Aibu to expect school teachers to use head lice treatment?

[Everywhereilookaround]

We've got them AGAIN, itchy nasty little blighters. Got my shampoo ready to use this morning, before DS goes back to school Monday.

It's a common occurrence, we've had them repeatedly over last year at school, as have other families.

I know it's just one of those things, but what's irking me is that a Friend told me DS's teacher publically refuses to use treatment on herself or her own kids, because...toxins... chemicals.... environment....etc.

So instead she combs them out weekly with nit comb and tea tree rince.

So she doesn't get rid of them, just reduces their number every week.

I've seen her itching, (right now we all are!)

I respect that we all have a right to lead our own lives our way...but why must we all suffer for it?!!

If the teacher won't take the treatment, and keeps reinfecting us, there's just no hope.

Or AIBU to feel annoyed by this?

I agree with you op. Because I don't think the nitty gritty and conditioner alone work.
Ime the only way to get rid of the blighters is the overnight treatment that's silicone based and suffocates them (so they can't develop resistance) AND daily combing with conditioner and nitty gritty.

Hedrin can’t “not work”

It only doesn’t work if you don’t use it properly.

I'm asking if it's unreasonable to expect her to treat the lice.

But she is treating the lice! Structured combing with a nit comb and conditioner is a recognised way of dealing with headlice and it works
So what exactly is your problem??
(I know from experience it works as it's what we used,I am not happy to put pesticides on my children's heads....or mine)

There is more than one type of Hedrin.

There is chemical shampoo that you leave on for ten mins (doesn't work)

There is a silicone based treatment that stays on overnight (does work).

When I was in primary my mum combed my brother and I every day when we got home from school to get any new nits that we'd picked up during the day. It stopped us getting reinfested as the little buggers didn't have a chance to get a hold or start breeding...

I didn’t find the chemical treatments to work.

What worked was bleach or straighteners.

The wee buggers can’t survive 200C!

I can understand your frustration it’s so annoying to keep getting nits. When dd comes home, I dread it because infestations take months to get rid of on me. I finally got rid of mine a week ago and dd got infested again so I’m now getting rid of mine again.

MrsDV
I’ve tried every single method going including combing with conditioner, shampoo and salt, which failed even though I did it every other day then every 3 days for a month on me. Dd has such thick hair and such a lot of it. I also have a lot of hair but much finer. But Caucasian hair.

The only thing that worked for me is Nitwits All in One Headlice Solution (black and white packaging). It doesn’t dry quickly, which I think is the problem with a lot of the other smother solutions - I’ve tried a lot of them. It’s on Amazon and works out much cheaper than most because it doesn’t dry out quickly. I leave it on for a couple of hours, not 20 mins as the buggers take that long to stop wriggling. It doesn’t need combing out.

I also had success with the Hedrin pharmacy dispensed one, which must be left on for 8 hours with the same ingredient. The only way this works on me is to reapply to the scalp at intervals as it is drying out. This also doesn’t need combing but the 8 hours but reapplication is annoying, expensive and messy.

Perhaps this will be useful to you. I imagine Afro hair to be really absorbent and solutions dry quickly and this is perhaps why a lot of solutions don’t work.

I’ve never seen the chemical shampoo. I use the Hedrin silicone overnight stuff and it has worked every time. You do have to properly saturate the hair and leave it on overnight though.

Combing is the most effective method and is supported by the school nurses. The advice they give is to comb every other day over a period of 2 weeks to completely remove all. The nurses advise not to use chemicals because they do not remove all nits or lice and you need to retreat every few days over 2 weeks as per the combing.

I have unfortunately become a nit busting expert. Combing once or even twice a week isn't enough during an infestation. You need to do it every third day until the hair is nit free. And then do it a few moee times just in case, you'll probably find another egg! And it's not just like normal combing, you need to be really methodical.

Here's what you do: put tge telly on for your child as it's gonna take a while.

For long hair you'll need clips to separate sections.

Wet hair and slather in cheap conditioner. Take a small section of hair and comb through with nitty gritty comb. Do this several times at different angles. The eggs look like small sesame seeds. Un hatched ones are brown, empty shells are light. You'll know the live bugs when you see them

The eggs are glued onto the hair shaft near the scalp. They like to lay them around the ears, temples and nape of the neck so spend extra time combing those areas.

You HAVE to do this every three days as the eggs are tiny and you will miss one or two on the first day and if they hatch you're right back at the start. Chemicals don't work because people mistakenly think they've killed them all and don't manually remove the eggs which then hatch.

Itchy now...

