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.

japan sounds best, just send home, no stigma...but then no reinfection either.

If my dc would sit whilst I combed, it would be super easy to manage.

mY PROB is my toddler will not sit still or let me near her hair let alone, get a nit comb thru it. its very very very very hard to deal with for us.

What's changed? Why do some parents seem so unable to get on top of this these days; I'm an 80s child and some children occasionally had nits but it was dealt with, no big deal. I never had them nor did my sister.
Those saying that targeting the child who has the problem is wrong, does the fact that our rates are so much higher than the nations who do this not give you phase for thought?
It's mortifying to be honest, we sound like a nation of dirty scutters if other countries can get on top of it and yet we can't!

The treatment is what's changed. In the 80's the solutions killed all nits and eggs, now they are resistant.

Sorry lice and eggs/nits.

Yes, some are resistant to the old treatments and that's why new ones have to be found e.g. Now there are some that suffocate the lice rather than killing them with insecticides

"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"

Assuming a pesticide resistant nit or personal choice to combing, if you are taking less than 20 days then you will not be clearing the infestation.

The lifecycle of the headlouse is 17 days (range 15-20).

The eggs are actually cemented on, and there is no way to be sure to have cleared them (other than false assurances). So you have to keep found for the whole time, getting every hatchling.

So if you don't want DC back until clear, then it's a week off for most pesticides and three weeks if combing.

Anything else if plaything to the gallery, rather than a clear child.

So if you don't want DC back until clear, then it's a week off for most pesticides and three weeks if combing.

This just isn't true. It is entirely possible to comb a child well enough to get rid of all live lice and all nits in one evening/day-so one day off school. I have done it with 2 girls with long hair with an inspection the morning after by the school nurse (required to go back to school if you are sent home here with nits/lice)

It requires diligent combing in sections using conditioner and an excellent comb with your child in front of a dvd or the computer (and gin afterwards). It takes hours but it is possible. You then need to comb every single day for at least a week in case you missed a nit. It is tedious (and actually strangely soothing) but not rocket science to comb properly. There is a local service here staffed by nurses which does it for about $100 in about 2 hours. Once you follow up with combing yourself (they teach you how), they guarantee your child will be nit/lice free and fit to go back to school.

And my personal opinion is that the pesticides are useless unless you comb as well so you might as well send your child in the next day because she will be passing them on even if you wait a week.

perma I have a nitty gritty comb - like I said we've never had them but when we had a scare at school I got one of those cheap plastic ones to check DD. I soon realised it was crap* ...especially as DD had really thick long hair...and bought a Nitty Gritty which says it is supposed to get rid of the eggs too - do they not work?

And if you get rid of all the live ones, the only ones that are going to hatch in the day are going to be immature ones - according to the NHS website Head lice normally only crawl from head to head when they're adults or nearly mature juveniles. and they would need to pass more than one (a male and a female) onto to a friend for them to get infested...so if you do regular daily combing to get the hatchlings out you don't need to keep them off for 3 weeks until every nit has hatched ...
The biggest danger will be if someone is heavily infested and passes on more than one louse - or you pick up a mature egg bearing female...

(*As aside I used to have a med-long coat cat and it had a flea collar (pre spot on days) and I used to check for fleas with a similar comb - then when she did get fleas I could see flea dirt but never managed to see a live flea. I got a longer toothed metal comb and realised she had lots of fleas (yuk).)

We have our first infestation here. I must have spent an hour on the 3 DS's hair last night with the Nitty Gritty. DS2 was riddled with adults and babies, DS1 and I had a couple of adults each and DS3 had zilch. Got a couple of babies out today of DS2 but nothing on the rest of us. I was more annoyed by the middle class mums of DS' friends telling me they didn't own a nit comb because the DC had never had nits. It's just bloody ignorant and selfish. I usually nit comb every 2-3 weeks but missed a go... We all stink of tea tree oil now though! And I can't stop itching.

They'll be producing hatchlings throughout that time, and can crawl from head to head as soon as they're mobile (often they don't, but they can).

I don't think you should exclude for headline at all, btw. But it does seem to be a popular view on this thread, and I wanted to point out how long it takes to be clear properly.

Apparent reinfestation within 3 weeks is almost certainly a continuation of the same infestation, and it's not just the conspicuously lousy who are spreading them.

Minniedeminx not sure where you got your information from but it's total rubbish.

perma, if you comb out properly in the first 24-48 hours it is entirely possible to get rid of all nits and lice. they don't have superpowers. It just takes effort. you do need to follow up with daily comb outs just in case you missed one but it is also possible to get them all in one go. I know because I did it. Combed every day for a month after the mammoth evening/next day session and never found another nit or lice on either head.

What does it say about me that I am so weirdly interested in this subject?? :) We went to the nit nurse here for our first infestation and it was the funniest hour I spent in a long time and she made me feel completely in control-just armed with a comb, kitchen paper and cheap white conditioner! I always thought I would be unable to deal with it but I found it strangely satisfying to apply superior human intelligence (also known as the nit comb) to lice and nits.

