To think schools should take nits more seriously?

[Eurydice84]

Since January I have had to treat DD (and the rest of the family) for head lice several times. We follow all the recommended steps, wash bedding and clothing, and repeat the treatment after one week. The buggers seem to go away but then they're back again. It's likely that they're going around the school, and it only takes one kid to pass them on to the others. I am at my wits' end, it's impossible to coordinate 50 parents to treat at the same time, and the school doesn't allow absences for head lice. They don't seem to care at all, honestly. I have spent so much time and money trying to get rid of the problem, but there is no point if the school doesn't make it a priority as well. I also think head lice treatment should be subsidised, it's terribly expensive (£10 a bottle, and we need at least two for each treatment). AIBU?

I think teachers should be required to give birth to the children thus the parents will avoid that responsibility too!

In the war my mother and my brother were living away from home for a while and apparently my brother came home from school looking even scruffier than usual. On being cross examined he told Mum he'd been in a fight! Nitty Norah had been in school to check their hair and he was the only one who didn't get a letter and the other boys were mocking him so he thumped a few.

In my unfortunately vast experience, if they are reoccurring that often, you are quite likely not getting all of the eggs!

I did- lots of conditioner every 2 days with a nitty gritty for about 10 years 2 weeks or until they are definitely all gone. It’s not easy and quite frankly was the bane of my life!

Have nit nurses in schools again. Make kids with nits stay at home until the problem is fixed.

Schools are not allowed to do that!
We do have guidelines on exclusion for medical and health conditions which we have to follow.
It clearly states that children are not to be sent home/not allowed in even if they have a headful of lice visibly seen walking around their scalp and hair.

I assume 'nit nurses' came under the school nurse service. That is no longer part of that service and hasn't been for many years. They were phased out as the health authorities deemed them ineffective. To be fair they only came into schools once or twice a year anyway - so they would have missed many cases Im sure.

I think teachers should be required to give birth to the children thus the parents will avoid that responsibility too!

We’re feeding more children than ever. Clothing them. Providing them with safe spaces. We now seem to be having an explosion of boys who haven’t been told how to pee properly and smother the floor in the stuff. Honestly, I do wonder how we’re at this stage when parents simply either refuse to learn how to parent or refuse to parent.

Nit Nurses wouldn't work in this day and age.

The only reason they worked when I was a kid in the 70s was because the child got handed the 'brown envelope of shame' in front of the whole class, or it was handed to the parent in front of all the others in the playground, and they would be shamed into treating their child.

They simply (thankfully) wouldn't do that now as it would be done in private.

That would be a waste of money, because conscientious parents don't need another adult to tell them their child has nits, and those who don't check their kids are unlikely to bother treating them.

You don’t have to pay anything, I don’t, I use nit comb and do it daily combing until all gone. Just use plenty of conditioner to help get the comb through.

Thick conditioner is far more effective than any of the other stuff. Nits are simply not eradicated in one go, people aren't getting "reinfected", they're not getting rid of the first lot.

I agree that ultimately the responsibility lies with the parents. But in other EU countries, kids with nits are not allowed in school until they get rid of the problem. It's treated just the same as chickenpox, the flu etc. Maybe a bit over the top but they don't seem to have the same nit problems as we do here.

Use preventative spray. We haven't got them once since we started using preventative spray when though they have gone round school lots.

As people have said, treatments don't really work. Best thing to do is comb every day, buy a massive tub of conditioner and a nitty gritty comb, for a week or 2 to get all the lice and eggs out. There will always be a tiny cluster of eggs remaining after a treatment so you do need to comb as well, not just think of it as treated. It's possible your DD is not catching it again, but just still has it. Keep her hair tied back neatly and then comb weekly to check there's nothing there.

Schools were never responsible for nit nurses. They weren't funded or engaged by schools.

