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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to expect more than a week of school time before my children come home with lice!

86 replies

pipibarola · 06/09/2007 22:19

After a wonderful lice free summer, my children, 5&8 years old, have already managed to pick up a few mature lice in just their first 3 days back at school. How does this happen? Are there really parents out there that did not take the opportunity of a 6 week break to clear the heads of their children? Call me naive, but it's not rocket science - all you need is a bit of conditioner and a nit comb.

What can I do to get the school to take this seriously? Any suggestions? I've struggled with this with issue for 4 years already and I'm losing patience. All I've seen the school do is pass out the odd note when it gets too rife to ignore. Can we bring back the nit nurse?

OP posts:

casbie · 11/09/2007 11:55

i have nightmares about nits - honestly.

best way to prevent is to oil and tie back kids hair, every day.

i'm dreading my dd getting them as she has very long hair.

maybe the epidemic of nits is to do with too much washing of kids hair?!

Neverenoughhandbags · 11/09/2007 12:49

No-headlice LOVE clean hair...chlorine puts 'em off a bit though if your child swims....but you have the answer-tie it up tightly in a plait(sorry I only have girls!)

Neverenoughhandbags · 11/09/2007 12:49

What to you mean by oil hair Casbie?

PondusLector · 11/09/2007 13:18

I have had mothers shouting at me in fury because of nits in the class. I would just like to say that teachers don't like them either - but what are you expected to do? Ban the children whose parents refuse to/lie about treating them? The hair tie rule sounds a good idea, but can't see the parents in my school sticking to that. The days of schools laying down the law in this way are long gone.

But please don't be antagonistic towards the teachers. It is not our fault.

casbie · 11/09/2007 13:21

well, i use coconut oil.

melt it inbetween your fingers, start from the roots till the tips and use a comb. then plait, or make into twisted knots.

looks very funky. does mean that when you wash your childs hair, it comes out incredibly soft.

ask your black friends how they do it.

canmummy · 11/09/2007 13:22

I checked my dc were free of nits over the hoidays and we got a letter yesterday that someone has headlice in the class - I was gobsmacked!

Then I got really paranoid as my dd1 told me she was the only child in her class to have been given 2 letters about it

Checked again last night and she definitely doesn't have them but why don't other parents check like I do? (or am I a tad obsessed?)

casbie · 11/09/2007 13:25

maybe a nitnurse could oil the kids hair?

proberly the nitnurse would get done for assault, unless kid/parent consents though!

juuule · 11/09/2007 13:26

I have considered sending mine in mop caps before now All their hair nicely tucked away and safe. Perhaps they should be introduced as part of school uniform.....it's not going to catch on is it? Hmmm, I'll go away now.

iliketosleep · 11/09/2007 13:30

yeah PondusLector maybe if it seems like nothing is being done about it, i understand what someone said about not being able to shift the little buggers but there are some people who just cant be arsed to do it. Obviously like whoever had them in my dds class, as soon as someone took action there were no more nits! Ok maybe a nit nurse isnt the best option but there has to be something better than them sending a letter out and some people just thinking, oh god not another one of these and throwing it away. Actually the school "apparently sent out 3 nit letter but i never had one!!
and im a double letter checker!

southeastastra · 11/09/2007 13:32

mop caps is an ace idea! (though not sure my son would wear one )

PondusLector · 11/09/2007 14:14

If a parent does not want to or can't be bothered to treat a child there is little the school can do. Phoning up a parent can help (I have done this) but it has to be very sensitively handled. The usual result is that the parent will treat once and then not bother to repeat the treatment. So nothing improves in the long run.

