To want parents of children with headlice to be told??

[Elouie]

We have been going round in circles with headlice for about 6 weeks now.

Our school have a policy of issuing a letter to all in the class when a case is confirmed but won't tell a parent directly that their child has them!

My children now have dry scalps and dandruff on account of the amount of rubbish I've been treating them with.

If they were spotted on my child I would want to be told.

It's just a vicious circle and I'm a bit sick of it.

I teach btw

Someone from my school has put an aggressive post on a Facebook page for the school saying they fed up of nits. Fed up of lazy mums not doing anything about it and she doesn't care if she gets in trouble if her Kids tell her someone has nits she going to speak to their parents about not treating them.
She says this as she keeps finding nits every week.

How do people know people aren't treating them though?
Couldn't it be the nits just passing on back and forth.?
I don't like the tone of the post sort of like a witch hunt trying to find out the culprit of the nits.
If her kids have them every week who is to say it isn't her kids passing them on before she discovers they have them?
There is a load of people agreeing with her saying their kids have them every week and they fed up so isn't it possible the nits just being passed back and forth and not someone not treating long term?

Everyone knows who the lice carriers are

That's nonsense

Nope not nonsense Minecrafty. I have worked in many nurseries and schools. The lice carriers are the children who scratch constantly and on inspection we can see lice moving and a head full of dead egg shells. I have no idea why some parents think others have no idea that their children have head lice. Or is it that they really don't want to know because they cant be bothered to treat it??

It's people assuming they know who the 'lice carriers' and I guarantee people will jump to the poor kid with their mum not in the clique of mums.

What about parents who work and Just can't leave their job and collect s child when it's not urgent?

If school aren't tackling individual families then if a louse happens to crawl along onto a child's head then be seen by a teacher, why should parents jobs be put at risk?

Oh, and a girl I work with has them.... Visibly crawling in her hair. She's also a carer to her teen sister who has SN. I guess that's where they are from.

Not sure howto broach it with her but I'd like to help her sort it somehow

i wouldn't be offended if a teacher quietly told me they had spotted lice in my kids hair, id be grateful i caught it before they had an infestation.

but naming and shaming kids and their parents pretty messed up stupid idea

i also think you wont know who the lice carriers are. if a kid scratches a lot it doesn't mean they have the greatest volume of nits and therefore must have been the original carrier. I think nits go for certain blood groups more i swear they do, and breed more on those scalps.

in primary school i had it 10 times. In secondary maybe twice. in adulthood since having kids maybe 5 times.

say nit or someone in the family has nits and i seem to be the first to get it why? I'm not dirty my hair is super clean. maybe i just have bad luck. and i get loads when i do get them. i hate the critters more than anyone i know yet i still wouldn't encourage naming and shaming.

its is really tough getting rid of nits on kids, especially if they have long hair or even short thick hair. if you have more kids then you're buggered. i have to combed 4 kids for 1 week then retreat if need be. kids don't want to sit still so you have to do it fast , whereas id rather take my time and skip a day of wet combing.

its a shame we cant wipe nits off this earth.
where do they actually come from???

I think its two things
Some are just passed back and forth cos the parents aren't necessarily aware ...and making them aware - in fact all parents aware that there are headlice in their class/the school would reduce this..
On the other hand you have the parents who don't treat their child for whatever reason ...laziness, ignorance, because it's only head lice...and they will become known as the lice carriers - as it is their child who is constantly reinfecting other children ..they are the parents who should be targeted, called into school to collect etc...maybe a two strikes and then your child gets sent home every time live ones are seen on their head? Might not be fair on the reinfected children in the short run (or rather their parents) but in the longer term would be there would be less around...
Mine have never had head lice but we had nearly constant threadworms until DD1 left primary. I think there was someone in her class with them unless they were just being passed back and forth .... and DD was a nail biter - just wished the whole class or school had been told and so they could all be treated at the same time ...even just once - I used to tell the school but they never told the other parents so I just gave up and bulk bought Ovex - didn't even bother washing the sheets, soft toys etc etc every time any more cos it didn't make any difference - so I understand why some parents 'give up' with nits too...but it really shouldn't come to that...