And of course schools can't make children stay at home when they have nits. It's nits, not bubonic plague. It's contagious, yes, but it's not exactly a life-threatener. It's up to you to sort it out.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nitty-Gritty-Headlice-Defence-Spray/dp/B000KUALP4/ref=mp_s_a_1_15?crid=ZGU9FVHXDNYP&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.QKIr09zleY5zHabQwWXlMuC_hlC_pHNM3T0P8KPN5wbPdVL-0L1Fh_fuCga8ehvolALrqi0_wJG3LWkJEedJjxOvD-29IrK3YmaAPVfeZp_AIWGCvF7qny6XVLPg1MfHROSpP1cyMkqJLDTlspXiKb9Bl1D9cdh6L96V3NnXCs5fTbXiuFCE1bMbbBIwANz93lgqCbECmdRgonGG2HGgYA.bdEYGLTxpyC8ljsuskWSI2CqH93TmtePef3HUwS8BvI&dib_tag=se&keywords=nit+spray&qid=1712938587&sprefix=nit+s%2Caps%2C113&sr=8-15 this is a natural replant spray you can also get repellant kids shampoo probably not going to be 100% effective but it will help

OP you keep repeating about the nurses but you've had lots of replies telling g you why they'd be ineffective and what you can do instead...key word being YOU.

The government funds the NHS which would fund nurses in schools. We have one nurse for 25 schools in my area-she sees each for about half a day per term.

The government degrees whether schools can sanction absences.

Write to your MP, don’t complain that schools don’t do enough.

Schools are literally crumbling, Ofsted and workload are causing so much pressure that teachers are leaving in their droves and no one new wants to join. Yes, I don’t want to catch nits (again) from the kids in the class, but there is very little schools can do, without government changes, and frankly that is the least of the problems of most of them.

Cheap conditioner and a nit comb work better than the shampoo

There's no blanket rule across 'EU countries' that stops kids coming to school with nits. I'm sure some countries have that rule, but it's nothing to do with the EU and it's not universal. I also don't think it's necessarily true that other countries in Europe have fewer nit outbreaks than we do. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of evidence, if so.

IME, the treatments don't work after the first go round, if the source is not eradicated as the lice develop immunity to it, so your DC are also likely to be spreaders now too OP, if your relying on treatments alone. Comb with conditioner and a nit comb. I spent 2 hours a night combing with DD when either of our schools (I'm staff) have an outbreak we've caught. Every night for over a week, to catch the full egg cycle.1 hour each (we both have waist length hair, so may be less for you).

Then, once the fuckers have gone from our heads, ballet buns and vigorous hairspray. They detest crunchy hairspray helmets. My regular spreaders are kids who have got complex family lives, I'm incredibly grateful they are there at all, and will avoid sending home at all costs, nits or no nits.

They used to have the nit nurse in primary schools one time back in the day when a lot of things were different..

@Eurydice84

Definitely, add it to the list of things schools are responsible for like discipline, table manners, potty training, speech, phone use, porn, knife crime, trans rights, identifying radicalisation, misogyny, etc.

Somewhere in that list I do believe they need to teach maths and English and a few other subjects but who has the time 🤷‍♀️

🙄

If all parents tied their kids’ long hair back that would help - but heaven forbid the parents take responsibility for anything.

We found that lotions and preventers don't work. The only thing that shifts the buggers is wet combing. Nitty gritty is crap too, it just pulls the hair and makes it very difficult to comb. A cheaper plastic comb is better. The bug buster kit from the local pharmacy was the best product i found - it's a couple of combs and instructions on how to use them to break the breeding cycle. You have to stick to the schedule but it works.

Well said!

Vosene lice repellent spray 100% keeps them away! I swear by it. I've used this on my girls hair since preschool, they're now 10 and 8 and have never had them, despite the dreaded emails every other week to say the lice are going round the classes again. My girls both have really long hair too, and out of choice wear it down on non p.e days, so I can only guess the spray is doing the job, as I don't know how else they've avoided them. It absolutely stinks of citronella and tea tree, and when their heads are warm in the summer you can smell it radiating off them 😂, but it's worth it as it really seems to stop them. I've mentioned it to a few school mums, and the kids that use it do seem to stay nit free. They do a shampoo too, but I prefer giving them a good dousing of the spray before school each day, as it seems to work and it's also a great detangler. We recently went abroad to a tropical country that is renowned for mosquitoes etc, and I was looking for a good natural bug repellant and also saw this same spray suggested alot for this use, so I think it must scare all creepy crawlies off! We all used it, and had no mozzie bites whatsoever.

Which countries? I've lived in 4 European countries and not experienced that.

You just have to suck it up. Expensive treatment isn't compulsory. When I got them when I was pregnant I couldn't use treatment and just had to keep combing them out and using conditioner. They're a fact of life I'm afraid and not worth children losing days off school.

Or maybe because my kids smell so strongly of citronella, the other kids avoid getting too close to them, so they never catch them that way 😂 win win!