To think this child should have been kept off school (nits)?!!!

[WiseFinch]

I am a teaching assistant and have been working with early years this week. Child informs me that they had “fleas in their hair” and had to have special shampoo last night.,
My first reaction was to keep a wide berth but this is absolutely impossible with a 4 year old.

Through the course of the day, it is very clear that this child still has a raging case of nits and is itching their head - and also hanging off me every five minutes for a cuddle… This was two days ago and now my head is itching. I did not have close contact for very long and it wasn’t head to head, plus my hair was up, but I’m now absolutely paranoid I’ve got nits - and I’m sure they’ll be going around the whole class as we speak.

I am new-ish to this job and don’t have kids myself, but surely you should keep your child off until all of the nits are gone? It’s not a case of neglect here, family are well to do and are quite nice people! So I am fully prepared to be told IABU. What does everyone think???

WTF! Of course you don’t keep a child off for nits, especially one who has already been treated!

Just be thankful it’s your head that’s itching and it’s nits.

DFE guidance is clear that you should not be keeping children off for nits and they'd take a dim view of it if you stayed off with them too.

I was a teacher for 5 years and to be honest nits and worms are just part of the job. I did a weekly nit comb through and multiple times a year I'd have to treat for the buggers. Worms are sneakier and an absolute nightmare to get rid of. I did read somewhere that in reality once you've got threadworms, you've always got threadworms, and the goal is trying to keep them at a manageable level.

this will be a regular occurrence in younger year groups. Nothing you can do to prevent them attending.

I learned from a hairdresser to wear hair up and spray very thickly so it’s almost wet with a can of ordinary hair spray. Especially the nape of the neck and up the sides.

I’d also be asking for this to go in a newsletter. The little critters don’t like hairspray and are much less likely to climb onto a new head.

Jeez, you're getting nastier and nastier to the OP, so unnecessary!

👏

Just read this whole thread and now can’t stop itching!!

My DD had almost waist length hair and I had to use a nit comb daily and was treating weekly or more for years! Was easy with DS as I used clippers on his hair anyway so just kept it very short.

DD’s teacher told me she went thru a can of hairspray a week trying to keep them out!

How rude you are @Jeschara. Hope you are teaching your grandchildren better manners than that.

😬

Also OP, if you get a white or black sheet of paper and thoroughly shake your head over it (using your hands to rub your scalp), that will
indicate if there’s nits. Eggs are the first step though and won’t show as they stick fast. Nitty gritty comb and thick cheap conditioner is effective

OP, if you are worried about nits the 'Nitty Gritty' comb on Amazon is amazing. Cover your hair in cheap conditioner and comb (follow instructions) - you will know then if you have them and be treating them without chemicals!

OP, kindly, from a 61yo mum, go to the chemist this weekend. Buy...

Several nit combs
The largest bottle of cheap conditioner you can find
Some Hedrin or Full Marks
Some threadworm treatment

Keep these basics in your medicine cupboard. Read up on the symptoms and life cycle of threadworms and lice so you understand what is needed for each. Both are very common in primary aged children.

Set your evening aside to comb every strand of hair from your scalp to the tips. rinse the comb between stands. Look for adult lice and black specs (nits or eggs)

This weekend, explain to your partner or other people you live with that if you have caught nits, you will almost certainly have shared them. You need to treat everyone in the household. Do it every three days until you are clear.

In terms of avoiding them in future, sanitise and rinse your hands as frequently as possible, certainly between each teaching session. Choose a short haircut or at the very least keep your hair firmly tied back or up.

You'll get used to it 🤗

Yeah my son got threadworms when he was in nursery 🤮
School said still send him in.

OP, at the risk of living up to my username please can I gently point out that the child was not "itching their head". Their head was itching so they were scratching it. Please don’t teach children the wrong words! (It’s like people saying "He borrowed me some money" instead of "he lent me some money".)

Very tight plaits if your hair is long enough, always stand above a child, never let your head go near theirs, buy a nit comb, buy really cheap conditioner and soak your hair then comb with nit comb. Good luck OP.

Wasn’t a thing 40 odd years ago when I was catching them either. Nitty gritty and derbac 😂

Nits are the least of your problems and if you had children you would understand😂

I started teaching primary children in 1994, never had nits although I did get threadworms. DD got her first nits in Reception - there was another child in the class whose parents didn’t bother combing them out. They were never sent home.

My colleague who was a Science teacher did a controlled experiment with 20 live lice in a dish of water and 20 live lice in a dish of nit lotion, left them for 12 hours overnight and all 40 were alive in the morning.

I tried Nitty Gritty, tea tree oil, tea tree shampoo, chemical lotions, electric zapping combs, conditioner, neem oil, olive oil, tying hair back, plaits, GHDs. After seven years I had realised the only thing that worked was nightly combing with plain conditioner and the white plastic combs. Hedrin was better than the chemical lotions but it gets expensive over seven years.

It is a bit of a shock at first because “people like us” don’t get headlice … but it turns out we do.

I’m 36 and it wasn’t a thing when I was at school either.

I need you in my life ❤️

I caught them off my DC. They kept coming back with hedrin and full marks. What stopped them getting them again was washing with tea tree shampoo and wet combing with tea tree conditioner. Used it all the time they hate the smell.

No child should hae to stay off school with nits, that's ridiculous. They are easy to get rid of, there should be a standard letter sent to all parents about how to do it. If this one child has them, others do too. Teachers also catch them, it's part of school life. Head lice are no respecter of persons.

You need tea tree conditioner and a Nitty Gritty comb. That’s the only brand of comb that worked for my kids.

This is actually rather reassuring as the day I worked with this child I’d curled my hair and doused it with hairspray..!!!