To think that kids with nits should be sent home

[JugglingNStruggling]

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

Its not a very bad thing

Its a PITA that they eventually grow out of that you just have to deal with. A "very bad thing" would be constant rounds of D&V because there was no 24/48 hour policy. Nits and those that dont treat them, are just fucking annoying.

OP I can fully understand your frustration as I've been dealing with a continuous cycle for the past three months.However,I fail to see how schools could enforce this as after all so many parents fail to observe the correct procedures re:D&V bugs.
All our school does is send a rather useless letter home with all the children.
I don't wish to see children stigmatised for what is afterall a common occurence of childhood but I would like the parents of children who are persistent hosts to at least be asked to actually treat their children properly.

Actually sitting a child infront of the TV makes the child compliant.

If one of my children doesn't let me comb their hair then TV/ computer is banned.

Prehaps parents who kids have persistant nits should be offered a parenting course.

I want to know is how people seem to know who is the spreader and who is the spreadee. Is it that nice children are receivers only?

My dd had nits ona n off for a whole school year.
It was a sodding nightmare.
She had lots of very,very thick Afro hair. There was so much of it that she didn't go bald even after 18 months of intense chemo.
It used to take me hours to go through it And the conditioner/comb method takes no account of Afro hair.
You try getting a nit comb through it.

The parents who annoyed me were the ones who refused to check their children because their child couldn't possibly get nits!
Trust me, they were not the skanky families.

Indeed, seeker. The story notfarming recounts upthread is probably a fairly common one, sadly.

I find it so upsetting to see children in my class with severe infestations. I've had 2 children with holes in their scalp from scratching and lice walking into the sores. Both children already had very heavy involvement from ss (for a range of issues).

At the interagency meetings, it would always be part of the child protection plan for the child to be treated.
Various things happened - the parent hadn't done it and promised that it would happen. It didn't. It was raised again at the next meeting. The sw/family support worker said they would accompany the parent to get treatment and help to treat the child. The school nurse accompanied the parent to the dr to sort out the sores as chemical treatment couldn't be used when the head had open wounds. The child was eventually treated after repeated visits from the sw (visits which would have happened anyway). The child was treated chemically and combed once but had lice again very soon after. So even if ss are involved it isn't any guarantee of a nit free child. The social worker can't be there every 3 days ensuring consistent combing and treatment.

In less severe, but repeated cases, we refer to the school nurse. Then there is a process, letter/phone calls home, the nurse tries to arrange meeting, nobody answers the door...

To be honest, I've been tempted to treat children, torn between seeing them miserable and itchy and knowing I could get into trouble. I haven't done it though.

It's a tricky issue. I don't know what the answer is. I often have parents complaining to me about it in school and they think we don't do anything about it but obviously I can't say 'Well we have referred such and such to the nurse but her mum won't answer the phone and such and such has a social worker on the case...'

That's so sad, littlemachine. Imagine if your school insisted on sending them home though, that would be even worse, surely?

We'd only be able to send home the ones who we could see lice on. I'm sure there are more children who have them but it's not visible. I had them when I was 9 and my mum used to do my hair every day. I kept getting her to check because my head was itchy but it was a couple of weeks before she finally saw one (because I pulled it off my head). In hindsight she should have just believed me and treated me!

And what happens when these children get home?

I agree it's often not possible to know who is giving to who as they go round and round, but occasionally there is a child who has them visibly, all the time, and even if other children are giving them to each other it does become obvious over time that one child always has a very bad case and that's sad for the child as the other children notice and can be very unkind. They didn't want to sit near her on the carpet for eg.

In our case the mum seemed perfectly nice, just a bit dippy, or maybe I just assumed her to be dippy after she said she asks the headlice to leave.

So. School treats a class of 30. Takes- oh, about 15 minute to apply hedrin properly and another 15 to wash it out (where are you going to do that, by the way- in the hand basins in the loo?) That's 30 minutes a child. That's about a day and a half of staff time. And you have to do it again in 5 days. That's 3 days non teaching time. And if you miss one louse you have to do it all again in a couple of weeks!

Oh, and Hedrin costs about a tenner a bottle. Who pays?

But rabibitee who would treat them? While I have been tempted sometimes, it's not realistic for every child with nits really. Even if I spent every lunchtime wielding a nitty gritty!

Sorry, Rabbitee I meant.

Out of interest can anyone remember when the nit nurse stopped visiting schools and what did she actually do when she found a child with headlice?

I spent 2 wks before half term battling them. Clear so far this week. What worked for me was putting a few drops of pure tea tree oil in with conditioner and combing through with a nitty gritty comb, which even on long hair is fine because you do it when the conditioner is still in.

I was told tea tree oil scent in the hair is a repellent so I've continued to use it even though the buggers have gone. So far so good.

But no, YANBU

I understand how frustrating it is, nd I do think children that have visable lice should be sent home to treat, if they can be seen then the child's parents are obviously not checking on a regular basis. My twin ds's have very thick curly Afro hair, they have caught head lice twice from preschool and both times it's been a bloody nighmare.

It's making me come out in a sweat just thinking about it... getting a nit comb through thier hair was just awful, for them and me, it was taking me at least 3-4 hours at a time to do both of them.

I now send them armed with the nitty gritty repellent spray and thankfully we've not had them since... I know the little buggers are just waiting for the day I forget to use it though!

Even if the children with visible lice were sent home, your children could still catch head lice off a child whose lice are running round under the hair that day and haven't been spotted.

I repeat, what happens to thaws kids when they get home?

Well at my dd's school, in fact in all schools I know of here and yes, kindergartens too, the kids are checked regularly by parent volunteers and if your kid has nits, you have to come pick your kid up (checks happen at the end of the day I think) and you have to treat them before they come back to school. You have to sign a form saying you have treated them. A note goes home to all parents in the class warning them headline have been found without naming kid of course and to be on the lookout and to tie long hair back. The nitty kid can go back to school the next day if they have been treated. In theory parents could lie that their kids had been treated and the school has no way of checking up, but still. It stops the headlice going viral. fair dos I say.

I repeat, what happens to thaws kids when they get home?

They don't get treated same as they won't when they tell their parents, and as for everyone saying their kids are being infected by other kids every time your child has lice they're infecting someone else. Its the merry-go-round of childhood and it sucks but we're parents we deal with it the same way we deal with runny noses, falling outs and bloody knees.

yabu, its a pita, a big pita, we had a nightmare with ds3 who kept getting them i just combed and combed with conditioner and a nitty gritty comb and it does work but you ahve to do it pretty much daily for a good couple of weeks.

we just get a sign put up on the classroom door saying they have had cases of nits can you please check your child, i was up yesterday so checked last night! even when they are clear from nits you still need to check at least once a week to prevent an infestation [boak] and this thread is making me itch! i have eczema on my scalp anyway!

severe cases need to be reported, my dp works in child protection, they recenlty had a kid come to them who had open weeping sores on his head as the nits were that bad, took them ages to treat him and clear them they couldnt use chemicals as his head was so sore and they cut his hair very short but couldnt use clippers etc as again it was too sore to begin with, poor boy :(

but sending kids home wont help, those that care will treat them, those that dont wont and sending htem home wont change that.

i remember reading somehwere that any one time as many of 50% of kids at primary school would have nits if you checked them all, it is a part of primary school that gets better as they get older. it is a total pita tho, esp as i have 5 kids to wet comb with the nitty gritty and check weekly!

What is this miraculous one off "treatment" that everyone is talking about?