that my dd has nits again

[saff]

this is driving me mad i comb through 2-3 times a week and plat her long thick hair and put tea tree oil through, when i spoke to school they said although the know who has the bloody things they can not speak directly to parents all the can do is put out lettes each week and hope they get the hint . one friend who is dinner lady said you can literally see some kids heads alive with them. In the meantime we other parents keep on combing

Both my children have come home with notes this week saying someone in their class has head lice. I know it isn't mine but it is frustrating. I think there comes a time when the actual parent of the child has to be told their child has them and it needs to be sorted.

my ds is regularly combed and at 13 that is a pita but he is still full of them as are all his friends.Nitty gritty comb helps but I think singling kids out would be tricky and would need to be handles with kid gloves.Ds and his friends seem shameless about them though.We took him and 10 friends to a kids comedian stand up for his 12th birthday The guy asked the audience hands up who has head lice and all of them jumped up and shouted We Do!Dp and I were mortified especially as no one else stood up.Luckily the comedian found it hilarious

Why can't schools have a word with the parents of the infested child? - especially if they can see them crawling about. Whats wrong with them doing that?

It's a pain. Lice often come back when children gather together again after the holidays.

Fortunately, they still have a nurse at dd's school (live abroad). The way they approach it is that when lice are spotted in the class, a letter (with an information sheet) goes out to all parents saying that all the children will be inspected by the nurse in a few days time (usually the following Monday).

Then the parents of the children who are found to be infested are contacted directly - but confidentially - by letter containing treatment advice.

It hasn't cleared all incidences completely but it does meant that outbreaks, when they happen, are dealt with pretty rapidly.

I think it's a good system because it balances confidentiality with action!

I have to say that if it where me i would go up to the parent of the child and bloody tell they !!!!
Its just such a pain especially when you take the time to regular treat your own children (controversial i know but someones got to do it) !!!!!

I was called into the school when they found headlice in her hair and I had to take her home early and keep her off for a few days until I thought they were gone!
I was embarassed at first but I now believe it is probably the best policy and I have been vigilant ever since

Why ..... why can't parents of an infected child be told FFS ?!

What will happen if they are told (discreetly, out of earshot of others to save any embararssment) ?

A responsible parent might feel a bit awkward if they'd not already noticed them but would be thankful that someone else had pointed them out - surely ? I know I would be.

I have to comb my daughter every day. Yes folks, every day. Not one day goes past where she doesn't have at least three full sized lice in her hair. It is routinely brushed, nit-combed through, put 'up' and sprayed with a deterrent every morning. By half seven when I'm going through the louse removal I wonder why I fight. Every holiday I get her clear, by day two of term staring again she is rife.

I hate it. I would happily threaten to shave the heads of all primary aged children to avoid this.

I think that the parents of kids who are obviously not treated should be hauled up in a parents assembly and shown how to bloody comb through with a bit of conditioner. It's damned obvious that most people make an effort, playground talk is frequently to be had, with heated debates about the values of tea-tree versus neem or lavendar oils etc. being discussed. It's the lazy asshats who can't be bothered to take ten minutes out of their day to try to help break a cycle that get me annoyed.

Gah!

Agnes

(Yes, I need to calm down, but term started on Tuesday and I'm already fighting a losing battle!)

agnesnitt, I know exactly what you mean, I checked my lo on sunday night to make sure they were clear for the new term (having spent most of the holiday clearing them after last term) and on monday when i collected at 3pm I looked down on DS head when he walked out to see a huge adult crawling through the roots. It was so big I think it must have been being cultivated for months! Cross, me,

This whole thread is making me shudder.

It can't really be that bad can it? My DD has only just started preschool so i'm sure I have all this to come

Since my twins started the school nursery in September 2006, they have had nits on and off. They are now in reception and are still getting them! I check and comb through their hair every night now, and keep dd's hair in plaits,and I always alert the school so they can send out a letter to the class when I find any.
I think that is all you can do.
Any parent which claims their child has not had nits, is either in denial or doesn't check their childs hair.
Thankfully, myself and some of the mums I know well will always be honest if we see a nit on any of our childrens head and give out the red alert to eachother, but I wouldn't do this to mothers I didn't know so well incase I offended them.

tigerlily they don't seem to stop intil yr 4.
DH used to lovingly likeen me to a chimp.5 years of picking through dd's hair for nits.

Don't use an battery comb, they don't work, the only thing I found that worked was to wash, shampoo and condition her hair, then comb and pick through her wet hair over and over again. every night.

KrippledKerry, you have boys. Boys don't lean in so close their heads touch as much as girls. IMO Girls have nits more than boys.

Agnes. Find out who your DD is sitting next to at school. Then have her moved.
I had this problem when DD was in year 3. She was clearly being constantly reinfected from the same source. Next year suspect number one was not in her class and lo and behold - no more nits.

