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.

[RobinSparkles]

At our school they've told people that if their child has lice not to send them into school until they've been cleared!

[Nousernameforme]

My 3 never had them up until we changed schools and they all got them. Youngest still has them I'm combing every other day at moment and it is a complete faff so we are getting some clippers the weekend and are going to shave his head this has been going on months now.
We need a volunteer team of nit nurse parents to go in say once a half term to check all children those who have them get a letter home checked a week later if no improvement treatment at school by nit nurse you could probably get headlice treatment companies to sponsor it

[FixItUpChappie]

YANBU insofar as the child with persistent nits can be ostracized socially which is a form of emotional neglect on the part of the adult not managing the problem.

Keeping kids from school though is punishing the child on a number of levels, so on that point YABU.

[IfNotNowThenWhen]

I think they are much worse now than when I was a kid, because half the primary girls have really long, loose hair. We had to wear plaits or a pony tail at school, which is totally sensible.

[Weelady77]

Head lice can be classed as neglect if the child's head ends up infected and it's not being treated, I don't know about in England but in scotland the lotion is free in minor ailments at the chemist!!

I agree children should be sent home if they have them and bring back the nit nurse!

[BumPotato]

My kids recently had them. We successfully got rid of them using the nitty gritty comb and a 3 week programme of combing every few days that another mnetter posted a link to.

Even though I'd been checking my DDs' hair, following the telltale signs of the pair of them madly scratching their heads and rashes on the back of their necks at the hairline, I failed to spot any lice. It wasn't until I sat them at the sink and did the comb/conditioner routine I discovered they were infested. The had hundreds each.

Maybe the parents are just doing what I originally did and checking the heads without combing, and falsely believing their kids are nit/lice free?

[Enb76]

I go through with a detector comb everyday, it's the only way to keep my daughter clear.

[GlitzAndGiggles]

Vampyre the hedrin was the only thing that worked in my hair! My mum used to condition and comb 3 times a week before hedrin and it just wouldn't work

[LittleBabyPigsus]

IA with bringing back the nit nurse but I think any form of sanction should affect the parents and not the child - it's really not the child's fault at all and having a nit infestation problem can be a form of social ostracising as others have said.

BumPotato I think you're right. Lice and eggs can be very difficult to spot in dark hair! You never really know how many are there until you comb through.

A vinegar rinse after washing conditioner out can help keep lice away and makes hair really soft and shiny.

[CaffeinatedKitten]

Mine haven't had any for years. At their old school Elderspawn was continually coming home with lurkers. I used to nitty gritty every other day. The only thing I found that killed lice was hedrin, as it's a suffocating oil rather than a poisoning one. Apparently really thick olive oil has the same effect, but hedrin is easier to wash out in the morning!:o

[BohemianGirl]

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.

There are just times I blink, rapidly. Then I wonder exactly what was the point of Care In the community because it just pisses the rest of us off.

[BackforGood]

YABVU and ridiculous.
Incredibly insensitive to anyone who has had to deal with children who have been abused, or indeed have been abused themselves.
I was going to say all this, but BabstheChicken has already said it very eloquently:

A form of abuse......really? hmm I'm so fed up with people tacking 'child abuse' onto minor child care issues. Not only does it make the poster look incredibly unintelligent and hysterical, it's unbelievably insulting to those who've actually suffered child abuse. There are no words to describe how unreasonable you're being, based on your thread title alone

[Viviennemary]

It must be infuriating for your child to keep getting re-infected. But I don't think exclusion is the answer. I do think some children are prone to getting headlice. But very long hair doesn't help and is a bit silly if children keep getting infected.

[Dromedary]

I agree about the child abuse thing- I wonder whether the OP is one of those people who reports mums to SS because their child wears the same school uniform 2 days running

[pointythings]

Can we please be clear that Hedrin is not a chemical? It acts by suffocating the lice in a silicone coating. You can't become resistant to suffocation.

I've found the big thing to break the cycle is to get rid of the eggs, and to do that you need plain old vinegar. Hedrin first - don't use the mousse, use the horrendously difficult to wash out greasy stuff. It washes out as long as you use vile cheap paintstripping shampoo and your DC ends up with smooth, manageable and shiny hair.

