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?

My sons have short hair, doesn't take 5 mins to run through with a nitty gritty, but even if it takes you 30 mins - you just do it

I have to admit I didn't read the leaflet properly and didn't repeat the treatment 7 days later. After the first treatment I combed daily and once there were 2 days of no eggs or visible lice I stopped. Big mistake! The fuckers were back about 2 weeks later so I have learnt to a) repeat treatments and b) keep combing all the time.
Can I ask what mums do though about themselves? I treat myself but am unable to comb myself. Other half is not around much and our parents/in laws eye sight is too poor. I check the bits I can see at the front and they seem to be clear but am paranoid that it's me that may be the problem...
Any tips on product that you rate? I would love an old fashioned pesticide I know will kill the buggers especially the eggs for myself because I can't do an efficient comb on myself. (Am very tempted to try paraffin as the oldies yell me this was the treatment back in the day and although brutal it worked)

Feel like shaving my head.

One of the things that people forget is that they do need to comb for a long time. 3 weeks after the last one was spotted! Otherwise you may just re infect yourself.

Amongst my peers I'd say most people know how to treat headlice, most people are doing their best, and people are frustrated by the way the little buggers keep coming back, and by the minority to who don't appear to try very hard.

Headlice survive on blood and lay eggs on any head hair, I reckon even if you had one single solitary hair on your bonce a head louse would be rubbing its many hands together in delight.

Some people simply don't react to the bite and therefore don't scratch so you could very well be walking around with them for quite a while and not notice. Some parents may be lax about treating headlice and it IS a pain in the arse combing through hair all the time, most kids really hate it I'm sure. Some chemicals kill the louse and not the egg, some kill both but won't kill 100% of them just with one treatment. It's expensive, it's time consuming and it's crap for everyone. However, it's not the plague or black death and you get over it. The problem will ease as your kids get older. I wouldn't be terrified, horrified or suggest one person is cleaner than the other based soley on wether or not you have nits! I'd be pissed off and have been pissed off several times at the frequency my two get them and have had them but, if people are treating them at all different times there is always a risk of reinfestation between children and adults teachers, parents... everyone!

Nits aren't going extinct, they will not be going anywhere, anytime soon. They've been around for centuries, probably millenia just like fleas and tons of other critters.

I would also recommend the Nitty Gritty comb, expensive but very much worth it. Plaiting tightly and hairspray so the hair is tacky and less appealing for the lice to wander around in. It won't stop them but it helps.

Plauge/black death haha same thing but you get my drift!

£10 for a nitty gritty isn't much really when you can save on the lotions not needing them, and if you're on free prescriptions you can get one prescribed if necessary

What's the difference between a normal nit combs and nitty gritty

Started work this morning at 7.30 (primary) by 7.45 i had found my first nit! Think reading this thread has jinxed me!

Saw a girl scratching, long hair not tied up. Said 'oh come on lets tie your hair up for school', had a poke about, massive crawlers!

They have not just appeared this morning. How have her parents not noticed iver the weekend?!

Maybe theye don't have the money for the lotion.

Then put one on a piece of sellotape and show it at the pharmacy. You get it free.

Or smother them in conditioner and comb them out

They also give it out free at our local 24h tesco if you show the childs head or take in nits on sellotape.

No excuse

Nitty Gritty combs have very long prongs with smooth spirals running down them, best way I can describe it.

I was going to say grooves down the shaft but that sounds a bit wrong! Anyway, I've used normal nit combs which seemed to show that the head was clear of eggs, then used the Nitty Gritty and there were eggs, quite a few which the normal comb had missed.

They really are very good

Maybe theye don't have the money for the lotion

Treatments are available through the minor ailments scheme across the UK. There is no excuse.

Nits are horrible but I don't believe the children that get them should be vilified, and I'm glad we've moved on from that.

This is why the occurrence of nits is 'accepted'.

Doesn't mean to say anyone likes the buggers though, horrid scratchy disgusting things.

Luckily DS doesn't seem to have had them yet, although we do the nitty gritty comb and conditioner trial often - poor DS hates it, but better than getting nits that are so hard to shift.

" Maybe theye don't have the money for the lotion."

You can get it from gp or pharmacy.

If they don't have money for lotion to medically attend to a child in need then I'd be questioning the parenting.

Anyway apart from that, you don't need the lotion, you need lots and lots of cheap conditioner and combing.

One trick is to do the last rinse in wine / white vinegar and then blow dry.
this unsticks the nits from the hair shaft apparently.

I went to school in the 70s & 80s and didn't ever get them. I didn't hear of anyone else getting them either.

My DDs, 8 and 12 have each had them several times.

I was at school from 1967 to 1981 and never got headlice and had never heard of them until my dc started at school approx 10 years ago. And then we were permanently doing battle with them.

Bobochic My sister and I had headlice. We caught it on holiday abroad. We were certainly not filthy and came from a middle class home where there was no neglect. We did both have very thick long hair though, which I think is the kind of hair which attracts lice. I also remember being told at school that "headlice only like clean hair"- actually, clean or dirty makes no difference at all, it seems. Body lice, on the other hand, used to be common back in the days when people bathed once a week in a tin bath as opposed to showering every day. Also back then because of no central heating, many children were "sewn in" to layers of vests to keep them warm all through winter. No changes of vests. (Forgive me for wittering on, I am a bit of an armchair historian)