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.

[mynameisnotmichaelcaine]

My dd has waist-length hair, but always has it in tight plaits or a bun for school. She has not had nits for ages, but I comb regularly.

It is annoying, but not child abuse.

[claraschu]

At my niece's US school, you can't come back to school until you are clear. She was actually sent home on her birthday because she had a few old nit cases in her hair, which the school thought were live. She was really upset, but US schools certainly don't have the lice problems that we do.

[summertimeandthelivingiseasy]

One of my three caught them a lot more than the others - she had her hear in a short bob with a fringe. We grew it out and put it in a pony tail with gel and a hair band.

She was also the sort of small child to put her face next to someone she was friendly with. DS never got them.

[propertyNIGHTmareBEFOREXMAS]

Yanbu.

[Ditavontitty]

Yabu-My dd has them at them moment and I can't get rid of the fuckers! I have used Hedrin and another ointment and have combed through-very difficult as she has crazily thick,wavy hair. But she is still scratching away and has a horrible rash at the back of her neck.

Have sent her to school with tea tree spray in and hair tightly plaited-what else am I supposed to do? Keep her off indefinately?

[OTheHugeManatee]

Neglect maybe, not abuse. Unless the child is begging for de-nitting and the parent is refusing to treat it as some bizarre form of punishment or something.

Calling it child abuse is histrionic and devalues the suffering of children suffering genuine abuse.

[Electriclaundryland]

I've found hedrin easy and effective and the nitty gritty works too. Luckily we've not had them for a couple of years now. As someone said upthread, in Scotland you can get these treatments free from the chemist. A much cheaper alternative to nit nurses.

[Vagndidit]

Many school districts in the US operate a " no school until clear of lice" policy, and as a result it's much less frequent problem among school aged children than it is here.

I think the la dee dah attitude here is what makes the problem so persistent.

[Slatecross]

These are insects. THey need to be treated with an insecticide. Derbac, Suleo, Prioderm etc. Anything else and you probably won't shift them. They only lay one egg a day, so a heavy infestation has been there for a long time. And people saying that their children are getting them month after month, are probably just not killing all their own nits in the first place.
The kids who catch nits the easiest are ones with short hair, as nits can't fly, they walk and prefer to walk short distances. Girls with long hair catch them less frequently but when they do they're far harder to treat.
(ex product manager of a well known brand of headlice treatment)

[tiredoutgran]

We had a bout a few weeks ago, it infuriates me! When the girls came to us they were riddled with them, and had been for some time (read as years!) It took me months to get rid and we have had almost 5 years nit free. I do believe that long term infestations are a sign of neglect - you know whether or not you screen for them, if your child gets reinfested regularly then that is different to being infested because parents don't bother! I use the dermaline horse shampoo that kills lice and eggs on horses for myself, cheaper than the lice treatments but has the same ingedients (permethrine) as many of the human ones. I don't use this on the children because I worry they may have a bad reaction but reach for it myself at the first itch! Combing 3x a week does the trick for the girls.

[Enb76]

Head lice do not only lay one egg a day, they lay 4-6 and can be around 10 if they lay twice.

[Dromedary]

It's really not fair to make children miss school and parents miss work (potentially very serious) because some other child has yet again spread nits. If that were the rule at our school, I would have to give up work and we would be living on grass! There is also no point subjecting a child to insecticide treatment when they will only be given lice again a couple of days later. Keep the lice in check with regular combing and calm down about it!!

[mrsoh79]

Last year, I was dropping DD off and one mum was in the corridor picking them out of her sons hair, when I noticed my son had them in the morning a couple of years ago I didn't send him in and treated him, it's so bloody annoying how we can wipe out some illnesses but not these vile creatures, urghhhhh I feel itchy just thinking about them.

[Bonsoir]

Neglect not abuse. But yes, not dealing with nits pronto is poor parenting and reprehensible.

[ThatBloodyWoman]

I won't use chemicals like that on my kids heads.

I think some parents think it's enough to treat and forget.

I suspect that some parents who are treating with hedrin and the like are merrily sending their kids into school with lice again a few days later.

I think it could only be classed as neglect in a small proportion of cases.

[drbonnieblossman]

Educate yourself on child abuse, OP.

[LittleBabyPigsus]

EVERYTHING IS A CHEMICAL. If you wash your child's head with water, you are putting a chemical on it.

And chemicals are not the enemy, neither are standard head lice treatments harmful. They may not work for everyone, but I do hate the anti-science, anti-chemical brigade (who in actual fact rely on chemicals for everything).

[Spermysextowel]

littlebaby is everything really a chemical?

[Spermysextowel]

Sorry, fired that off too soon. I'm surrounded by scientists but they make little sense to a linguist! Presumably some things are just chemicals; and we are a collection of chemicals? I think I should PM this to someone who can help me!

[PigletJohn]

There is nothing in the world that is not a chemical. If you can find anything that does not contain chemicals you can claim a million pound prize.

Many people are concerned about dihydrogen monoxide, which causes many deaths if inhaled, but is found in many UK homes and is often left within the reach of children. It is known that at least 99% of cancer patients have been long term consumers.

[MissPryde]

You're been unnecessarily obtuse. Scientifically, everything is a chemical.

Common English usage would define a "chemical" as a substance that has potential to harm, which we are only exposed as the result of human muddling. You're arguing the use of an extremely common slang term, one which has a lot of necessary use outside the scientific community.

If someone told me a lake was found to have chemicals in it, I'm not going to jump in for a swim, despite the fact it'd be true in any scenario. I'm going to understand they mean there are dangerous substances contaminating that water. There's a clear distinction between the term as it applies scientifically and the common use definition.

Your statement about water is very tired, I cringe whenever I see someone post it.

[TheWomanTheyCallJayne]

Last years I spent hundreds of hours meticulously picking through dd's hair. Hundreds of pounds on treatments and far too long crying because of nits (my and her tears) she hated having them, they messed with her concentration and made her sore and irritable impacting on her sleep. (My hair was shredded by the comb)
This year we've not had them.
All that's happened is she has changed classes and left behind 'that' child.
If something could be done about those parents and making them treat their child I would be very happy.

[Onesie]

Just use a nitty gritty weekly to check , it's cheap and chemical free

[pointythings]

Actually I agree with the pedants and I should have said that Hedrin is not an insecticide.

Sorry.

[PigletJohn]

MissPryde

Claiming that a "chemical" is something which has the potential to harm and is man made is extremely woolly thinking, and more than obtuse.

I cringe when I hear such a thing.