To think this is an over reaction to lice and refuse permission?

[Kungfutea]

We've lived in the us since sept (so fairly new) and my dds (kindegarten and 3rd grade) go to school here. It turns out that there are head lice going around. We were told there was going to be a check by the school nurse. I was a bit as we'd never had that in England with the dds and it reminded me of my own school days many moons ago but, ok...

Anyway, we were having a friend of dd1 and her family over for dinner on Friday and the mum calls up saying she will have to cancel as her dd was sent home with lice, as were 3 other kids in dd1s class! I was totally shocked at the idea of anyone canceling because of lice and told her it was fine, if dd1 was going to be infected, it'd have happened by now! They just need to avoid head contact and tie their hair back. So they came over (super apologetic) and it turns out that their dd was immediately isolated after the check (in tears!) and all the chikdren with nits/lice had to be picked up immediately. I was very .

And then it got worse. The other mum said that the only reason they came over was because their dd had been treated by this commercial company that does treatments and they'd paid $300 for the privilege. And then it turns out that it is this very same company which does the checks at the school!!

So wiu to have sent an email to the school telling them that they do not have permission to check my dds for lice? I told them I would be checking at home but that I'm not happy for a commercial company with a clear conflict of interest to do it and neither am I happy with the response (which i think is totally ott)? Being relatively new I don't want to be a trouble maker but this just seems an over reaction and upsetting for children.

[LineRunner]

I've always yearned for a little business with a funky van I could drive around to do stuff I liked for money with my mates.

LIke being a plumber, but better.

[seeker]

It doesn't say anywhere on that website how much it costs.......but they do look like quite expensive post codes they operate in!

[fuzzypicklehead]

Grew up in the US, and indeed this is the norm. I have 5 siblings and if the nurse found one of us with nits then we all went home immediately. Then there were noxious chemicals, painful combing, manic hoovering and anything we might have touched was boiled or bagged for two weeks.

Maybe the lice over there are more virulent/treatment resistant than the ones over here? I caught them in my 20's, and it took weeks to get rid of the feckers. They just would not die.

[SPBInDisguise]

OP I agree. It's in this company's interests to feed the hysteria and back up the "urrrgh lice" attitude. Maximum disruption for parents, maximum shame and misery for children = more parents who will just throw money at it for the "experts" to sort out.

seeker, are you anywhere in the North? :o

[lougle]

Pixel, my experience is the same! DD1 goes to Special school and she had nuts for the first time in September. She's 7!

So there you go folks, save yourselves time and money -send your children to Special school

[Hechan]

My kids were at primary school in the Netherlands, I was part of the parent-volunteer nitty Nora crew, we checked every class, every month, and if we found lice that kid's parents were called to take them home. Sibling classes were rechecked. Affected classes were rechecked the following week.

Affected classes all got letters with instructions for de-nitting, freezing, boiling etc as mentioned above, and kids would put coats on hooks in plastic carrier bags. No stigma, so far as I know, in fact sometimes we would be called in to do extra checks because a parent had reported nits.

A couple of times we found nits on the teacher, usually infant classes where the teachers would be closer to the kids (sitting on knee for stories etc). Teacher would immediately go home for treatment.

Everyone knew who had the nits each time, no one made a big deal of it though. Tbh I'm quite surprised UK schools don't check.

[shrimponastick]

Itchy!!!

All sounds very extreme. Maybe the lice are a different variant. Tough ole critters...

I am old enough to remember Nitty Nora the Bug Explorer at school too. I didn't get headlice, in fact very fee pupils got the dreaded brown envelope on their desks. What has changed over the years, it sounds much more common nowadays.?

The US policy sounds a bit overboard though, and an excellent commercial idea.

Maybe ill set up in business as a mobile Nit eradicator same as the prev poster. ;)

[SofiaAmes]

America is a very big place with many different customs that vary greatly from state to state and city to city. Just like you might find different ways of doing things in England than in France or Italy, or perhaps even Kent to Newcastle. I live in Los Angeles and have not found the attitude or approach regarding lice at my dc's schools to be any different than what I experienced in London when we lived there. Although, I suppose I could judge the entire English population by the stupidity of ds's teacher in nursery who did a lesson on careers that involved all the kids trying on the same handful of uniform hats on the same day she sent home a note about lice in the class.

[McNewPants2013]

Thanks to this thread I had the worst night sleep ever up 1/2 the night itching.

[Goldmandra]

I ashamed to admit this but I don't how to do a proper check on DD hair, I check her hair but don't know what I am locking for.

She has bright blonde hair so please reassure me that I would have seen something.

No you wouldn't necessarily have seen anything. You need to buy a nit comb and comb through conditioned hair. The large ones will be dragged out on the teeth of the comb and you can then see them.

If you do it once a week you should get new arrivals before there is a major infestation but they may still have laid a lot of eggs.

Going back to the OP's point about a conflict of interest. You can't say for sure that any child doesn't have them. If this company says they have removed one large louse from your child's hair you can't argue even of you find none. It may have been the only one there. You would still need to comb and condition for a few weeks as a precaution.

Yes, my head is itching now!

[mrsjay]

I've always yearned for a little business with a funky van I could drive around to do stuff I liked for money with my mates.

LIke being a plumber, but better.

you could have a huge louse picture with a smiley face and a jaunty hat on your van

[Hawkmoon269]

I wish my dd's school had a school nurse who did nit checks. I'm so bored of her getting them - at least once a month. I'd probably do well in America