I used to wheel a notice onto the yard in front of all the parents and hope the message would get through, but as always, it failed to reach those it was aimed at.

iliketosleep · 11/09/2007 14:45

thats why i could never run a school it would be half empty most days

Neverenoughhandbags · 11/09/2007 15:31

Casbie I like the idea of coconut oil-would smell heavenly! Doesn't it look greasy though?
Agree(and have already said) that the schools can only draw parents' attention to it-it's up to parents!

casbie · 11/09/2007 17:08

what's a mop cap?

never enough - oiled hair looks great - can be twisted/knoted, plaited... can't leave it loose. but, it really helps if you 'know' a certain child has nits and your child keeps getting it.

oooohhhh, makes me feel itchy just thinking about it!

juuule · 12/09/2007 19:04

mop cap

Lorayn · 12/09/2007 19:14

I used to look after a friends kids for a few hours a morning when I'd finished my night shift, one day I got there, and the kids werent ready, as usual I got them dressed for her, and she buggered off to work, I was going to put the daughters hair up and she was crawling, I checked the eldest son, he was too, so I kept her son and daughter off school and her daughter off nursery, and sat all morning doing their hair, when she came home she was pissed off they werent at school and she would have to look after them from 1-3 when normally she wouldnt, the problem with nits is some parents really dont care.

cocolepew · 12/09/2007 19:17

My dd's school send out a leter to everyone in the class, saying a child has nits, and suggesting conditioner/combing. I don't understand why they don't tell the parents directly,as well, whose dc's has them. I know the nitty child's( who keeps reinfecting everyone) mum isn't doing anything about, as she does think her child has them. . look at her hair, you can see them from space!

BarbieGirl · 12/09/2007 19:17

One mother at my DD's school shaved her DD's very long hair all off because she was sick of her DD get nits every other week. A bit drastic but at least she won't have to spend endless hours on end de-lousing and think of all that money she will save .

The easiest answer would have been to cut her DD's hair into a very short neat bob and comb through every day don't you think?

seeker · 12/09/2007 19:31

I'm doing the Lice Attack thing tonight - ds has them already. He is a nit magnet though - if there's a child in the class with nits, he;ll have them the next day.

When I'm world dictator EVERYONE will have to nit comb every Wednesday night. There will be a special team of inspectors, a bit like the TV license people, going found at 6.30 every Wednesday to check that everyone is combing. If your not, you go to prison. Ne exceptions - even if you are a posh Tarquinista whose child's hair is too middle class to attract lice or if you are..(you know who you are)..... who think that because your child hasn't been vaccinated, he won't get nits because his systems hasn't been compromised by chemicals so his natural defences will fight them off (I kid you not!)

LoveAngel · 12/09/2007 19:40

DS has been back at nursery for 2 days and has them! Grrr. He is 2 and a half and this is the 5th time he has had them in the last 18 months. He has a mop of thick ringlets, too, so it's a mission to treat. Raaaaah!!! The whole family will have to use that stinking stuff again :-(

totaleclipse · 12/09/2007 19:46

A tiny squirt of hairspray keeps themaway

Nightynight · 12/09/2007 22:09

dd thinks she has picked them up.

she started school YESTERDAY.

Nightynight · 12/09/2007 22:11

good god, it has never occurred to me to blame the teachers though!

bossybritches · 12/09/2007 22:14

Sorry to barge in just picked up on this one.

This is a brilliant link & the combs are simple but effective. Reecommended by Gp's & Health visitors & you can get them on prescription if you are on income support.

The only way to "treat" headice is to comb, comb, comb. They have a 21 day life cycle so you can NOT say they are cleared till at least three weeks have passed.

www.nits.net/bugbusting/

Good Luck!

wheresmysuntan · 13/09/2007 14:09

My dd picked them up at a playscheme in the hols. We got her clear but then after just 3 days of school I found lice. So here we go again - she screams all the way through the combing as I use a nitty gritty comb which is very thorough but does scrape the scalp somewhat. She has very long hair so I dread the whole thing. On advice from the lady at Boots I am trying the 'Nice and Clear' which can apparantly also be left on dry hair as a preventative measure too.
What I don't understand is why lice are so rife now. Is it because the nit nurse stopped and then the whole thing went crazy? I went to school in the '60's and 70's and never had nits nor did my two younger siblings - it was never even considered likely amongst any of the people we went to school with ( and this was in a very mixed area). Like others have said I am not sure what good a nit nurse would do now the problem is so endemic. I sometimes wonder whether it is not really in the interests of the pharmaceutacal (sp?) industry to develop something that works once and for all as then we wouldn't have to keep buying it would we?

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