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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to wonder why schools pussy foot around nits??

92 replies

CatEyeFlick · 01/10/2015 15:58

yet again had a general letter today about how a child in my dc class "may" have headlice and can everyone please check their own child?

obviously I will be checking all mine after their bath tonight but I do check them weekly anyway after they kept getting them before the holidays

but what I don't get it why don't the teachers take the parent aside of the child with nits and discreetly let them know? as clearly there are loads of shit parents who just cba / dont care / wont even READ the letter

if a child was ill at school the parents are told. why are nits different? they are a health issue. is it because they are "embarrassing" ? personally I would rather be told if mine had them, so why the coyness??

actually I think they should go a step further and send any children with nits home but at the very least tell the parents

OP posts:

Mistigri · 01/10/2015 17:25

The fashion for long hair has definitely made this worse. Not only are they easier to catch/transmit but they are bloody hard to get rid of if your child has long thick curly hair :-/

DD once had them for an entire term despite hours of delousing (this was in pre-hedrin days when none of the products worked). Could never work out whether the problem was that I was missing some each time (not impossible, she has thick mid-to-light brown hair in which lice are practically invisible) or that girls in her class were all playing pass-the-parcel with them.

Galaxymum · 01/10/2015 17:29

I so agree with the OP - and I don't think people realise that bacterial infections can be spread through headlice. In reception DD started to battle the infestations from week 2. This was ongoing throughout reception and as soon as we had sorted it, she would go a couple of weeks and we'd be hearing the rumours and then see the signs. A couple of times she walked out from circle time with the bloody thing crawling on top of her hair. It was so obvious how she was catching them and parents were not clearing them.

Anyway, DD developed this awful weepy infection in her scalp and had antibiotics - GP said she thought it was a reaction to the headlice. It wasn't. This infection spread from her scalp, all over her face, chest, back, arms and thighs. She ended up in hospital for a week and on intravenous antibiotics. She had caught Scalded Skin Syndrome which is a very serious stapphyllococcal infection. It had reacted with her eczema and she was a very poorly child for a few weeks.

I really do think people don't take headlice seriously - not thinking that they are transmitting bacteria through blood - but they do.

Headofthehive55 · 01/10/2015 18:17

I nit comb with conditioner every week. It means you catch them early. By the time you see nits and are scratching your child will have had them three weeks.

I think parents are less vigilant over the holidays, as you aren't meeting other children so they think nits aren't a problem. However when you go back to school nits have been merrily reproducing in lots of children's hair this ready to pass around.

I certainly don't think children should be excluded, as you cannot be certain for quite some time that you have removed them. I'm not sure it is reasonable to exclude children for weeks at a time.

MiaowTheCat · 01/10/2015 18:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Unreasonablebetty · 01/10/2015 19:06

I was pretty upset with my DDs school about a week ago, my girl came home with nits.
I called the school and told them. So they might want to make other parents aware that they're going about. No letter has been sent out!
My daughter has been treated and now has them again.

frumpet · 01/10/2015 19:09

They are annoying but not life threatening so after 17 years of dealing with the little bastards blighters , I have come to the conclusion that we just have to deal with them for the whole of primary school , no matter how bloody irritating that may be .

ICantFindAFreeNickName2 · 01/10/2015 19:36

We have been told by the LEA that we should not send notes home when we are informed that a child has head lice. Apparently getting notes home stops parent checking regularly. We do still try to remind parents once a term though.

Rinoachicken · 01/10/2015 20:13

DS school notify the parent and also notify the class in general. Affected child is expected to be treated that evening. If they are found to still have headline the following day they will be sent home and the same will happen the next day and so on until they are gone. After the 3rd day the EWO is notified.

cariadlet · 01/10/2015 20:17

I sent home a nit letter today, because the mum of one of the children in my Year 1 class let me know that her daughter had had headlice (which she had treated).

I told my class to go home, ask their parents if they could have a bath and hairwash, and to ask their parents to use conditioner if they had any at home. I don't suppose everybody will, but in an ideal world every parent in a class would check their children's hair on the same night - otherwise the children keep reinfesting each other.

Pico2 · 01/10/2015 20:31

I don't understand why tying hair back isn't a requirement anymore. Even if it isn't about nits, long flowing hair must be a pita at school.

Headofthehive55 · 01/10/2015 20:37

I read some research work done a few years ago,that concluded that children who appeared to keep on getting headline were not in fact getting reinvested, but we're not clearing the original infection in the first place.

It is impossible to "treat" and return to school the next day. The risk of missing a nit is quite large. What usually happens is child is treated then " gets" nits a couple of weeks later. It's more than likely that a nit survived and a week or two later emerged. Frustrating I know.

