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???

Emails aren’t a remedy for nits!
Well it obviously works, my DC have never had them, once the email arrives, the parents are good at getting on top of it.

They are itchy.

Oh op, if only it was as simple as parents spotting nits, combing and treating.

Sadly there are too many parents who don't give a shit and won't look for, never mind invest the time (doesn't have to mean £££ on treatments) in treating nits.

In the worst case I've seen, it eventually turned into a safeguarding referral for neglect (with several other red flags) as the nits were heaving on the poor kid's head.

Just wait for all the other joys - anyone handed you a baby tooth or a big bogie yet?

I don’t find the Nitty Gritty comb that good. The white plastic ones are better IMO. You can see the lice and eggs. The teeth of the comb also work better IMO again.

I find a week or two of conditioner combing every evening to start with works best. Then you can change to every other evening. I use small hair bands to section the hair into 6 sections, then comb through one section at a time.

If you do that for 3weeks and your child still has lice, then they’re being reinfected by another child. There’s usual at least one child who has lice constantly because their parents can’t be arsed to do the combing. That one child will keep a nit infestation going in a classroom for months.

If I noticed nits in the morning before school I'd probably want to keep my child off for a day to start treatment ASAP.

If I noticed them after school/evening/weekend I would also treat with a nit shampoo or something and then send to school the next day, even if follow up treatments were needed. Schools are so funny about attendance nowadays.

Gosh Op
You need to toughen up if you plan on working with kids

If they can email all the nits, it might work.

No if kids were not in school spreading them the outbreaks would be much rarer. Schools weren't half empty years ago when it was normal for kids to be kept at home until the nits were dealt with.

Even worse to get rid of. GS came back from a music festival and a month later he was covered. Pretty sure it was the festival as you don't get the rash/itch immediately. They happily tell you one treatment with the cream gets rid of them and you do another a week later "just in case." Four months later having spent a fortune on treatments not to mention the electricity we used for 60 degree washes and everything dried on high in the tumble dryer we finally won the battle. I never want to have to cover anyone's back with scabies treatment again. My hands are destroyed and I think I have contact dermatitis.

Apparently university halls are full of them at the moment, well six months ago.

If you work with children you have to wash your hands often and don’t put your fingers in your mouth. I’ve had threadworms once from a child in my class and it was hard to shift. Awful.

I got sent home for having nits, think I was about 9 or 10, I'm 36 now.

Every day of my life as a primary school teacher, I washed my (short) hair each morning in the shower, quickly combed conditioner through it with a nit comb. That way if I picked up any lice, I would notice straight away. Combing conditioner through wet hair three times a week for two weeks is the most successful way of getting rid of nits in kids. Sunday night bath time was nit combing night for my own kids and if we found any, then we did weds and Fridays too for two weeks then back to just Sunday nights. All the way through primary school. It's just a fact of primary school life. No way would staying off be necessary or practical. No need for nasty, expensive lotions...boots tea tree conditioner was our go to.

I'm not in the UK and it's absolutely shocking to me that kids aren't kept at home for something so contagious! I'm with you OP