The following day, soak the hair in vinegar. This is horrible and the fumes sting, so cover child's eyes with a wet flannel. Leave for 15-20 minutes, then wash out. The vinegar dissolves the glue that binds the eggs to the hair shaft so they then just wash out.

Do follow up with Hedrin at 7 days, but I have never found a thing second time round.

[Starballbunny]

Getting 100% of the little blighters is damn near impossible. I wouldn't bet money on DD2's fine fair hair not having a single baby louse.

DD1's magnificent mane, not a cat in hells chance of ever being sure.

[CassCade]

Anyone heard of neem oil? I have heard of it as a preventative (I think) - it is an Indian remedy, I have been told and I have seen it for sale through Neal's Yard. Don't know if that info is right or not? Suppose I should phone someone at Neal's yard. Vinegar tip interesting, I will try that, thanks! I do a preventative nit brush every Sunday night with cheap conditioner (which must contain dimethicone, it suffocates them) and the blessed Nitty-Gritty brush, which is worth its weight in gold . I just think nits are a fact of life now until senior school, whereupon they seem to vanish... Oh yes, recently learnt that nits hate hair products, (to stop them climbing on board, I mean, this won't kill them) but I now spritz with some stuff (hair fix, sun protection spray, anything sprayey I have hanging around) just before DC's go to school. So far, so good....

[notso]

I think the not nurse should be brought back. Many parents don't know how to treat headlice properly.
When I worked at nursery there was a little girl who was covered in them, the back of her neck was all infected from scratching all the time.
We did the blanket letter three times and she was still covered in them. In the end the SENCO spoke to her Mum and it turned out she thought putting on mayonnaise and brushing her hair often was treating them.

[avacat]

CassCade neem oil is a thick ,bitter oil that works very well against lice. I would recommend massaging it into the scalp, combing and leaving it on at least for a couple of hours, or overnight with a shower cap on and combing again before washing. Pukka Herbs also sells it. It might be difficult to wash it out, but a few rounds of shampoo should help.

[IfNotNowThenWhen]

The thing with neem oil though, is it STINKS. I mean, really stinks, so you might want to think twice about using it because your child will smell rank at school.
Tea tree stuff is good I think. I use a tea tree conditioner and the nitty gritty comb to prevent, and always a little leave in conditioner after a hair wash, and so far, no nits ever.

[OhMerGerd]

Plaits and buns are the way to go for dd. After an horrendous term with the little blighters I made mine wear their hair plaited or tied up in tight bun. When the letter came to inform someone had nits we nit combed to be sure to catch anything and that it wasnt us ( on reflection I was paranoid about this issue even though I knew they were clear) and it was the tightest face lifting bun for the next week for both dd. they stopped getting them.

The only thing is that now in teens and early 20's although both look stunning with their hair up they will never wear any kind of up do styles. They say they had years of 'the bun' and now they are catching up in letting their long hair flow.

[TheZeeTeam]

I live in the US and, if your child is found to have nits, they are sent home instantly. They can't come back for at least 24 hours and you are supposed to bag their bedding and towels for 2 weeks, followed by a full vacuum.

When we first got here, I thought it was a bit hysterical. Now, numerous years later and no nits in the house, I'm fully on board!

[4athomeand1cooking]

Second tea tree oil. I buy a spray from asda for about £2 and spray into roots before brushing through.

My children have not caught nits since I starred using it a couple of years ago even with constant letters being sent home.

[LinzerTorte]

It's not actually the law, but kindergartens/schools where we live (Austria) have a rule that if children have headlice, they're not allowed to return to school until they have a doctor's note certifying that they're nit-free. It's obviously not a failsafe solution (the one time that DS had headlice, the doctor had a pretty thorough look through his hair after we'd treated it but it must be impossible to check that there's not a single headlouse/egg left!) but cases are definitely few and far between. My older two got through primary school without having them and DS has only ever had them once.

[MissPryde]

Here in the US, not only do they send the kid home as TheZeeTeam mentioned, if any child is found to have nits in the school, the school nurse then checks every child. I've never heard of a large school-wide outbreak here. There were only one or two children with lice during my whole school career, and I never knew who, they do it all very discreetly.

I've heard mayonnaise works as a treatment rather than chemicals.