To wonder whether other kids mums may check DD for headlice at school & send her home without my consent?

[Mumpsnett]

Head Lice check is done by some mum volunteers at school, NOT by nurses....they reserve the right to send kids home if "lice are found", or what they think qualifies as such. There are lots of false positives obviously. I'm fuming!!! Should I complain???

I’d be really angry that ‘parent volunteers’ check for nits and refuse it.

Yes I check for lice daily!!! have to DDs with long thick hair, so I've become quite good at louse spotting over the years.

We had big problems with lice, one Mum couldn`t be bothered to treat and the rest of us were fed up with treating the whole family again and again. Nothing we could do about it though unfortunately. Not keen on a parent doing it, letters home seem to be the best bit.

You can literally pick up a head louse a day you had gone into school with clean hair. It's a poor reason to let a child miss out on an education.

gastropod Alright, it was surprising I have to admit :)
TBH I do not know if access to GP visits is as difficult in Belgium as in the UK. Is it easier to secure an appointment?

Tbh I would do this job. I’m sick to death of the letters because someone clearly isn’t checking their kids hair. I don’t understand why schools can’t send the child home. Sure it’s “only nits” but it’s a catchable treatable thing that can and does affect learning due to the child being too distracted by constantly scratching.

Hell I’d sign permission and go and help if school held a treat every single child Day with headrin twice a month system.

I do my children’s hair every day but every couple of months I find a big fat adult has krept in off someone

Well, it being Belgium I'm not sure about whether or not she's allowed to check without specific consent and send her home.

However, I wish it was allowed here.

Head lice are detrimental to health. Not just an annoyance. And I'm disgusted by the number of parents who don't check for them and who don't treat them properly when they know they have them but send them in to school anyway.

Also a bit about why a GP needed to be involved? Surely the appropriate response to this is to check and treat at home and if it bothers you, speak to school about the consent issue.

gastropod, you could argue that taking your DC to the GP for a diagnosis of nits was an unnecessary waste of a GP's time (fine if you want to pay for it yourself of course like OP did in Belgium). I believe that most surgeries in the UK would allocate you to the nurse, if you said you were looking for a nit check when you made the appointment.

Other people (volunteers) have to do it because of skanky lazy parents who can't be arsed, and whose kids constantly infect everyone else.

It's revolting and you should be happy that your school are trying to tackle it.

We also send kids home with nits. No warning given!

How odd. It wouldn’t happen in the uk I don’t think.

We also send kids home with nits. No warning given!

Really? Whereabouts are you?

Not in the UK, same as OP.

I'm agog that anyone would be anything other than grateful for another adult checking their kid's hair

In fact they're not allowed back in school without a GP letter saying they're clear

Headline are not detrimental to heath, they are annoying but that’s about it.

I really wish they did this in our school. Instead they send home the same generic letter week after week after week. Most parents treat, a couple don't bother, and it starts again....

Ds2's class was constantly nitty in Y1 and Y2 until a certain poor child left, since then he's only had them once in 3 years (helped by a very short hair cut).

I'm agog that anyone would be anything other than grateful for another adult checking their kid's hair

Me too. My 3 dds have had a few cases of nits over the years, I always treat carefully and check regularly but I would love someone else to do this too! Whether it's a nurse or parent volunteer, if it reduces the spreading it can only be a good thing.

Not all parents check their dc's hair and if they do, you have nothing to worry about.

OP, I think you've been a bit rude, calling this mother a silly cow is just nasty. What exactly is the issue of another adult checking your child's hair?

I guess you've never seen the sores that come with chronic infection, or with head lice allergy. At the very least there's the nights of broken sleep due to itching (my dc always seemed to start itching at 3am).

I wonder how you would get so many False Positives with the nit checking? They're sometimes really hard to spot but the only real confirmation of head lice are the sometimes tiny dark lice or the eggs (white or brown empty shells) attached to individual hairs.
An itchy rash around the ears or back of the neck can be a sign.

Combing with a nit comb and wiping it on a tissue is the best way to detect them. If the gp didn't do that, then he might have missed them?

I don't know, maybe parents need to be presented with the "evidence"? I suppose your dd might have had some black specks of dirt or something in her hair.

Not detrimental to health? Are you joking? They open your skin and feed on blood. Many people are allergic to their bites. The scratching also opens skin. Just because they're not a known public health risk doesn't mean they're not detrimental to health.

Why would you go to a GP for head Lice?

I'm in Belgium and as far as I know it is not normal to go to your gp about head lice. I think an experienced mother would probably be able to spot lice more easily than the average gp in fact.

Anyway, my DD had her head checked at her primaire by an experienced parent and I was grateful. It is poor if she got it wrong, but maybe they err on the side of caution, seems a bit strange tbh. Also, a bit unfair to call the woman a stupid cow for being helpful and volunteering her time.

Why wouldn't you, Soupdragon, if you wanted to?

I’ve been so tempted to ask if I can run a delousing session at my Dc’s School. Dd2 had them constantly for 3 years because some parents never bothered doing it properly. I check once a week and come through every other day until we are clear and then we’ll get reinfected. I know who the culprit is. School early send letters out so parents who care do WhatsApp the class if they find them. I would love to get rid of them from the school, run a session on how too and tell parents yes your child does have them. I’ve wasted hours and hours on nit checks and some people can’t be bothered make me so angry

Just a thought - maybe your child was sat next to someone who was found to have nits - and they are taking precautions?

I think there are probably several concerns or issues but whether the same rules apply in Belgium I don't know.
Firstly (in UK) said parent volunteer should have an enhanced dbs check or equivalent and relevant training. There must be at least one other adult present. In any other voluntary role this type of physical contact would be frowned upon unless you abide by those rules and even then you would be on a sticky wicket.
Surely if the parent finds what they believe to be nits it should be double checked by someone in a professional capacity. Fair enough if the parents are providing nit triage of sorts to help.
The school should have contacted parents first to explain what steps they would be taking.
At the end of the day responsible parents will treagt their kids, but there are always those who don't or won't and that is where the problem resurfaces from. Are their children going to be sent home endlessly or what does the school propose to do then?