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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

117 replies

Mumpsnett · 06/02/2018 11:26

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???

OP posts:
BarbarianMum · 06/02/2018 13:29

the kids and their lice will go unchecked in the future

well that's a victory for child welfare then Hmm

CotswoldStrife · 06/02/2018 13:32

OP, I think you've over-reacted here out of embarrassment and made something that is a fact of life for many (even if it is unpleasant, I hate lice!) into a much bigger deal that it needed to be.

BarbarianMum · 06/02/2018 13:34

Yes and the reason for this is parents who don't/can't/won't check their kids hair regularly, or treat them properly if nits are found. And no, kids shouldn't be bullied for it but neither should a child be constantly be reinfected by being forced to share a desk with someone who has a chronic case.

stoneagefertilitydoll · 06/02/2018 13:38

My kids aren't at school in the UK, and both the countries we've lived in recently the policy was if nits were found, that you had to fully treat before the children could come back.

In the country before this one, they had someone come into school with a camera which let them look at the kids scalps on a screen - the children thought it was fantastic!

Where I am now, I'm supposed to get proof from a doctor that I've eradicated the nits before the children are allowed back.

My kids haven't caught them yet luckily, because DS1 has very thick hair, and DS2 has a long mop of curls, so getting either of them fully combed for nits would be a pain in the bum - it seems to me that a clear policy of treatment before return can only be a good thing when it comes to stopping them being transferred around - in the end, it's worse for people to have to repeatedly treat than it is to get it done properly and out of the school surely.

Much like colds - we've been asked to keep the kids home when they're snotty, and as a consequence, the school is generally fairly cold-free

CiderwithBuda · 06/02/2018 13:49

DS was at school in Hungary and then school nurse regularly checked children. Once he was found to have them - it was him and two girls - their coat pegs were next to each other. I got a call to come and pick him up - nurse was very embarrassed but it was a bank holiday weekend and he said it would give me a good chance to get him clear. Which it did. He never had them again. I suspect that was because all of the children were checked regularly and it was dealt with. Made complete sense to me.

The UK non system baffles me. Why on earth would you not be happy having your child checked?

wwwwwwwwwwwwww · 06/02/2018 13:52

This gave me a flash back to infant school where we had a nut nun who did inspections.

wwwwwwwwwwwwww · 06/02/2018 13:52

Nut I meant nit

halcyondays · 06/02/2018 13:54

Our school send home if they see nits, but they don't actively look for them.

Soubriquet · 06/02/2018 13:58

Hmmm I'm not sure if i would like this

I suppose it's good that an experienced eye is looking but I don't like the idea of my dd being embarrassed and sent home

Anyone else itching now they've read the word lice many times?

BarbarianMum · 06/02/2018 14:02

I don't remember it being something to be embarrassed about (being sent home by the nit nurse, I mean). When I was at school we all hoped we had them so we could go home for the day.

FlyTipper · 06/02/2018 14:06

suzy2b Tue 06-Feb-18 12:46:12
In england you are not allowed to touch childrens heads that's why there is no nit nurse any more it is classed as abuse (stupid i know)

Is this a fact? Perhaps it's the EU's fault (joke). But really, there is this undercurrent here. There is nothing wrong with people touching children's scalps. Or touching a shoulder. I work in a nursery and I get lovely big hugs each day I arrive. I'm annoyed by people who wish to misconstrue entirely innocent and appropriate touching.

OP I agree with another PP that you're allowed to disagree if it isn't working for you. However, I would hope that you could reflect about why, really why, this bothers you so much.

grannytomine · 06/02/2018 14:23

I could never understand why it needed a nurse to check for head lice but going to the GP? Why would you do that?

I wish people would check their own kids. My GS went to a school where he was constantly reinfected. Some people don't seem to find them very irritating but he would be scratching till he drew blood.

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 06/02/2018 14:37

I remember routinely having a nit nurse at primary and the odd child being sent home. It was never the same child though as far as I remember.
It never eradicated all the nits though. The nurse always found a few pupils to send home.

A better approach would be to educate parents on treating nits. Bunging an insecticide shampoo on their head will work the first time but nits quickly become resistant and you end up with a child breeding "super nits" on their head.

