To not do nit checks twice weekly?

[Kilot]

School have sent out an email to say we should be checking the children’s hair thoroughly with a nit-comb twice a week. AIBU to think they’ve lost their minds?

Oh please - that’s utter rubbish. It is hardly typical to do twice a week combthroughs with a nitty gritty on the offchance your kid has nits. Treat when needed, keep an eye on it in between, that’s it. YANBU OP.

Mine have thick, curly hair. It takes a solid twenty minutes to comb through. They don’t watch an hour of TV a day!

I do my DD's around 3x per week, same as pp, spray bottle of water, conditioner and nitty gritty comb before shower. Go through my hair with a nit comb in the shower if they're going round school too.

French braids for school every day.

She has had them quite a few times though, they seemed to loop round her friendship group almost constantly for a while and now she has younger cousins in EYFS and KS1 so I don't want to just assume she doesn't have them and then have to battle with full blown infestations.

If the school had an infestation problem I’m sure I’d do it more often but they don’t. There’s probably an email once a year to say there’s been a case of headlice (so I check then).

Do they not socialise with children from other schools though? Mine dances and the girls she dances with are from around 5 other schools, for all I know a letter has gone out in their schools but not mine...

The school only know if the parents report it though.

Why on earth would you not report it? Surely that just means reinfection is more likely

I have literally never checked for nits. They've never had them. That I know of ...🤣

Parents who don't notice, aren't bothered, are embarrassed etc won't report it to the school.

You can't rely on other people doing the right thing.

But in that scenario surely the child would end up absolutely riddled and they’d spread. I don’t believe infestations die out without intervention?

You are describing nit treatment- conditioner, comb.

Nit check is like the nit nurse used to do. DC watching tv, lean over the sofa, give them a hug then part their hair a few times looking for movement. Behind the ears, nape of the neck, and a couple other spots. Look for white empty egg cases. Brown full cases are hard to spot.

If you do it a couple of times a week, you’ll spot them early and treat them fast. Even if you miss them, you will see them before it’s an infestation.

DSis told me lice are huge. Well, yes they are, but only the adults. Whenever I spotted them, it wasn’t the single adult, it was the gazillions of tiny babies.

So check whenever you give them a cuddle, while they are watching tv, when you are waiting somewhere with nothing to do. It just becomes an automatic instinct.

Embarrassment.

They would spread, that's why the school are asking parents to check twice a week. That way it's pretty much confined to the kids of the parents who don't bother checking or can't be arsed sorting it out.

No the email states we should be checking the full head with a nit comb twice a week

But clearly they’re not or we’d have had them more than once

That suggest they are having a significant issue then.

Ask for a demonstration. I still reckon I check the full head by looking at the nape, behind the ears and a couple of other places. The comb parts the hair to the scalp so you can see better. If the DC has fine blond hair I’d doubt a comb is needed. Thick, dark hair and it probably is, even for a check, as you just wouldn’t see them.

I used to check. But there were days/weeks when I didn't because I simply forgot and there were other things on my mind other than nits.

That's a bit dramatic! How did finding the very early beginning of nits "ruin your Christmas".

The hysterics on here is unreal sometimes 🙄

Clearly not though or we’d have had them more than once!

Just slightly dramatic...

Some children are more prone than others- warm scalp v cold scalp.

DSis would say hers didn’t have them often. I suspect she just didn’t notice 🤣

I’m not saying you are the source of School’s infestation. Just that it isn’t unreasonable to check thoroughly more often than ‘when school writes home about it’.

Checking for nits was part of our night-time routine as I'd have been mortified if they were found to have wildlife living in their hair - or, even worse, if my mother or MIL caught them 😱. Kids would have their bath, conditioner on hair, sit in front of me drinking their night-time drink watching something on TV or a video (my youngest is 35 years old now so was videos in those far-off days) while I combed through their hair with a nit comb. I'd leave the conditioner on to be showered off in the morning.

Yes, if school have said there are nits around. I used to get so cross with other parents who didn't do this as my dd was allergic to nits and ended up having time off her scalp was bleeding so badly.

Yes.
We had to all the years of primary to fight it. It was endless. 3 weeks with no nits was unsual. It was all the time. A few kids in class weren't treated so it went on and on.

This year Secondary school and no nits!

Nope. I check if I see them scratching.

they are teens now and we’ve only ever had nits once