This is nuts. I've never used chemical treatments on my children, there's absolutely no need. Firstly if you regularly comb and check you should not have an infestation level and secondly only combing will keep damaging eggs and any that freshly hatch. The treatments only kill live bugs which you can remove.
We used tea tree shampoo and conditioner and if any children had any we combed every single day. Yes it's boring but it works.
The only time we had repeated trouble was not down to our method (advised by our gp) was when my sons best friend had them. He was infested and it was at a neglect level (falling of his head when he moved) and remained where he had sat. His mother said he was just one of those kids (😥) and there was nothing she could do. But he kept giving them to my son.
In the end I tried the chemical treatment on him at my house and we combed. It was horrendous, literally thousands. I wish I'd reported it too someone. In the end it was so bad he needed his head shaved.
I would say constant class reinfection is down to an individual not being treated at all rather than a teacher behaving in a perfectly reasonable manner and that OP is both being unreasonable and judgemental.

Well if she’s infested then once a week combing wouldn’t be sufficient. The problem is that you’ve had the info second hand.
I used 2 doses of Hedrin, spaced out so it got any that hatched, when dd got them and combed through with conditioner daily for quite a while in case any more appeared.
We use the vosene repellent spray now and we’ve not had them back.

We don;t use chemicals. There's no need for them if you treat them the natural way PROPERLY. Many people are just plain lazy and leave their poor DC infested. My sister actually saw them crawling in a child's hair during an assembly and she waited till the Mother was alone and said "You need to get on top of DC nits...they're everywhere on her and she'll be ostracised and feel bad about herself: and the Mum said "I've tried...they won't go!" and my sister then told her the way to get rid with cheap conditioner.

We do that way and we've only had two incidents since my 13 year old started school.

What’s your conditioner made of if not chemicals?

Hedrin can’t “not work”

It only doesn’t work if you don’t use it properly.

As I just explained, that isn’t true. I used Hedrin 8 hours and failed until I reapplied during the 8 hours. Not because I wasn’t using enough in the first place just because it dries out on my scalp so quickly. Nitwits is made of exactly the same ingredient and works for me because it doesn’t dry out.

DD1 used to sit next to a child who was properly infested at primary. You could see them dropping out onto the desk. The headteacher was adamant that nothing could be said to the child’s Parents directly, but they could only send out a generic “there are nits in the class, please check your child’s hair” letters. When my two went to an American school, there was a zero tolerance of nits. Your child wasn’t allowed back into school until the nits had gone. We had four nit free years, and it was bliss. Back to UK and DD2 got nits in the first two weeks.

The teacher will not be the cause of re infection she is using the best treatment to help prevent head lice

The nurses advise not to use chemicals

EVERYTHING IS CHEMICALS.

Boredandtired 🤢. Poor kid.

I feel for you OP, I was stuck in that loop for a couple of years - I remember one particularly enjoyable overseas holiday where I had to wash and comb everyones hair every day. Pre-kids I also thought my friend was ridiculous for not using the treatments - however she was not - the treatments don’t work as well as when we were kids and she used other methods such as zappy things and combs, she was doing her best. I did do Hedrin as well sometimes, but in general the combing if done thoroughly and consistently is enough to break the life cycle of the nit - the trouble is if just one egg is missed or one louse makes it to maturity you think they have been re-infected, when actually it was just there all along. And I also spare a thought for people with kids with hair that it tortuous to comb or kids who are not NT and hate having it done.

I agree with you op. Because I don't think the nitty gritty and conditioner alone work.
Ime the only way to get rid of the blighters is the overnight treatment that's silicone based and suffocates them (so they can't develop resistance)

Just leave the conditioner on. Active ingredient in most conditioners is dimethicone - a silicone.

It is frustrating getting reinfected. I don't think it is teacher who is the cause though as she is treating the problem, non chemical methods do work.

OP if you're combing and not using conditioner - you're part of the problem.

The suffocation version Hedrin really doesn't work brilliantly just used once - it'll get the live bastards but you've still got to keep on top of any that hatch after you've nuked them. DD2 has really thick hair and it took us the best part of a fortnight to get them fully evicted a while back (DD1's easy to treat - her hair's like me and doesn't seem to be attractive to them) hedrin cleared the initial wave but I was mopping up stragglers with a nit comb for a good week followed by checking I'd got them all for another week or so.

I have to admit when I caught the buggers while teaching I marched into the chemist and asked for a declaration of war on the bastards but I'd be a bit more gentle and use the conditioner method much more on my own kids nowadays.

Mrs DV - sorry my comprehensive post didn't take afro hair into consideration. I've deloused a friends who has very very curly hair. I used the comb against her scalp and to separate strands of hair but didn't pull it through. When I found an egg I just removed it by hand. No conditioner either. Could that work for your boys maybe?

Regular combing is an effective treatment. Once a week is not an effective treatment. If this person is saying they know their family has nits and they're treating it by conditioner combing once a week then they're likely the source of the reinfestations, teacher or not. Hopefully what they're actually doing is once a week to check for nits and more often if any are found. If not it's rather awkward isn't it. Could the friend who knows the teacher ask for advice on treating nits using the conditioner method and see what they say? And if they have misunderstood perhaps friend could subsequently "discover" the correct way and share it back. Sure noone would deliberately hang on to their nits, so at worst it's likely a misunderstanding.