To think not getting rid of your child's head lice is a form of abuse.

[PMDD]

Head lice are doing the rounds again. My DD has come home YET AGAIN with head lice. I comb, I use chemicals, I get rid of the lice, then she comes home again with them.

When she gets them I phone all the mums of the friends she plays closely with to tell them to ensure they check their children.

But there is a handful of children across the school that just do nothing about it.

Is there anyway the law could be changed so that those children with nits can not come back to school until they are clear of nits.

[superstarheartbreaker]

My daughter has waist length hair and it looks beautiful.

[mathanxiety]

It helps in the US that schools can actually call the parent and have the child removed from school the same day once lice are discovered. The parent is sent home with clear instructions about dealing with them. Child does not return until clear. However, by the time the problem is discovered the lice have often spread. The DCs' elementary school had one autumn and winter of lice horror despite exclusion. It was finally controlled because parents took it seriously and because whole families stayed off school with the blessing of the principal once lice were discovered in one child.

[Moln]

I don't know if I think YABU or YANBU as in my boys school there was a massive problem with nits. DS1 from the time he started school would come home with a letter at least once a week. The amount of times he got lice was huge. I just combed every Friday as standard. DS2, in the same school, has brought a letter back rarely and has got them once.

Now it's one of two things, or a combination of both, lice either 'like' DS1's hair and not DS2's, one has dark, curly hair and the other straight blond hair (same blood type though) or it's because there was a child in DS1 who's parents didn't comb. There are four boys in this family, and four years that had a server nit problem. That, plus their mother say admitting she doesn't bother (presume the father doesn't either)

The biggest effect that occured was getting a new head and her changing the policy, that "repeat offenders will be contacted directly". In other words instead of the general letter, which seems to go ignored by the same people time after time, they were asked in and spoken to about it (parent not child)

Obviously this does run the risk of someone being 'accused' in rhe wrong, but I can tell you one thing the effect on thenumber of times DS1 gets them has gone from almost weekly to three times last two years.

[Dahlen]

If you understand the lifecycle of headlice and have infinite patience, they are actually quite simple to eradicate.

Getting headlice is nothing to be ashamed of. Getting infected repeatedly is nothing to be ashamed of either, since unless everyone is treated at the same time, the likelihood is quite high. However, having a child who is crawling with them IS a sign of neglect IMO, since to reach that stage the problem will have been ignored for some time.

Where most people go wrong is relying on chemical solutions/hair treatments to kill them. They mostly don't work and you still have to comb anyway to remove dead lice and eggs. This is the part most people don't do thoroughly enough because they view it as cosmetic (removing the debris) rather than a vital part of treatment.

To comb a head properly takes time. The hair needs to be divided into no more than inch-square segments so you can get the comb right in at the scalp and remove everything. A child who has long, thick or curly hair can make the process even longer. It's a complete PITA and I can well understand why people fail to do it properly, especially if they have more than one child, job, other commitments, etc. But it remains the truth that this process, done thoroughly every other or every third day for about 7-10 days, will eradicate an infestation. While you may miss a few eggs no matter how careful you are, the repeated combings over a week or so catch the ones you miss.

FWIW, tying back hair makes very little difference since lice rarely travel up and down the hair's length; they stay close to the scalp where it warm and where they can feed. Transfer takes place when heads are touching, which is why the problem is much more intense at infant/primary school, where much more close contact occurs between pupils.

Headlice are also very hard to dislodge from the hair (hence needing a good comb like the nitty gritty) and hardly ever fall off unless they are at the end of their lifecycle and past egg-laying. Catching them from brushes, hats, pillows, etc is unlikely.

[Thatisall]

Horrendous typos as per. Sorry

[Thatisall]

My dd caught nits when she was in y1. I kept her off the day that I found them, called school, treated them and sent hernin after lunch. Bit they kept coming back again and again. It got to a point where the treatments couldn't be used as they were no longer effective (I hear this is becoming a problem. I spent so much time climbing her hair that she developed a sore scalp. In the end I stopped and gave her a break. I figured everyone else is sending their dc in riddled with live so mine is going in too. I continued to comb but not as analy and don't use chemicals any more. She'd go to school clear and come back with large lice in her hair. ( so I doubt they'd 'just hatched' but I'm no expert)


Her vicious bitch of a teacher apparently peered in her hair one day and announced "brilliant! You've brought headlice into school"

She was devastated and basically got the blame. You see dd had very blonde hair at that age so lice were easy to spot. It turned out that most of the children had headlice, most came in with them every morning.

My point is, be careful who you blame. It really upset my dd and me and we weren't at fault. Also your dc do pick up on resentment towards a particular child/family.

[DizzyZebra]

My DS has never had head lice - he has very short hair. I am not obsessed with cleanliness but I really wonder why it is such an issue at primary school and then you never hear about it again confused?

I wonder the same tbh - My brothers never got them either even though i was always getting them at school.

[DizzyZebra]

YABU

I struggle with nits massively. I'm allergic to the good treatments and my hair is ridiculously thick. After two cases of headlice which took me over a month to completely eradicate (I have no one to help me do it and check properly) i have had my hair cut off and now wear extensions because i'm not willing to go through it again, And my daughters dad makes me feel like some sort of dirty layabout for it.