Also the nit nurse had testimonials on the wall from satisfied clients including one which said "Thank you so much for helping us beat this thing. Thanks to you I am now down to 2 gins a night from my previous 5"

But perma you would need two hatchlings and of opposite sexes to decide to move and manage to transfer both to someone else for them to get infested - they can't mate until they are mature and they need to mate before they produce eggs...
Unless they had the hatchling long enough to mature and then they managed to pick up another one...I guess...

Canyouforgiveher
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.

This absolutely works. Its just common bloody sense.
They are animals and like any other insect will drown if you just leave the damn shampoo on long enough.
They cannot breathe underwater for longer than 5 minutes.
You have to time it. 5 minutes, no less.

You have not read what I wrote, have not understood it, and have never tried it, so dont comment.

deste
Minniedeminx not sure where you got your information from but it's total rubbish.*

This is EXACTLY how I treated my kids for head lice. That how I know it works so keep your rude uninformed opinions to yourself.

Leave the shampoo on for 5 minutes, time it, comb out the dead lice.
Repeat every 3 days for 2 weeks then once a week.
85 minutes. Time it. Got that? They cant breathe underwater, and the soap breaks down their waterproof coating.
You dont need pesticides or god help us mayonnaise or other oils. Just follow the damn instructions.

When we have lice I like to do little experiments on them.
I catch a couple of adults and test out different killing methods that could be applied to the head. ( gives me something do to alleviate the tedium of combing)
I put them on a saucer and cover them in different products and see how long it takes them to die or indeed whether they will die at all.

I shall try the shampoo next time and see how long that takes to kill them.

This is how I discovered that listerine worked-- and worked quickly.

As one adult louse lays 3-9 eggs per day, yes it is very possible to have hatchlings of both sexes which rapidly become a breeding pair.

Yes of course you should shift all adult lice and hatchlings every time you comb, apologies I had thought that went without saying.

Under those conditions, it takes the time of a full lifecycle to be sure that the infestation has actually gone.

Headlice can survive underwater for hours MinniedeMinx it's the combing you did that got rid of the lice not the drowning.

The last letter we had from DC school was that children found with live lice on them at school would be sent home. This was after the fourth warning letter in a month. It seems to have worked as we have had no letters since.

perma I think we are at cross purposes -
I'm talking about needing to exclude for 3 weeks until the infestation had completely gone - and I don't think you would.
As long as you were daily combing the likelihood of them managing to infest another child would be tiny.

Ohhhh interested in the results of live louse experiments...I do like an experiment

I drop cat fleas into boiling water with lots of washing up liquid in - boiling instant death, cooler it just takes a few seconds... so maybe strong detergent and water would work on lice?
When DD2 had a tick I'd never seen them before - and I was shocked how fast it moved after I'd got it out - it ran up the tweezers. I dropped it, found it, was going to squash in in a piece of loo roll but it was really hard - dropped it and the paper in the loo and it seemed to be swimming around quite happily before I flushed in horror. Next one I was ready and I dropped into boiling water - instant death...
When I had carpet beetles (woolly bears) I tried all these things like cedar oil and lavender oil to deter/kill them (they couldn't care less about cedar -lavender they won't crawl over it until it is dry and then they will...) Tumble drying clothes kills them (I put one in, tied in a sock). Forgot about two test subjects in a sealed plastic tub for a good month or so and they were still alive - no food or water -they are indestructible little feckers...

Of course normal shampooing would not work. They can close their spiracles (what they breathe through) and hold their breathe for hours so it is a pointless exercise

Sorry, breath not breathe

Yes boiling water always works. As I comb the hair I dip the comb in boiling water and watch with glee as they all float about DEAD. Sadly I cannot immerse any heads in boiling water

My dds haven't had them often, only one of them has had them to the point of tiny new hatchlings, the other just had one big fat louse...! (uggh). When I found the tiny ones on DD2 I 'phoned the school to let them know and kept her at home that day, combing several times to make sure I had got them, then re-combing every day for a week to make sure. She must have had one adult crawl on and lay eggs without it being all that irritating, then she started scratching when they hatched. They were too small to see without a magnifying glass, so just out of the egg. No adults on her, about 15-20 hatchlings. All dealt with very quickly. I check the girls frequently, in fact I combed myself earlier as my head was itchy...no lice thank goodness. But a friend of dds at school last week had visible lice, one fatty crawling in her eyebrow..... I just don't see how it can get to that point ever, although I have very fair, sensitive-skinned children, who itch at the first sign of a louse- perhaps if your child isn't scratching you won't notice until there is a real infestation? I grew up with the Nit Nurse, and children being sent home if they had lice, so I do think a private 'phone call to a parent saying "your child has lice" is fine. Lice aren't just annoying. They an cause allergic reactions and dermatitis. I come up in hives if I get bitten. They are a real hassle to tackle if you have a child with long hair. My dd's hair is long but fine. Long, thick, curly hair must be hellish to get through.