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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think that head lice treatment should be free?

92 replies

mummycake · 23/04/2010 16:51

Hi all I work in a primary school within an area classed as deprived.
I teach a group of 30 6/7 year old children and they are all a delight to teach. However there are some children there whos heads are literally crawling with head lice- so much so that they often fall into their work and some children scratch their heads so much it leads to bleeding, scabs and discomfort which sometimes affects their concentration and work as well as their self esteem.
We have one or two children who always seem to have them whilst the majority of the children are treated almost daily by their parents who literally spend a fortune on treatments only to find their children then promptly pick them up by being near other children whilst at school.
I often think if the treatments were free then more parents would use them. I am not saying children who live in deprived areas are more at risk of getting headlice I am just giving the background to my own current experience as very often the mothers are desperate to treat their children but can't afford the pharmacy prices.
And whilst we are on the subject should the '' nit-nurse'' be brought back?

OP posts:

ButterPie · 23/04/2010 19:32

I got it free (for myself- I shared a house with a student teacher) a few years ago from a chemist in England, no problem.

All under 16s get free prescriptions- I hope nobody has been paying for medicine for their kids!

MilaMae · 23/04/2010 20:12

The thing is with combing some parents will never,ever sit down and comb their children(it needs to be all or they re-infect) each other every night for 2 weeks-I struggled and work from home.

If you both do long shifts pick up your child from nursery/school late then feed them, then hear them read,then do homework the last thing you want to do after it all is wash and comb out hair belonging to 1,2,3 or more tired crotchety kids. Hedrin is sooooooo much easier and doesn't contain pesticides.You put it on once,they go to bed-repeat 10 days later and Bingo job done. No pesticides and no bloody combing.

Some parents will just never comb out full stop,most parents would be happy to Hedrin them but many parents can't afford it so do nothing and so it goes on over and over again......

localmum · 23/04/2010 20:33

There is a girl in dd's class (secondary school) who is constantly infested and passes them on to other kids. We have to comb constantly because of this girl, whose mother can't be bothered. Poor kid is 12. It is very sad.

SrStanislaus · 23/04/2010 20:33

I agree with MmeBlueberry in that its the easy way out to use treatments to get rid of the little blighters. My DDs had them but I never used any treatments except the condition and comb method. I actually like squishing them between my thumb nails

FourArms · 23/04/2010 20:36

I know that you can get things like Hedrin on prescription, but our GP just doesn't prescribe them. If they're ill and need Calpol, they won't prescribe it, I need to buy it. We didn't even get any to take home last time DS1 had an op on his testicles. When they had nits I bought the metal nitty gritty comb and hedrin, then I read on here about the bug busting kit which is available on prescription (GP just needs to write Bug Buster Kit x 1 on the prescription) and got hold of one of those kits too so DH and I can tag team.

We used Hedrin once, but have kept them at bay with regular combings, which have worked even though they are regularly in contact with a family of children who are infested with nits continually.

The pharmacy prescription scheme doesn't exist in Plymouth, or at any pharmacy I've asked in locally.

NotanOtter · 23/04/2010 20:38

i agree totally op
bring back nit nurse
If MEN did the nit combing - there would be nurses

PeedOffWithNits · 23/04/2010 22:24

if men did the nit combing there would be even more kids walking round with all their hair shaved off, girls too (which i have sadly seen, poor lass)

expatinscotland · 23/04/2010 22:26

So instead of nit nurse and telling parent their kid has nits, we get lots of folks continually infested?

How is this doing anyone any good?

HappyMummyOfOne · 23/04/2010 22:31

I agree MmeBlueberry too, having children can be costly but thats part of being a parent - treatment shouldnt be free for head lice as its inexpensive to control in the first place.

Our old doctors had a sign in reception advising that calpal, cough medicine, paracetamol, head lice treatment would not be prescribed as all could be bought over the counter.

PeedOffWithNits · 23/04/2010 22:34

exactly expat.

good question for cameron, clegg and brown, that is!

toccatanfudge · 23/04/2010 22:38

inexpensive hey? oh right - that's why

a) DS2 and 3's hair in particular is never combed on a regular basis (atually make that ever lol)

b) all the nitty gritty did was take out DS's hair.......each time I clean it off it was his hair - and the lice were still in his sodding head.........tried a variety of cheap versions on him and they didn't work either

DS3's hair I had to sit and pick them out by hand as well (though thankfully the nitty gritty didn't take out his hair - there's still not THAT much of it )

My children don't own a hair brush between them!

toccatanfudge · 23/04/2010 22:41

expat - I remember the nit nurse at school..........nits still did the rounds all the time, the comb did work in my hair and I remember it being used frequently on my bum length hair

expatinscotland · 23/04/2010 22:42

We had a nit nurse, too!

NotanOtter · 23/04/2010 22:58

parents should be shamed into treating or combing their kids imo

cheap? it cost me £20 last time i had to treat mine and i only did 3 children

why should we pay when people go to the doctors every 5 minutes for a sniffle etc etc etc

SwissCheeseIsHolyCheesus · 23/04/2010 22:59

Crikey, you all need to join my doctors, I just mosied on down, filled out three repeat prescription forms for me, dd and ds for hedrin times 2 (six bottles in total) and stuck it in the repeat prescription, 3 days later, et voila 6 bottles of hedrins finest.

Thought it was the same country wide tbh

mumeeee · 23/04/2010 23:11

You can get it on prescription. Which is fre for children or for everyone if you live in Wales.

NotanOtter · 23/04/2010 23:15

slightly off topic but my son went to the gp for a wart virus and the gp told him ( at the end of consult) to go and buy it

cue one very livid mummy ringing up

ActuallyMyNamesMarina · 24/04/2010 08:26

Butterpie - prescriptions are free for certain groups - in education being one of them. However, if you're always trotting off to the Docs for Calpol you are costing the NHS a bloody fortune as prescribing items on a prescription that cost less over the counter is highy inefficient.

The NHS is a service that is free at the point of contact, after that you may have to pay. Headlice can be kept at bayt by wet combing.
Maybe I'm lucky, but neither of mine have had nits, despite several class mates being infested. We wet comb weekly, yes it takes a bit of time, but its cheap, pain free and efficient.

Nymphadora · 24/04/2010 08:35

No minorailments scheme here. It's only certain parts of UK. Used to get it via HV but my kids are now under school nurse not HV. And as someone has already said going via GP is seen as a waste of time.

OurLadyOfPerpetualSupper · 24/04/2010 09:04

Is there a special method with Hedrin I don't know about?
I used it on two of mine a few weeks ago and smugly thought that was the end of it, but now I'm back to wet-combing and mortified that they may have been passing them on (thankfully they've been off school for Easter but even so...)

Ronaldinhio · 24/04/2010 09:07

scripts are free for all in Norn Iron now...?
I've considered vacuuming their heads it was so bad in our house
Turns out that granny also had a bad case

arf

wahwah · 24/04/2010 09:13

Can anyone explain why a teacher can't tell a parent that they have spotted headlce on their child? It doesn't make any sense to me at all, other than another 'oh no we can't give cuddles to nursery children when they hurt themselves because of child protection type nonsense', but am happy to be corrected.

Original poster

mummycake · 24/04/2010 09:35

I am not really sure but its something to do with targeting and victimising the parents, every time a case of head lice is spotted than a generic letter is sent out to the whole class! Its frustrating and annoying as 1 or 2 children in particular seem to always have them and their parents wont do anything about it!

OP posts:

MintHumbug · 24/04/2010 09:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

roulade · 24/04/2010 10:06

This is really making me itch! I can't wait til ds starts reception this year

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