to think it is ridiculous that in todays Britain schools have head lice problem?

[judyta101]

The head teacher in my DS school regularly sends out letters: 'head lice alert!', 'check your child's hair today for unwanted visitors'. DS who is now 7 got head lice twice in the last six months - first time I had to google it as never seen it before. I was terrified and run fast to the nearest chemist. We moved to the North West over a year ago, but also had the letters in previous school in South Wales.
I have lived in the UK for long time now, but I was born and brought up in Eastern Europe, went to school in the eighties, heard someone had head lice once or twice, it had never spread, never been a problem. Never heard about it at the university or the school I was teaching at.
I asked my SIL (a retired teacher) about it - she laughed it off saying her granddaughters (teenagers now) get it now and again too.
Is it so common and normal that it's just a part of a school life? Am I unlucky to live where it is a problem? Are people not bothered by head lice?

You were terrified and ran to the chemist ?

Dear God almighty.

Head lice can make DC very ill.

Agree, we are pathetic about it here. Kids with nits need to be sent home and not allowed
Ime the kind of parents who leave lice infestations untreated don't give a shit about their kid's education either. We need nit nurses again.

As I quite clearly explained there was never any 'crawling with lice'. I was just pointing out that it was sometimes more difficult to treat in certain situations, even with the disgusting chemicals and all the combing and I suspect that it's not different now than it was in the early 90s.

By the way - you can wash hair as much as you like and still have headlice. Washing doesn't get rid of them. Otherwise it would be extremely easy to treat them.

Just be glad that the flippin things haven't evolved to be able to fly yet.

None of my DC have had lice. On average I'd say one of their classes a year has a letter home saying there's an outbreak.

Judging from this thread some schools seem to have a more significanct issue - what's the cause?

If the OP posted about a pet with fleas visiting a dog park, everyone would be up in arms, disgusted that the pet has been let out with the infestation. The fact that people aren't bothered about it happening to kids is frankly appalling. Even going to school in early 90s in a war torn country this was simply not an option. In a (mostly) vaccinated populations people tend to forget diseases can be spread this way.

So what do you suggest Leta? Ban children with headlice from school?

I'm suggesting parents of the children with lice deal with the problem before it becomes a nuisance for all the parents and possibly a health concern for some.

My DS (year 6) seems to have had almost permanent head lice since he changed schools 2 years ago. I can only assume he is getting them off some kid in his class.

Before Christmas I did 4 chemical treatments at 3-4 day intervals, ending on a Sunday, and he was clear. By Wednesday he had adults again. Now I comb out on alternate days all the time :(

More in our school (not in U.K.) they are excluded until treated.

Certainly at our school I don't see neglected filthy kids. Just normal families maybe missing it for a few days. It's a really difficult cycle to break. Unless you only found tiny baby ones, chances are your son spread it to a few classmates before you caught it.

"Acceptable" - well it happened to your DS didn't it? Is he unacceptable?
It needs to be acceptable so that there is no shame in admitting to an infestation, telling all your friends and making sure everyone has checked. Treating it as an abomination, everyone will think it's not something that applies to their clean well-groomed kids, they won't check, or if they find some they won't admit it so that everyone else can check, and so it goes on.

It was around when I was a kid. Not noticeably less for the existence of nit nurses that I can see.

Are there any sources for the claims that lice are a health concern or make DC ill? Because I've never heard of anything along those lines and the NHS and CDC don't list it as a risk...

I went to school in a very poor rough area in the 70s. I only know one child who had got nits twice. Neither I or my brother ever had nits, and we never had a nit comb used on us. Nits seemed to have been very rare. No idea why it has changed quite so much.

Haven't read the full thread but headlice are the bane of my life at the moment. For two years my two DDs have continuously had them.

I've tried every treatment there is although I'm finding they survive even after doubling/tripling treatment time. I combined chemical treatment with regular combing but have dropped to just combing as many of the treatments make their hair greasy and don't seem to work anyway, plus the cost was getting ridiculous. And after all that, they were just picking them back up at school as there are obviously some parents who aren't treating at all.

The problem seems to primarily to be in youngest DDs class as I will get her as lice free as possible and the next day she will have several huge adult lice again. They also seem to like her more than the eldest. I regularly comb out 30 or more adult lice with upto 150 or more adolescent lice and tons of eggs. No exaggeration. They're sometimes so bad that several mating pairs will be visible on top of her head and I can pick them off.

Then of course I get them. I have very thick hair and an illness that causes hair loss and the nit combs rip out huge chunks of my hair which worries me. I sometimes scratch them out of my hair too which is extremely embarrassing in public. They used to freak me out but they're just a fact of life now. I would dearly love to get back the hours I spend trying to keep them under control. Also I hate how upset my DDs get having to be treated. Sometimes I have to shout at them to get them to let me treat them .

I've considered inviting the youngest's class to a 'nit party' after school on say a Friday and doling out treatment to everyone but no idea if people would come or how to get hold of that much treatment. Either way, I've had enough .

Mostly it used to stop when they got to secondary school & stopped playing with their heads all huddled together.

Except the older ones take group selfies now - head lice have become much more common than previously in teens & adults...

Because they're rife at our nursery and the nursery won't/can't inform parents, we do it ourselves. Nobody freaks out or gets hysterical, we're just more aware and check more regularly. Personally I comb through their hair every night, because I want to make sure I'm on top of it.

With Ds I now use the electric nit comb every night and a grade 2 haircut. Dd also has thick curly hair so I comb it with a nitty gritty comb every time I wash her hair. They still have them though!

I work in pastoral care in a secondary school and I often get told by teachers they have spotted lice on children.I send a note to their lesson asking them to come and see me, check their hair and send them home immediately for treatment.This is on advice of the school nurses.They can come back that day once treated.I also give parents written advice.Its just not true to say schools can't tackle parents-we have got the school nurses to do home visits for a year 10 who had constant reinfestations and she treated the child with mum at home.We also buy headline lotion and a nitty gritty for one pupil premium pupil.We can't do much more!

Lice can be a health concern. There have been cases of children becoming ill with untreated infestations. When my dd had headlice her lymph nodes were very swollen.

The answer is not to exclude children with lice; some parents will still fail to treat and children are vulnerable to unkindness from peers if they are sent home with nits.

Staff in schools need to be having conversations with parents and providing support or signposting where required.

Neglectful parents are the reason lice spread so much nowadays because these parents have a lax approach to dealing with them and don't want to spend their money on the lice treatment. I say if we have one day a year where every school in England gets a visit by a nit nurse and everyone gets treated with nit lotion at the same time it wouldn't be a problem at all anymore, but schools don't have the time or money to do that and SS don't have time or money to chase neglected children who's parents let them suffer with lice

Dd has thick wavy hair. I didn't have to cut it, I just conditioned and combed it twice a week. We knew where they were coming from.

Why aren't they allowed to tell the parents of the child spreading it? That's just bizarre. Also how are the parents having so little involvement in their childs grooming and hair brushing that they aren't noticing them? Part of the reason you brush your childs hair is to check for things like lice?!

FullMarks and Lyclear kill the lot normally after one treatment so why is it such a big deal for them to just sort it out?

Oh yes the nit nurse! Lice all over Ds's school he has had them twice I think - once defo and then treated as his friends had them. The combs are brilliant for removal but you need to keep at it. Worms are definitely far worse - bleugh!!!

I think it's far from OK that it is seen as one of those things, and worms even more so. So YANBU.
Another old gimmer here, never had them, neither did my friends.