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 just view it as a background constant. They all have the nit comb + conditioner once a week because basically they're always going to get reinfected, I might as well just make it routine.

Liice treatment is completely free for children under care at the chemist. Nobody needs to pay. Listerine the one with alcohol is much Fillmore effective though. Leave for 90 mins under a shower cap and ash of and use a nitty gritty comb with conditioner to get the eggs out. Repeat in 7 days.

It's an independent school and we aren't in the UK. There isn't that weird obsession with attendance, either.

https://www.coltonmill-thegrange.nhs.uk/pharmacy-first---minor-ailment-scheme

Stop using expensive chemical treatments that don't work. Instead, use conditioner and nit comb every bath time which will remove the eggs so they don't hatch out and you break the cycle. Tie DDs hair back in a tightish plait/ponytail for school and use a few drops of teatree oil on the brush when you brush her hair. I had the same when my 5 were at primary school but thankfully stopped once they got to secondary!

Another point is that they whole family needs to be treated (with comb and conditioner method) - parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles if they are in close contact. Back in the days when we did have the termly visit from the nurse one told me it was often grandparents who were giving the headlice back to children who had been treated. It's a community problem.

Can you imagine how awful it's going to be when these children start having children themselves. Multiple generations of learned helplessness and a firm belief that someone else should do it (all of it, everything)

It’s not the school’s fault. They can send a generic message to parents of kids in the same class to say they have a case and to be vigilant, but that’s all they can do. They can provide advice on how to treat if requested but all of this information is easily available online anyway. Parents need to take it more seriously.

That meant the vulnerable children most in need of the safety, warmth and food from school would be absent. And they'd get bullied for being dirty. Others who wanted excuses to keep their children off school (such as to let bruising go down) would call in with 'she's got nits again'.

Others who are part of the 100% attendance, nobody is ever ill enough to stay off school attitude could go ballistic that their child got lice and would encourage bullying through that attitude.

I can also remember the screeching noise that my mother made about the idea of nits and the threats she made that she'd shave my head if I ever got close enough to anybody to catch them - no combing for me, it would have been pinning me down with the kitchen scissors, along with being told I was dirty and disgusting. Wasn't that bothered by the pets having fleas and worms, though, strangely (which they did - and ticks, which she called 'grass fleas'). Just nits.

You don't need the medications, you need the physical removal of the things, so expense isn't that much of an issue when a comb costs under a pound from a pet shop and you can get a bottle of conditioner for under a pound.

You don't need expensive chemicals treatments which don't always work.
We always used a nitty gritty comb and cheap conditioner and kept it up even when they were clear so we were always on top of it.

I disagree. Was prevalent when we lived in France. Nobody ever stayed home

I'm touching wood right now when saying this but I've been using vosene lice repellent spray every single day my little one goes to school. I spray his coat as well. We all have thick curly/wavy hair and it would be a nightmare.

What is it about school though both my DC’s have long hair. Not a nit no one flaming word it bits in nearly 3 years of daycare…..get to school tho bam?!? I mean what id it about school?!

Am I the only one who keeps thinking of the Motherland nits treated like the pandemic episode 😂

Do you think the school gives them nits? If so I think I taught your child once - I was actually accused of that.

Children play and put their heads close together. The lice just walk across - they don't jump.

We had a family in school with 3 children and nits/head lice were rife in all their classes. The parents refused to treat their kids and the problem only went away when the family moved to another school.

Schools do all they can - sending home notes every time there's a case in a class. I'm afraid the days of a school nurse inspecting children's heads are long gone,

When my DC were young their primary school tried a "nit night" - lots of publicity to encourage everyone to thoroughly comb hair with nit combs and conditioner on the same night. I don't know if it was more effective than sending letters out to affected classes and some people will not have joined in but it did focus attention. Maybe you could offer to help your DC's school organise something similar?

I went to school in Italy (including primary) and lived in Spain, France, and Germany for a while. Never had nits, no one I knew ever had nits. Now this is just circumstantial evidence, but I know for a fact that in Italy & Spain kids were not allowed to attend school with head lice.

Once a term the whole school gets a homework free night. Instead they get a form that a parent has to tick and sign that they have
A) washed and combed the child's hair
B) inspected for nits and
C) the child is nit free.

I'm in Ireland, I assumed every primary school did this. My kids are teenagers now. One got nits once, the other never. I'm sure there are parents that just tick the box, but it does seem to be an effective strategy.

My parents weren't neglectful but very busy. They didn't notice that I had nits for ages and for some reason I didn't think that I could tell them. They treated immediately when told. So for this reason I disagree with people saying that letters home or informing parents wouldn't help. It would have helped me! But yeah it's a parent problem fundamentally.

Funny because just before I read this post I came across a blog that said this:

But a week or so later, the school term started and one of the first things the other mums were telling me–“oh yes there’s always lice here in Italy, the kids are always getting it”. I braced myself for more emails from school to look out for. And come they did, but we were veterans at this point and sitting outside in our garden under the olive trees to do the job with the conditioner, the comb and the white towel never seemed as painful as it did in Oslo.

I taught in France - plenty of nits there!

It makes them pay attention. If they refuse to treat their child’s hair to the point of it negatively affecting their child’s education then they need social services involved. Or it could give attendance officers something helpful to do.

OP you're not the same poster who the other week suggested children being treated for worms should have 2 weeks off school are you?

When I was at primary school my best friend had nits I think for the whole time we were at school. She was picked on. Her mum was an alcoholic and her dad worked away, her and her brothers used to be left to fend for themselves. My Nan used to invite her with me for tea a lot as she felt sorry for her. Do you really think it's wise those sort of children are excluded?

Those countries probably don't have 'not nurses' anymore either

Also

You sound like you aren't getting rid of them properly and eggs are remaining then hatching

Stop blaming everyone else!

Me and the kids got nits 3 years ago.
I could not get rid of them. We did
4 x the treatments
Conditioner and comb
Olive oil and comb
Straightening

In the end, I just had to comb, comb, comb, comb, comb, up to an hour a night. I remember thinking my daughter was finally in the clear S I combed her hair while she watched a movie. Well, after almost an hour, I pulled out an insect. Hopes dashed. I started cutting out individual strands of hair if there was an egg on it.

It took a long time but eventually we got rid of them. It is not as easy as slopping on a bottle of Palmolive conditioner and having a comb through. It is a really laborious, thorough process that takes time, effort and commitment.

We now do a spot check with the nit comb once a week and I think more parents should so that so they don't get to the stage I was at without realise (riddled!!!).