to think that head lice treatment should be free?

[mummycake]

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?

I wish they could just tell you if they see something. My DS1 just gets the general letter and so I look and comb often but he doesn't seem to pick them up. Then we get another letter and I'm wondering if I'm just not seeing them. If someone said 'Look there's one right there, open your eyes, you daft cow' at least I'd know for sure.

We don't even get the standard letter . I've finally managed to get rid of DD's lice, after weeks (it feels like) of combing and treating. She's back at school after Easter, and I'm placing bets as to how long it is before they take up residence again. Really, really annoying.

To answer the op, yes, I'd love to see nit-nurses back, like I'd love to see milk back in school too.

We spray our children's hair with tea-tree oil spray before school and it seems to work, the time we ran out and didn't spray hey presto, nits. Pharmacist recommended Hedrin as the other lotion we'd used didn't work. I baulked at the price tbh, and luckily my GP was sympathetic and had no problem in me picking a prescription up. However, I strongly suspect it's luck as to whether you get it free, my brother always gets Calpol and the like for free, they usually ask if he'd like it even if he's not gone in for it. And yet, I remember the one and only time I needed Calpol 'on prescription' as dd1's nursery at the time would only allow Calpol to be administered if it was on prescription. Our surgery simply refused, telling us to change nursery or not to use the Calpol.

Think the whole range of nit lotions needs looking at in terms of pricing so that it becomes as affordable as Calpol and the like.

The parents who deliberately ignore it should be reported to SS. They have a duty to keep their children clean and hygienic in order to mix with other children.

OurLady.. I can only tell you how we do it which works for us.. I slather their (dry) hair in it until it is dripping from root to tip, put a towel on their pillows and leave it on overnight then wash it off in the morning. repeat after 7 days to catch any of the small newly hatched ones before they are able to reproduce again and bingo. Job Done. I usually do a check about 3 days after the first treatment.. just cheap conditioner on dry hair and a good combing with the nitty gritty comb. I do always check my DCs hair every couple of weeks using the conditioner and comb method as well.

well, dd would have been off school for may months if she wasn't allowed to go to school with headlice.
Not always that conditioner and nitty gritty combing works. I spent hours going through her hair while she was sleeping, scraping the nits=eggs off her hair (in addition to the twice weekly combing). Next night I would still find 3-4 lice...
Only when I started using Hedrin (and no they don't get resistant to it) did we get rid of them.

Combing etc was fine with other dc but they don't have hair till below their bum...

Hedrin is available free on prescription, but GP may be reluctant to presribe it, as they may be relunctant to prescibe calpol.

Our primary school has started sending children home, if headlice are spotted. Also the nursery nurse has told a few parents that their child has headlice.

A friend of mine had a phone call to pick up her dd, as she had headlice, only when she got the child home and combed her hair she realised it was weetabix crumbs

it's more likely a case of parents who can't be bothered or who don't follow through properly withe the treatment, I had to perserve for 3 weeks using the wet comb method and my dd hair is thick and down to her waist. it always seems to be doing the rounds in our school and we are not in a deprived area, so i think laziness is the key here not cost, even if you use the treatment you still have to do the wet combing as part of the over all treatment, i think some parents just apply the lotion and think thats it. however re the kids who are literally crawling, that does sound like neglect as if you are trying to eliminate them you wouldn't still be that infested.

My nephew in Holland (9) gets checked when they come back to school after each half term by a nit nurse. All the children get a letter in their bag in a sealed envelope for the parents in which the nit nurse explains that their child was checked for head lice that day and in case any where found how to treat. Simples??

Check out google for minor ailment scheme this is where you get cal poly ,head lice treatment free this is done by NHS .
And you can also get a list of pharmacies

Surely not treating your childrens nits is neglect? I would report them to SS without second though. Poor things

Please report the parents who are repeatedly not treating head lice as a safeguarding issue. It is a clear sign of child neglect and there may be other reasons why they are neglecting the child.

I’m not judging anyone if their kids have nits or they have trouble getting rid of them, had them loads as a kid myself, but refusal to deal with it is something I’d judge.

1 - zombie head lice.

2 - the NHS isn't fucking "free". You mean, "this is how you get the tax payer to cover the cost". Which may or may not be justified in any given case. But it isn't FREE!

When DD was younger we suggested to the school that they had a treatment day. Free info was given out how to treat children for free, we then published a set of days for parents to treat.

The reason for this was it was pointless if two sets of friends had caught them and even with parents treating, if say mum A treated on a Monday and Mum B treated on a Wednesday, child A could have caught again and the two week cycle would begin again. Obviously there were parents who didn’t bother but among our group of friends and their children it eliminated problems of endless nits

For my other 4 DC’s I spray tea tree oil in their roots and I have never had to treat them for nits.

Oh wow just realised zombie thread

Minor ailments scheme used to provide free headlice treatment. You go into any pharmacy and ask at the counter. Im not sure it's still running in England as I'm not a resident anymore

ZOMBIE