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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Thatisall]

Horrendous typos as per. Sorry

[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.

[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.

[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.

[superstarheartbreaker]

My daughter has waist length hair and it looks beautiful.