Yes listerine is like a miracle on a bottle. I nearly cried with joy to find something that actually worked.

Teachers really do know who the lice carriers are. There is no point in parents denying it. It really is obvious.

teacher s know who some lice carriers are.

My kids have had still lice even though I've combed and combed and combed and haven't found a single one. I know they are in there though.

Still, it doesn't matter now ( see cheap solution)

I scratch constantly and so does DS. We don't have lice. We have eczema.

Also worth pointing out the scratching is caused by an allergic reaction to the lice bite. Not everyone who has lice will be allergic and itching.

I suspect daily antihistamine users will have less of an itchy reaction too so if they are carriers they won't necessarily itch.

Itching is not an indicator of lice so making an assumption that child A who is scratching like mad has lice when it could be a number of things inc eczema is a bit daft and cruel to the child.

The only way to know for sure is to look for visible signs - the eggs and the lice themselves.

Also suggesting every child in a class should be treated with chemicals at the same time is a daft idea too. I'm allergic to those treatments. They made my head sting, itch and I developed sores on my scalp.

The parents themselves may have lice too so that won't stop the spread.

Again. Lice are a nuisance and are harmless unless severely infested. Wet comb your child's hair regulaly.

Recommendations here are every other day if lice are found for 2 weeks. After that it is suggested you wet comb weekly to spot early infection and begin the 2 week cycle. But not everyone can manage that regularly and they shouldn't be punished. Hell I've had weeks where I haven't had the time to check beacuse work has taken over our lives and I've barely seen DS just to keep a roof over our heads. Many families will be in the same boat.

Tbh though, I'm really not that bothered about my DS getting lice. It happens. We treat. I don't judge any other family if they have them and wouldn't dream of singling them out or discussing with other parents that so and so is passing on lice we should do something.

Compassion over judgement.

We have had our 3rd generic letter this term saying headlice spotted in class, please check your child treat if needed. Clearly being ignored by the people who need to know!

I think it is ridiculous that the teachers can't just have a quick, quiet word with a parent or carer to let them know their child has headlice and needs to be treated. I for one would be happy to be told so I could treat asap.

Those who don't check and treat are incredibly ingnorant and/or selfish.

This thread is making me itch.

I've got thick hair and this brings back memories of sitting shivering in the bathtub with my mum combing my hair for about an hour with approximately 100 of fat little bastards lined up along the edge of the tub.

Hate headlice So not looking forward to DS going to school and potentially passing them on to me as I used to catch them really easily as a child.

Those who say, "Oh, it's unfair to single out the child " are forgetting that those who do try to do something about it are landed with huge costs of head lice treatment, not to mention hours of time spent combing.

Schools are putting the rights of an individual child not to be "shamed" above the rights of every other class member not to suffer what can be dreadful itching and in some cases aggravation of existing skin conditions. If sending a letter home to the culprit's family was commonplace then perhaps it would be less likely to cause embarrassment.

When I used to teach our school policy was that we couldn't tell parents. A generic letter used to go out.
However, I always used to collar a parent and say something like...
'I noticed X was a bit itchy today so it might be worth checking their head'

I never actually SAID their child had Lice......

My two have had them and I got them from the DCs. I never had them as a child - our school rule was that hair had to be tied back and it was the days of separate desks and not working in groups so I suspect less chance to get them!

I check my two carefully each time I wash their hair. If I spot them we condition and comb every two days for two weeks. Not had any for a year now.

The thing is, the sending home straight away must work as we haven't had any mention of any headlice in the 2 years mine have been at school. It's the threat of it that means everyone checks regularly in case they have picked up elsewhere, and because none in school due to parents checking often it must be rare any child is sent home and parent has to potentially miss work to collect.

