I'm very concerned about viruses and lice at nursery

[greeny369]

As a first time mom, a lot of things freak me out and make me question if that's normal. So my LO has started nursery, still settling in, which is taking longer than expected, but that's another story. Every morning I drop him off I see kids wildly coughing, noses leaking, rashes here and there. I mean.. I've heard from other parents around me how children get sick bi-weekly since start of nursery, but it just keeps bothering me that parents don't seem to care if their child is sick and still bring them to nursery. I empathise with parents who work full time and have no other option, but what about the other children? For me the cherry on the top of the cake was when I saw a piece of paper taped by the entrance gate the other day at our nursery saying they've found lice on one of the kids. Apparently very 'normal' for people working there and seemingly not an issue that needs addressing in any special way. Now I have debilitating fear of insects, obviously that's one of the reasons I'm shocked this is considered the norm. But then again, am I unreasonable thinking that nursery has to address this issue somehow? Be it by implementing extra cleaning routines, or removing the source of this occurance, until they are treated and confirmed to have tackeled the issue? When I asked these questions at the nursery, they just quickly dismiss me saying ' oh, its completely normal, if they don't get lice here they get it in primary or secondary, but essentially they eventually do ' followed by a big awkward smile. Maybe it's just me, but I'm considering changing nurseries. I'd love to hear another perspective on this.

I was going to say the same thing - primary school being worse than nursery. I didn't get them as a child, mainly because my mum used to use a preventative shampoo (Suleo) on my hair which I think is now banned.

But when ds was about 6 I got a really itchy head (I've often had an itchy scalp for other reasons) and then a letter came home from school about lice and the penny dropped. I checked my hair and a big fat headlouse came out! DS had them of course. He got them twice while at primary school.

You can get a citronella lice repellent kids hair spray but they are probably going to get lice in any setting.

Me and my husband work in schools and still catch every cold going (even in secondary) so unfortunately it's going to be a thing for years.

Think of the poor staff! The amount of times we’ve had to phone parents because their child has a temperature and get “oh yeah I had to give them some calpol this morning”

Yeah the "thanks a bunch" cracked me up 😂

As to germs and nurseries in the UK, I also grew up in Europe and also haven't known anyone in my life who had headlice nor heard of many of my DS' illnesses (wtf is HFM?! now I know, three times over, and learnt it the hard way).

Personally, I think it might be related to how much paid time off parents get when the kid is sick. At my work, I have 12 sick days PER YEAR for both me AND my son while my husband has 0 for our son (he'd need to take unpaid leave for that). Both professional jobs. My friends in my home country take as much time off as the kid needs, usually it's at least a week. And doctors just give you a slip which you present to your employer who can't punish/discriminate you for that. So the kids don't infect each other so much and therefore they get sick less. Here I send my son in with coughs, runny nose etc. as long as he doesn't have fever. I just don't have enough days off to keep him home for a week each time he's got a cold...

Tie your kid's hair in a pony tail. Wash it in tee tree oil shampoo. There's a kids anti headline one
They will still get head lice at some point but you can limit it.

We got away with one daughter catching it at primary and one at secondary.

You too will send your child in with a snotty nose. You will do it because they aren't ill, just snotty. It's an unfortunate truth that once a toddler gets a cold, they then hang on to the excess mucous for a good 3 months. They are happy, well, full of energy, running everywhere but they just drip as they go.

Get some of the lice repellent shampoo/spray with citronella or tea tree oil in. It's not a guarantee but it does seem to help. Then just build it into your routine to check weekly.if he gets them then they are easy to get rid of you just need patience and perseverance in combing it through very very well, every other day for a couple of weeks.

@BananaPalm that's interesting. I think Friday is a common wfh day, so allows for more parents to keep children who really shouldn't be in school/nursery home due to illness. I also wonder how many days of illness keeping an unwell child off saves others by breaking the transmission link.

There should be more recognition for responsible employers as they save the taxpayer alot. Even just taking covid as an example - look how many parents are no longer able to work or how many tens of thousands of kids in England now have long covid. That's just from one illness!