To send dcs to school in swimming caps?

[3littlebadgers]

Ok maybe a little dramatic, but after spending the weekend delousing dd, once again, wibu to at least consider it? At least untill a certain little class mate's mum aknoweldges her daughters wriggling hair and does something about it?

Why can't a parent be told directly?

UsedToBe going to locate your thread now. Hope you are also now nit free

When that happens on a regular everyday [Pipbin] it is abuse and I hope it gets reported
When it is consistent it is neglect, where a child is being neglected there are often different type of abuse also being experienced by that child.
I recall as a visiting early years worker at a fs1 setting observing a child who had a lice infestation so bad the child's head being covered in scabs, her nails were ragged and black, teeth rotten and clothes filthy. During seals session no others children would hold her hand to pass round a squeeze. a colleague and I intervened and held her hands. The teacher and ta were very much of the shrugging shoulders it happens type when I challenged them about the state of the child and their lack of intervention. The situation was promptly reported to response team. A few months later the school went into special measures after an appalling offsted. I still feel deeply saddened at what this child was left to go through by trained professionals.

I know this was an extreme case, and for the most part the little buggers are very capable of slipping under the radar on busy school mornings ;)

[op] YANBU swimming cap sounds like a very good plan - mmmm my head feels itchy!

Head lice are transferred by head-to-head contact so try not to get near the infected children's heads. head life also can get resistant to treatments, so try a different method. It's also worth treating the whole family, not just the I fected child as some people have head lice, but are symptomless.

Also, it's known that head lice prefer clean healthy hair, so it's not actually a sign of neglect.

( is anyone else's head itching after reading this thread!)

Plait and spray all over hair with cheap hairspray. I red it as a tip in a magazine - the smell is supposed to put nits off plus they can't cling to hair. Touch wood DD in yr 4 has never had them.

A longer one length style is best for girls than can be tightly tied back - no fringes and bobs.

Thanks 3 It's still a bit of a work in progress! DS2 got dowsed in a whole bottle of Lyeclear last night and that should have slowed the little wretches down a bit ... We're also going to do Nittygritty and conditioner every three days for a couple of weeks and see how we go.

Fingers crossed!

Using conditioner makes the hair slippy and they can't get such a good grip.
When conditioner is on the hair, use a nit comb to comb the conditioner through the hair. It will remove the nits etc. then you don't need to use the chemicals. My dcs did this every time they got a letter from the school. Although Ds just did it every time as it was easier and he hated head lice.

Idefix. Our school has an onsite social worker. One of the children with recurrent nits turned out to be sleeping on a bare mattress in a bare floor and utterly neglected. Now in permanent foster care.

In our (community primary) school we will happily tell a parent their child has head lice if they have. It's no big deal. We told one mum last week and she said she is having real trouble getting rid of them so she and I are going to sit down together and I'm going to show her the best way to tackle them (as the school nurse showed me).

rivercam, having head lice is not in itself sign of neglect. Consistently not dealing with the problem - or not seeking help if you don't know how to do it - is.

Also, it's known that head lice prefer clean healthy hair, so it's not actually a sign of neglect.
Not true. It's something we were all told to make us feel better.

Repeated lack of treatment of life IS a sign of neglect.

you can also wash with tea tree shampoo which may be a deterrent ?
Also apparently they don't like UV, so you can put duvets & pillows out in the sun (if it shines )
One family of 4 all shaved their heads in my kid's school (parents & 2 daughters) they lived in a caravan & just couldn't get shot.... it worked.. but not good for the look !

I feel your pain OP. It took me nearly all if the Christmas holidays to get rid of DDs headlice - just done my weekly check and they are back again. She's only been back at school for 4 days FFS.

Like [pipbin] says the clean hair things is a total myth to make us feel better when we get them.

A friend whose dd had them repeatedly through infant school found the electric comb and manual removal the best approach. To be fair friends dd had fine white blond hair. It was always plaited as well.

We are going through the same thing. Thought I'd managed to get rid of them over Christmas but caught DS scratching again yesterday. Noticed that Boots have all treatments on offer at the moment, so perhaps it's the time of year???

Anyone care to recommend an electric zaper device ? There seems to be lots around. Thanks.

The problem is that we aren't allowed to tell the child's parents directly that their child has nits, why not? Who is afraid of the parents?

Re people don't not treat - a child in DSis's class was one of six who were all literally crawling with lice. No-one would sit near them / play with them as their clothes were normally dirty and smelly as well. DM got talking to their DM one day - she said she didn't believe in treating head lice because "it's not healthy using chemicals on kids and besides, they're all part of being natural". DM was

waithorse I just got the bog-standard Boots one, and it's been great.

Thanks Archery, will take a look.

The stories of neglected children make me so sad

I live on the Continent and in the country I live in, it's normal for there to be a couple of parents in each primary school class (at least in the youngest classes) to be charged with the 'nit nurse' job. We sit down and check every child's head, semi-regularly, after each holiday break and when we know that lice are going around.

If we find them we don't tell the child, we tell the teacher and she discreetly gives the affected child's parents some instructions for treatment.

We probably miss a lot, I have read that it's very hard to detect them unless there's a serious infestation, but it's got to be better than nothing.

It's ridiculous that teachers aren't allowed to tell specific parents directly in parts of the UK. If someone knew that my child had lice I'd much prefer to be told directly than to check his head first rather than getting straight to treatment!

My last sentence turned out to be gibberish but it made sense in my head!

We have some lovely chats with the kids during our anti-lice sessions

As I said, nuts, we tell the parents of children in our school if their child has head lice.

Makes me so sad to think of the poor children whose parents don't treat them, it is complete neglect and they should be pulled up on it as a child protection issue. When my ds had them they had given him little scabby spots on his scalp which itched like mad, he'd only had them for a few days as well.
It must be seriously sore and itchy to have lice feasting on your scalp continuously. Schools should be able to intervene check and treat children that are suffering with them. The world has gone mad openly allowing children to be neglected and not doing anything about it!

Yy I caught that Rhonda . I just meant that it's ridiculous that in some places teachers are not allowed to tell the child's parents directly.