted when she told me a couple of weeks ago that they had fallen out. They have made up now, and guess what.....2 hours with the nitty gritty again. But short of shaving their heads or home educating, there is nothing I can do but keep combing and combing. Getting mad about it wont help, nor will sending them home because you cant force a parent to collect a child or keep it at home for something like this.

My mother used to go mental about nits, mainly because us and our friends were always getting them except for one family down the road. They were the "well to do" family (actually they werent but the mother had pretensions!), and the mother insisted that her darlings didnt and had never had them. It was ridiculous as you could see them in their hair.

My mothers moods were never brilliant as the best of times (think Stately Homes) and one day the girls came to play the morning after a full on Derbac job the night before and mum said no, they (me and sis) cant play with you because I am sick of them catching nits off you! Shock The mother lay low for a while and then acted as if nothing had happened, which shocked us because we assumed there would be a row! Turns out that for the first time ever, her girls had actually been treated. She could be a bitch, but I admire her for that :o

CoteDAzur · 14/06/2012 11:34

YANBU. They are sent home at DD's school. I thought this was normal practice.

imnotmymum · 14/06/2012 11:35

think it was the peroxide bit not the blonde bit that sounded judgy.

bogeyface · 14/06/2012 11:37

I didnt think it did because I think of peroxide blonde as much much lighter than natural blonde. Or maybe it was a way of saying that she thought alot of how she looked but didnt bother that people could see headlice crawling on her!

JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 14/06/2012 11:37

The school and parents expect me not to give my kids peanut butter sandwiches in case somebody is allergic to nuts and I think this is quite reasonable and abide by this
Why can't this be extended to nits

Umm, because nits don't kill people, whereas anaphylaxis does?

belgo · 14/06/2012 11:41

I treat nits as soon as I see them. It cost me more then 200 euros last year in treating the whole family, and many hours of combing.

But I would be furious if I had to leave work (and so would my boss) to pick up my children if they were told to go home.

CoteDAzur · 14/06/2012 11:42

So spreading parasites is OK as long as they don't kill?

Guadalupe · 14/06/2012 11:42

I don't know what the answer is as really, only proper combing gets rid of them and if parents aren't bothered about their child crawling with lice will they really stick to combing for long enough for it to be effective?

DD's class used to get them endlessly because one poor girl was always teaming with them, and I mean teaming, you could see her hair moving like it had a life of its own let alone the visible lice on the top of her cardigan and occasionally one or two on the forehead etc.

I talked to her mum about it once and she said, and wait for this, she had been asking them to leave. Hmm I mentioned Hedrin and she did use it a couple of times but they always came back and once, the child came to school with Hedrin still on!

She was quite a nice lady but head in the clouds is an understatement.

bogeyface · 14/06/2012 11:43

FFS Cote, its hardly the same thing!

If you have a family with 3 children you wouldnt have a week without someone being sent home. good luck trying to keep a job!

belgo · 14/06/2012 11:48

I agree, it tends to be one parent who doesn't care enough to treat their child adequately, and those parents are probably the same ones who don't care if their child goes to school or not.

Sending children home from school would only make conscientious parents suffer.

CoteDAzur · 14/06/2012 11:51

How is it not the same thing as spreading a parasite?

Nits are parasites.
Infected people therefore spread parasites.

Pray tell, HOW is a child with nits NOT spreading a parasite?

bogeyface · 14/06/2012 11:53

Its hardly the same thing as a potentially fatal allergic reaction.

CoteDAzur · 14/06/2012 11:53

bogey - It might help to understand my previous post (which you replied to) was in answer to Jenai's " because nits don't kill people, whereas anaphylaxis does?"

That is why I asked "So it's OK to spread parasites as long as they don't kill?".

CoteDAzur · 14/06/2012 11:54

It is of course not the same thing but it is also A Very Bad Thing.

QueenofJacksDreams · 14/06/2012 11:56

Headlice treatment is free for children under 16 and anyone else entitled to NHS treatment through the pharmacy first scheme. I thought they get sick and tired of us Nit treating all the time but they are incredibly helpful. You can pick up a book from your local pharmacy and then just need to take a louse on a piece of sellotape as proof and they'll supply the lotion for 2 treatments each time.

Pharmacy First Scheme I know it says Nottingham but it is a UK wide scheme to save Doctors appointments for minor illnesses.

JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 14/06/2012 11:58

Of course it's not OK to spread headlice; but there is also an awful lot of hysteria over them. Sending home every child with a louse on their head is a ridiculous overreaction and I'm not convinced that it would prevent them spreading, anyway.

RevoltingChildren · 14/06/2012 12:00

YABVU

Dd has had headlice a few times and the first two times it took months to get clear. We started off by trying to zap them with various potions such as Hedrin etc but in the end it was just toothcombing and conditioner 3 times a week for month that finally rid them. She would have missed months and months of school.

We found an infestation the day before she was due to go on her week long school residential. Should I have not sent her. I think not. We used a chemical based treatment that night to kill them off initally then started treatment proper when she got back.

halcyondays · 14/06/2012 12:00

Our school sends them home if they see anything moving in their hair. Dd1 has been at school for nearly 2 years, plus a year at the nursery And I've only had a phone call once to say could I pick her up because she had nits. Her TA told me there were some parents who didn't treat their children, but nevertheless, perhaps it's because of this policy that she has only had them once.

Guadalupe · 14/06/2012 12:02

I thought about taking a live louse to the chemist stuck on paper with a bit of sellotape and trying to get my money back after one failed treatment long ago.

I told the lady that they dried out, and then walked off. She said it was a bit like saying paracetomol hasn't worked. Er, no, it's a bit more tangible than than as there ARE LIVE LICE. Grin

We've just used combing since then and occasionally Hedrin to blast them if its bad but mostly combing. Haven't had them for a few years thankfully.