This was with combing every night too.

It's not always out of laziness, Although it does anger me when parents just dont do nothing about it because it must be horribly uncomfortable for the poor child.

[Garcia10]

I just want to let everyone know that the trauma ends. My DD was constantly infected throughout primary school. Goodness knows how much we spent on lotions and combs. My husband and I were also infected. High school is awesome. She has been there for 4 months and no nits! I feel your pain but it is finite.

[HoratiaDrelincourt]

In a previous job I was responsible for nit checking twenty little boys' heads on a rolling fortnightly rota. Standard little boy haircut is easy to check.

In one entire school year I had one nitty head - back to school after half term with a gift from his little sister

There were plenty of nits in school - I think we were just lucky. Similarly now we constantly have nit letters home from school but my DC are always clear.

Could it be a blood type thing maybe?

[PigletJohn]

no, as I said, I use vinegar for the kettle. I use all the other traditional natural remedies for my many ailments.

Sometimes I grind up rye infected with a mould, to make a natural, organic black bread which has special properties, but I never take drugs.

[TheWomanTheyCallJayne]

Surely you don't use belladonna for your kettle. It's for the covers of night lights

[GlassCastle]

I assume you are no longer on the nursing register Chrissie because if you read your code of conduct you will see that it is a breach of them to use nursing status to promote a commercial product. Even if it is health related, to do so in the manner you appear to be doing, is unethical.

[GlassCastle]

Piglet



What a bloody waste of good Morphia!

[GlassCastle]

My daughter had her hair in tight French braids every day or a bun. She never had loose hair at school because I think it is a bloody nuisance flapping about.

I don't know whether there is a correlation but she has never had headlice.

My son had them once after a four day scout campy. We combed him and never had an issue again.

They both have delicate hair though. No curls or thickness in texture.

[PigletJohn]

I only ever use traditional natural remedies, like Belladonna, salt-water baths, opium and whisky, with vinegar to descale my kettle.

I can't be doing with nasty chemicals like Atropine, sodium chloride, morphine and ethyl alcohol, and won't use acetic acid. I do take Vitamin C, but never touch ascorbic acid.

[LuciusMalfoyisSmokingHot]

My DD's school has a policy in which if your child has nits, they cant come back until the nits have been treated.

My Dsis secondary school, one girl had nits and everyone could see them, she didnt know, how do you not know you have nits, ugh.

Im getting all itchy again thinking about it.

[deakymom]

when my daughter was in primary school there was a lady who didnt treat her childs nits i saw her hair one day and the lice had run out of room they had laid eggs top to bottom :-( the school had to take measures and instruct the mom not to return the child to school till she had been treated and they called her to remove her from school one day due to the problem in the end i signed the class up for free nit treatment some of the parents were horrified but some were more than happy for a free jumbo pot of treatment cream! when the whole class was treated they went away for about six months my daughters hair is awful to treat curly thick and the same colour as the eggs before they hatch im so glad my son (who is in primary) likes his hair shaved!

by the way apparently if your having trouble affording nit treatment you can go to the doctor who will give you a one off prescription x

[charitymum]

YABU. A form of abuse seriously?
Significant untreated massive infestations may (may) be part of wider pattern of neglect.

But really - it's an irritation not a disaster. Last infestation we had everyone was in hysterics at the one solitary brave louse that had found its way to nearly bald DP and was desperately trying to find a hair ....

[Xfirefly]

a hairdresser friend of mine said that when she was in college in the salon, a mother brought her daughter in for a haircut and the poor girls hair was infested . she said it was horrific. the mother was in complete denial about it...just moaned that hairdressers kept refusing to cut her daughters hair. the girls head was bright red and looked sore. the hairdresser said the only way to fix it would have been to cut nearly all her hair off . it had obviously gone untreated for a very long time and it wasn't like it wasn't obvious. the salon had to be thoroughly deepcleaned. This IMO is abuse as it was an obviously a massive infestation and the mother was trying to ignore it.
Its very hard to banish nits in school though. I think schools have a policy where they're not allowed to single one child out? correct me if I'm wrong..?it may just be my area! So its going to be a battle. I only had them once luckily scratches head

[madamginger]

Derbac etc have been unavailable since Nov 2011 as have lots of SSL products such as medised/medinol

[ThatBloodyWoman]

Slate it might have been cleared up had I understood a word of what you're on about.......

[itsnotthateasy]

Gossipmonster, same here .. My daughter, bless her, seemed to have them constantly , I even got them and had never had nits before.

We tried everything over the course of time from coniditioner (Tea Tree) and a nit comb, nitty gritty and various medicated ones . . In the end she had to have her hair cut really short :(

Thankfully though, Nits are now a distant distant memory.

[bigbuttons]

I use listerine, works better than anything else, and I have tried it all believe me.
I just assume there is always someone in all of their classes who has lice at any given point.

[Slatecross]

Derbac and Suleo are still owned by SSL and they're part of Reckitts now I think. It's still manufactured and was a great brand for them.