Unfortunatley, head lice is a matter of fact at infants/junior school. My DD's friend had them and passed them on to the other kids. It's very difficult to say to the other childs parents can you please check. With girls of course its far worse. Eventually they will get rid of it usually in secondary school.

KKM thats great for boys but you cannot cut the girls hair off although I wanted to some times. I tried everything. Then I got her friend round to my house and nit combed her hair and the bloody things crawled off her back. Urggh I hearled, but bless this girl her mum had passed away when she was only 5 and her dad was bringing her up. So it was difficult. All sorted now.

This is really beginning to pee me off. Dd has had them for a few weeks. We've tried lotions and potions and at £10 a pop its not great. They dont work anyway!!

Ive combed and combed, conditioned and combed. Then I found them on myself (only a couple but my hair is so long and thick it really hurts to nit comb). I found them on ds and shaved his hair straight off (well about a grade 3). Ive used tea tree shampoo, tea tree conditioner, ive bought a metal nit comb which seems to be much better. I am fed up with combing us all. I know im doing my best, so either they're hard little buggers or dd keeps getting reinfested at nursery

nits dont freak me out but its hardly nice for anyone.

If desperate there is a way to get rid of them completely but it is messy. Coat hair in oil (doesn't matter which but almond is nice, cooking oil not so nice but just as effective. Olive oil or baby oil work well.)
Comb hair with Nitty Gritty comb. Leave overnight (towel on pillow obviously. Comb again in morning. Leave on all day. Comb again in evening. Wash out oil. Lice and nits all gone. I promise.

Does this suffocate them like hedrin claims to do?

and what is nitty gritty comb? Saw a metal comb in boots which was £10 (looked much same shape as the plastic comb). The one I bought has two rows of teeth, second row closer together and a long plastic handle...the bugs get trapped inside iyswim?

We went through this with dd for about 2 years, yes, that long

We also knew which child was reinfecting the whole class. Dd used to tell us all the time that this poor kid scratches non-stop, she actually puts her cardi over her head, and rubs like crazy. Used to be so at the parents, I know the dad is a uni lecturer, and him and wife always so well turned out, yet their poor kid crawling with lice.

Everytime we got dd's head cleared up, it was becase she was no longer sitting beside / behind this child. And the cruel thing was (and still is), that none of the other girls want to play with this child, which is awful.

The teacher even had a talk with the class when said child was sent out on an errand, that the other kids (boys esp), had to stop calling her names, cos of her lice.

And, yes, I must admit, I did phone the school last term, because dd had been lice free for about 6 months, and got them again the very day she sat beside this kid again (teacher rotates who's sitting where every few weeks) Anyhow, teacher was very sympathetic, and said they all knew full well that this kid wasn't getting treated for her lice, but like OP said, nothing they can do about it, other than send out general letters. Tbh, I'd had enough, and insisted dd got moved, which I know sounds awful, but I jsut couldn't face any more lice.

One thing that really worked for us was conditioner and a lice comb (metal ones are best) Just buy a huge big bottle of cheapest conditioner you can find (supermarkets own is good) You don't have to even wet the hair first, just slather on tons of the stuff, and get combing. Apparently the conditioner temporarily suffocates the lice, so you can comb them out. Also, it reduces the grip of the eggs, making them easier to remove. You have to do this every night though, even after you think they're all gone. Other thing we did was to tie her hair up in really tight plaits every morning before school, and spray tons of tea tree and neem oil spray on (I think this is a leave-in conditioner), It stinks to high heaven, but apparently repels the lice.

So, no YANBU at all. I'm scratching here jsut thinking about them again!

Physically, I know what to do, but I don't know what to do about this.

A feisty 9 year old who says 'Two minutes, that's all you're having.' And then walks off after I've found a couple.

I know lice are a pain, but they are a fact of life, to be honest. And it's impossible to be sure who has them in a class because 50% or people with a lice infestation don't itch. And 50% of itchy heads are excema or something else non lice related. So if you ask for your child to be moved away from a scratcher, you might find that you've moved them away from someone with excema to sit nect to a non scratching louse farm!

I don't know if I'm teaching my grandmother etc....but do people realize that if you find lice on one member of the family, the chances are that everyone in the family's got them. Including the parents. So yolu have to do everyone. Including Dad.

What we do now is treat everyone in the family with one of the products that physically kills them - Lice Attack, Hedrin, Listerine, vodka, almond oil - Lice Attack is our preferred weapon - every week (usually Saturday evening) whether we've seen lice or not. It's expensive, but it works.

Oh, and ask the school where it's written down that they aren't allowed to tell the parents of individual children that they have nits - I think this is an urban myth. certainly the teachers at our school do it.