Head lice - what to use and can school sort it at all?

[lulann]

Found out today from school there are cases of headlice. First time.

DD 7 was at a friends house for tea until 7.30pm. When dd was at home and in bed she was scratching. Yes it looks like she may have them although I could only see 2 I think.
Of course I am now scratching.

What treatment should I get tomorrow? There are so many!
Do I have to get a shampoo?
Combs that 'zap' them dead or combs that remove lice AND eggs??
DD has several food allergies and I expect in the future will react to hair dye like I do (so cannot use).
Any suggestions?

Also can school make sure all kids are treated, is that allowed? I'm wary we'll get rid of them and she will then re catch all over again.

School haven't said which year group (primary) but they all mix in the huge playground anyway.

Old thread but I had them once as an adult

Same!

Our immune systems keep them at bay? How? Could this explain why neither I nor my children ever got them?

You really don’t need chemicals (which are becoming less effective due to overuse). Just conditioner, fastidious combing and a knowledge of the life cycle of the lice
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/head-lice-and-nits/#:~:text=Do%20wet%20combing%20on%20days,of%20lice%20on%20day%2017.

The electric nit combs are good.

It's just how it is.

I had four sisters - weirdly I think I only got lice once, but my little sister seemed to have them constantly. School would write home, and even called my Dad in on one occasion, but neither him nor my mum had any urge to sit and treat nits, so it didn't happen. We already had quite hefty social services involvement but they didn't really care about this either.

It's a bit of a goodwill system... good parents will treat because they don't want their children to have headlice. Some won't, for a variety of reasons - the treatments aren't the cheapest these days, either, and I've seen posts in our local Facebook group saying doctors have refused to prescribe it.

All you can do is stay on top of it for your daughter, keep her hair tied back, and teach her to keep her head away from other peoples.

No, it is nonsense. Adults can get infected too. However, not all people get itchy so it might not occur to them that they are infected too.

Head lice are not in the school's remit other than notifying parents when there is a case in the class/year group/school (dependingon policy). Keep DD's hair tied back to limit contact and make sure she is cleaning under finger nails when washing her hands.

It’s absolutely bloody ridiculous that schools can’t speak to individual families. Not moaning about the schools they’re just doing as they’re told, but seriously it’s mad. It’s very normal, nothing to be ashamed of and it beggars belief that parents would be annoyed to be told! My child goes to a really small school and I know the staff very well as a result. I’ve said to the member of staff that communicates these group messages that if she’s ever aware that my child has them then to please let me know as I’d rather be told if I hadn’t picked up on it myself, and get them treated!

We’ve dodged them so far, I’m not sure how as they seem rife! But mine always wear hair up, buns or plaits, I wash them with tea tree shampoo and also they get a spritz of hairspray which I’m told helps repel them too so maybe that combined helps.

The world has gone barking mad. Are parents really such delicate flowers these days that they can’t handle being told discreetly that their child has nits? It’s neglectful to leave children untreated. Ffs.

Every term our primary school has a no-homework night. Instead, the children have a lice check. There's a form that parents have to tick that they have:
Washed the child's hair
Used conditioner
Combed and checked for lice and
Did or did not find any.
That then has to be signed by the parent and brought in next day.

All the people here saying it's not up to the school - the schools could definitely do more. Thankfully we've never had nits in the house and I'm only aware of one outbreak in the class in the last few years.

Hedrin,follow the instructions,do the whole family at the same time.

Hendrin or any other smoother formula do whole family washed pillow covers and re-do in a week time.

Then regularly check with a nitty gritty comb and if it's constant in school try the anti nit sprays/shampoos.

I found some parents moaning about constant re-infection were only doing one off treatment for affected child only then balming everyone else for re-infection.

I always thought cheap condition and combing though thoughly was more a checking thing or in conjuction with other treatments - as just combing is actually very time consuming and hard not to miss something across multiple kids and own hair.

I never found a treatment that worked. I used them all over the years on four kids, and when combing after treatment I’d always find one or two live ones that would have continued the infestation.

The only way I have got rid of them is combing with cheap conditioner, ideally according to the schedule here - http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/theliceprogram/theprogram.html

Back in the day Nitty,Nora used to ,examine kids hair in school,for Nits.

Adults aboslutely do get infested. Lice are not bacteria that are dealt with by the immune system. You should treat everyone in the family and then a regular nit combing of school aged kids should reduce the chance of a new infestation. If you found 2 then there are more!

I have always had luck with Hedrin and nit comb.

Even if the school did do this it wouldn't overly work as some kids take multiple treatments to clear it so still have overlap where can pass it on. Also unnecessary if you just treat your child and repeat every few days with combing for good few weeks