Mine have never had. But I still style their hair daily and check over quick, and look when we wash it incase. So hopefully we should see as soon as any appear, rather than when a full infection is underway

If DC were excluded for having lice, then the permanently infested child would be terribly popular as the summer holiday season loomed. Because it takes 1-3 weeks to treat pesticide-resistance nits, and if they can't go in to school, then you may as well go away. It would cover the entire SATs season too.

Staff at schools really do know which children are infested all the time.

Infestations are easy to spot. I'm not talking about a few nits caught that week, i'm talking about children that have nits all the time. Eggs, egg cases, big lice, baby lice.

We are with the children all day. We sit close to them, we stand close to them, we hold their hands, we touch their heads when we're counting, we gaze across their heads during assembly, we watch them when they are sitting in a big group. We see who's scratching and itching and we see the lice!

You can treat head lice with any mild shampoo. Lather up, leave the suds on for 5 minutes and rinse.
They suffocate and drown. And it weakens the glue that holds the eggs to the hair.
Repeat every 3 days for 2 weeks to clear an infestation.

Yes the parents should be told, and the kids sent home.

It doesn't take 3 weeks to let a child back to school. Take home, douse with headrin for extra measure. They comb with conditioner until nothing is left. Return to school next morning. Keep up combing every other day incase someone else has any for you can see if one returns.

If your taking 3 weeks to comb out lice your obviously missing most the first time. If on day one they are still visible you need to keep combing until gone. Not send back with half still there

The parents who wash/brush their childs hair each day must also be able to see the nits and lice too and do nothing. Or if they do treat it they don't do it properly.

How can they allow their kids to suffer unnecessarily? I have allergies and eczema and being itchy is torturous.

The first thing I do now when I see my mum is to get her to check MY head for nits. I'm 38!!

The lice themselves are much easier to comb out than the eggs. Those eggs are cemented on pretty damn hard! On my DDs fine long hair i've resorted to dragging them out between my pinched fingernails in the past to get the buggers out. Nit combing long hair can easily leave the egg further down the hair shaft to hatch.

If you spot a louse on your child comb with conditioner every night for 3 or 4 nights at least. This way you get the visible adults and babies out and then over the next few days you'll get any babies from eggs the adult may have laid before you got to it!

I once put dollop of over the counter head lice treatment onto a live louse on the side of the sink overnight and it was still alive the next day.

From then on i didn't use chemicals any more. I just did the nitty gritty comb every other night through term times whether i could see any lice or not (with conditioner; big bottle £1 tesco) and my 3 long haired DDs stayed clear.

I started school in the 1950s. I lived in an innercity area, lots of deprivation and lots of people without an inside loo let alone a bath. I never had nits, my brother never had them and my sister had them once. My mother was nearly suicidal with the shame. When my children were at school it seemed much more of a problem and by the time my grandchildren were starting school the problem was awful. My grandson seemed to be catching them constantly despite very short hair and having his hair combed through with conditioner on a regular basis.

When I was 11 I went to a grammar school in a "nice" area. I only remember one girl getting sent home because she had nits. Her dad was a doctor and no one made a big deal of it. She caught them and then was treated and they were gone.

I don't understand why this has become such a terrible problem.

You can treat head lice with any mild shampoo. Lather up, leave the suds on for 5 minutes and rinse.
They suffocate and drown. And it weakens the glue that holds the eggs to the hair.
Repeat every 3 days for 2 weeks to clear an infestation.

This really isn't true and will result in "reinfections" which are really just not getting rid of the infection in the first place.

Shampoo and water will do nothing. If it did, most children would never get lice. Most of the chemical treatments are also useless.

Combing with a good fine tooth comb is the only way to get rid. You should be able to get rid of all live lice in one night so the child can go back to school but you need to keep combing every day for a week at least to get any stray eggs or eggs that have hatched. Then comb every week for a month.

If you cover the head in olive oil overnight you will suffocate the live lice and can comb them out. The nits will survive though.