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 worked in a nursery where a new girl joined and her hair was rife with nits. I informed the mother and she was so grateful we told her. She also appreciated our advice about treatment. I got a bollocking from the nursery owner as it was bad for business!!

At DS school the nits policy is made clear to everyone regularly.

If your child is found to have lice then you are sent a letter home with instructions to treat that night. If they still have them the next day they will be sent home and this will continue until they are gone (obviously none treatment resulting in many days on would be seen as a parenting/neglect issue and dealt with accordingly).

Other children in the class and year group are also sent a letter home telling you they have been found in the class/year and to check hair that night and treat if necessary.

Seems the most sensible way to me.

We get pretty much WEEKLY texts from school informing I'm us of nit outbreaks. Ds is yet to get them but dd (with a cm as she's only 2) has just had her first case - managed to get her treated with only 1 live nit found. Let the cm know so she could inform any other parents so u I can make sure we don't get them back! No idea where she picked her solo nut from though! I haven't had the frustration (yet) of multiple/repeat infestations, but I'm trying G to accept it's just one of those school/child hood things. I remember forever being treated for nits as a kid - it must have been infuriating for my dm!

One positive outcome of having a child with ASD is that we haven't had to deal with the critters yet.

I haven't read all the posts so apologies if repeating anything...
My girls have not had nits for over a year now ... Hurrah. This is after maybe six or seven years of checking them every night and fine tooth combing twice a week and treatment if necessary. This was a nightmare but became a routine.
Just over a year ago I was called and told that one of them was suspected of having nits, would I come and check. I refused because she hadn't had them two days previously and if it were to be the policy that every child with nits I would do it but I wasn't picking up my child to take her home, treat her and then for her to be reinfected the next day.
So they changed the policy and for two weeks the children were checked by the staff daily and if there were nits a letter was sent home with the information that any children with nits at the end of this period would need to be picked up.
This forced action and although there is still the odd notification (maybe once a term) mine have all been nit free since snc the school is largely nit free. The only way to combat this is for everyone to treat at the same time, which probably needs to be forced.
Have always tied and plaited hair for school and now find tooth comb maybe monthly or if any child scratches! Or if I am off to the hairdresser....or now because I am scratching just thinking if them.

DC2 has them constantly. I comb every three days as routine and treat with chemicals if I find any adult nits (usually about once every 6 weeks, sometimes more often.)

She tells me the children do know who the carrier is and no one will play with her because of it, so she plays with her

I should be proud of her for this and I am, around 80% of the time, the other 20% of time is spent combing and mentally cursing this child's mother.

I've raised the issue with the school, who said they are aware, but they're not allowed to do anything that would single this child out.

The child herself knows but tells DC2 that her mum is too busy and doesn't have enough money to keep treating her, but she does get treatment occasionally. DC2 stole our spare nitty gritty comb and sneaked it to school for the girl and explained how to use it but it doesn't seem to have a made a difference.

Her mum's really nice too. I guess some people just don't know how to deal with them effectively.

It's a shame but it's not life threatening and the child shouldn't miss out on education because of it. I say this as someone who spent from 8pm until 11pm combing out nits last night and covered in Lyclear.

My DD's school did exactly the same as Rinoachicken's (above): Treat that night and don't send your children back to school with nits. The next day the child(ren) in question would be asked by the teacher if they had been treated.

ItWillWash
That poor child. It's parents like that who need to be told by schools to sort it out. She is already being singled out by the other kids. Would you be able to speak to her mum? Tell her she can get treatment for free? She is most likely chucking the chemicals on and thinking that is the end of it then not combing to get eggs/new hatchlings.

I do tell her. I haven't sat her down and said "Right X has nits, they're not being treat. This is what you need to do." or anything but I will tell her every time DC2 has them and mention that she needs to check her child, making sure to whinge about how long combing takes and having to re treat a week later, but it's the only way to get rid of them etc. She nods along with me.

I didn't know you could get free treatment. I'll keep it mind and mention it to her next time we have infestation.

The child must surely tell her that she is being excluded at school because of it?

But if the child knows she will be ignored anyway probably doesn't see the point if mum is always 'too busy' to give a shit.
It's incredibly selfish of this woman. She must know. If it wasn't for your DD this child would be left on her own. I'd be shocked if the mum didn't have them herself too.

There was a girl in my daughter's class in the Juniors, and the other children could see she was infested with nits. I had to keep my two dds' hair short, wash it with tea tree oil shampoo, then apply tea tree oil conditioner to nitcomb out the nits for two years. They grew to hate the smell of tea tree oil, and complained that they couldn't grow their hair.

After complaints from half the parents in the class, the school approached the parents, who cut the girl's hair and treated her for nits - but did not keep it up, so she was infested with nits again. Any child can get a one off dose of nits, but if a child is infested for years, the school should ban the child, until its treated - why should a whole class suffer? IMO, treatment with conditioner and a nitcomb is not expensive, so there is no excuse.

I think any child who is constantly infected with headlice should be reported to Social Services. It is child neglect pure and simple. At the school I work in we give parents many chances to get rid of their child's headlice. If they continue to ignore warnings we report to SS.

Report to SS you do know lice can be attracted to certain types of hair. Also some children with Asd get constantly re infested as they can't bare their hair to be combed. My dd has had lice six times in the last 12 months glad she goes to a school that doesn't jump to conclusions.

I think this is interesting (and imagine exploding headline on my head as I have a rarer blood type - Bneg!):

Do lice prefer a certain blood type?

Head lice will feed on any blood type, but some blood types are more attractive than others. Once they begin feeding on a certain type, they need the same blood type to survive. Studies conducted by Terry Meiking, research assistant professor, Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery at the University of Miami, found that head lice intentionally avoid an incompatible blood type (especially where the Rh factor is different) unless they were starving. When a louse consumes another blood type, its intestinal tract explodes. But if the louse laid nits prior to feeding, those nits are able to feed on the new blood type.

The kids need to be treated in the school .
Nit nurse is required again