Combing with conditioner is not always done thoroughly enough. It needs to be continually repeated over several weeks as it doesn't remove eggs. Eggs will hatch between combing sessions.

Lotions which coat the lice and suffocate them (eg Hedrin) will only kill lice. Again that treatment has to be repeated a week later to kill any newly hatched lice.

I think parents are just a bit ignorant in how to get rid of lice rather than lazy. It's all very well having nit nurses or nit volunteers but it doesn't guarantee the child will be treated properly.

muttmad · 06/02/2018 14:55

When i was as at school (a very long time ago) we had a nit nurse, i only ever had them once and that was from a holiday camp in the summer holidays, now there are no checks and infestations are much more common, id welcome the return of regular school checks.

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 06/02/2018 15:56

The main reason infestations are so common now compared to 30 years ago is that head lice are now more or less resistant to the pesticides in anti lice treatments.

40 years ago an over the counter nit treatment would be 99-100% effective, nowadays it would be around 25%.

Nit nurses or nit checkers will only reduce the nit problem if they comb children's hair wet with a nit comb to detect nits. Otherwise plenty of cases go undetected, children might be off sick that day and so on.
It's the consensus these days that parents can do this more effectively at home.

To protect your child from nits you just have to laboriously nit comb with conditioner every few weeks.
I don't agree that bringing back Nitty Nora in schools will help.

Steamcloud · 06/02/2018 16:01

Not insisting that DC tie back long hair doesn't help either.

I agree that ideally this is best dealt with at home but that is when parents are aware and cooperative. Sometimes they are not and need a bit of a consequence to get the ball rolling!

Felyne · 06/02/2018 16:05

Mumpsnett Tue 06-Feb-18 11:48:58

Hmmm...food for thought.
Yes I am angry, actually..... apparently the mum in question was nattering away on her mobile while checking DD...

Erm, headlice aside, volunteers being on their phones whilst with the children would (or should!) definitely not happen in the UK, not sure if Belgium is the same. It's a safeguarding thing because most phones these days have cameras in them.

Tika77 · 06/02/2018 16:15

I wish they did this at my kids’ school.

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 06/02/2018 16:17

I agree SteamCloud parents have to be co operative.

Also the idea that head lice are dirty and disgusting has to be quashed. Some parents will indignantly deny the suggestion that their child has nits and get angry about it (not saying this is the case with the OP)!

And although it's encouraged, many parents are too embarrassed to report a case of nits to the class teacher.

NeedsAsockamnesty · 06/02/2018 16:18

In the UK this would never happen. We had to wait until a nursery child had fell and bumped their head as an excuse to how we spotted headlice in a child who had them so bad they would fall off the paper as we weren't allowed to physically check for them. It's a joke

Find me one actual rule that says your not allowed to report the seeing of live lice to a parent. Or that you are prevented from raising concerns about a potential welfare issue.

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 06/02/2018 16:21

You're right Felyne and of course there's zero point checking children's scalps in school if it's not done really thoroughly.

What happens then is that the responsibility for checking lies with the volunteers, parents don't feel the need to check at home and loads of nitty children slip through the net. Confused

bunbunny · 06/02/2018 16:21

Not detrimental to health?

There's a reason that when you're not feeling great colloquially people say they're feeling lousy.

Most people have forgotten that the saying comes from people feeling really ill when they were covered in lice (and the singular of lice is louse - hence lousy).

MuffinTip · 06/02/2018 16:25

We were told at my school (Uk) that we weren't even allowed to tell parents that any children in school had headlice so we just send a generic letter home to the whole school that gives NHS guidelines on how to treat. There is a child in my class whose head is crawling with lice but the headteacher said I couldn't say anything to the parents. Anyone know if that's correct?

iamafraidofvirginiawolves3cats · 06/02/2018 16:27

Have a go at school staff again! For clarification, in Uk kids are NOT sent home for lice.

flumpybear · 06/02/2018 16:30

I'd be firm with the school and tell them their policy doesn't work as you've been charged 25 Euro to disprove something a non-professional decided was fact

I'd ask for my money back too as it was a waste of time and money to have to go to the doctor off the back of an unqualified person