That was the general consensus of the research.

nokidshere · 01/10/2015 20:47

You will never eradicate them because you only have to miss one egg to be reinfested. Most parents have no idea how to treat correctly or how to check if the eggs are live or not. A reinfeststion on the same child is more likely to be from a missed live egg than anything else. If the child has very blonde hair or lots of it they are very easy to miss.

The best way to not get them is to teach your children not to touch heads with other people. They can't fly, can't live off the scalp for more than a few hours and it's highly unlikely that they are caught from pillows etc (although not impossible).

We get notes home via a sticker on the children's clothes saying "please check your child's hair we have visitors" WTF?

KathyBeale · 01/10/2015 21:28

Bit off topic but I agree Pico2. I hate when little girls have their hair all over the place. It infuriates me at my son's swimming class when the girls can't swim properly because their hair is in their face. It must be a nightmare in PE too. Should be tied back and definitely hats at swimming,

HoopsAlot · 01/10/2015 22:17

I don't see the problem it really is just a heads up to check if your dc has got nits.
I checked my dc today but only because I had a weird dream about then and her dgm is actually allergic to them so don't want to risk it ??.

HoopsAlot · 01/10/2015 22:20

Also I also got letter about a reported head lice case in school just this week..
Besides it being bugs in the hair why is it an actual issue. Is it a health risk?

MagicAlwaysLeadsToTrouble · 01/10/2015 22:37

My daughter has just started at a school nursery (pre-school) the bits issue is new to me?

What should I be doing as preventative measures?!?
Weekly combing with a nit comb?

What do you actually do with the cheap Conditioner?

Help me not become the parent you all hate!!

TimeToMuskUp · 01/10/2015 22:42

DS2 has only been in Reception for 3 weeks and has already had them. It drives me mad, I work at the school and over the summer had stopped using the Vosene nit repellent spray and shampoo on myself and DCs as we'd run out. We stink of tea tree oil but we're less itchy now thank god.

I agree that parents should be told directly that their child has nits. And I speak as the parent of a child who had them recently.

madmomma · 01/10/2015 22:57

I'm itching now...

Keeptrudging · 01/10/2015 23:10

I was told that the 'blanket letter' approach was because it was a breach of the child's human rights/right to an education etc to be singled out or sent home for having non life - threatening nits. Schools are not allowed to just tell parents of nitty kids, or to ask them to take them home and treat them (like we used to do). Generally they are an annoyance rather than harmful, but I have seen a few seriously infested heads and that is uncomfortable/risk of infection. I hate bloody nits, I've had them 3 times as a teacher, thanks kids!

LaLyra · 01/10/2015 23:15

magic At least weekly checking. Hair tied back if it's long, or clasped back if the front is long.

With the conditioner you wash the hair, then condition it, but comb it with the nit comb before rinsing (comb with a normal comb first to get rid of tangles then nit comb). The conditioner helps by making everything thick and sticky so you've a better chance of getting anything live out with the comb.

Also if your child gets nits check/treat everyone - adults included. My niece kept getting them (and passing them on) and it was ages before I realised my SIL wasn't treating herself and she had picked them up. You then have to keep repeating the treatment every few days because it is (imo) almost impossible to find and remove every egg so some will hatch.

LaLyra · 01/10/2015 23:17

I think that long hair should have to be tied up in school. DS's teacher this year has long, long hair and it irritates (and baffles) me when I see her with it down and flapping all over the place.

revealall · 01/10/2015 23:31

We have nits constantly. A boy with short hair. I treat mine but mostly wear it up.I use a nitty gritty comb and conditioner three times a week which in theory should be enough. Nope.
I'm sure it's those parents saying " we don't have them" that are reinfecting the entire class. It's bloody endemic at our primary.

Feenie · 01/10/2015 23:32

They are annoying but not life threatening

Not so. Our LEA child protection training always deals head on against the myth that staff cannot tell parents about an infestation by citing a recent case in our authority of a repeatedly infested, extremely neglected 15 year old who contracted septicemia and subsequent organ failure. It obviously could have been fatal.

Feenie · 01/10/2015 23:36

Schools are not allowed to just tell parents of nitty kids

Complete rubbish myth

oobedobe · 02/10/2015 04:21

In Canada they are pretty strict. If they suspect nits or lice they get a public health nurse to check the whole class/classes. If anything is found those kids have to leave class and wait to be collected. Not allowed to return to school without a Drs note or being rechecked by the nit nurse. Stops it from spreading to more kids. My DD caught them a few times last year so I ended up getting a professional lice remover to come to our home and treat us all. She showed me how to do it with comb and conditioner before that I was spending loads on chemical treatments. Hoping we don't get them again this year.

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