The Nit Nurse

[Nannypep]

I totally agree, the nit nurse should return. It was mortifying to have your child brought home from school and excluded until s/he was clear of lice, and that's why more parents made an effort to check and keep their children's hair clear.

It seems that now it's only those with infested children who are reluctant to complain and broadcast that their kids are lousy! In my grandchildren's school, the lice are giants, resistant to most products, and the staff and parents know the culprits, but they aren't allowed to say!! How ridiculous!

My 9 yr old grand daughter has had to suffer hours of combing and gallons of lotions since she started at Nursery. She knows she will become infested as soon as she returns to school after a weekend or holiday, and she's quite upset at the indignity and the unfairness.

If these kids had AIDS, or something much less contagious like that, there would be an outcry by parents (inappropriately), but a scourge which sucks the blood from our children's heads is tolerated by the powers that be!!! What are we coming to???

But times have moved on - lice are just lice. Annoying yes, but worthy of exclusion from school? Although it's a PITA if some parents keep ignoring them. Maybe the schools should have nit checks themselves and just send the kids home with letters, or do they do that already?

They send letters home to every child, and they put on information sessions for parents given by nurses, to which hardly anyone turns up!!

By the way, have you treated and combed these crawling disgusting creatures out of a loved child's hair? or caught them and squashed one, to see the blood squirt out? They aren't nice, and the smallest babies can catch them from siblings or relatives, as mine have. I have 3 grandchildren under a year, and they are at risk of getting them every time their loving cousins want to hold them.

The schools aren't allowed to check, but often teachers see crawlers on heads, or become infected themselves. Some will discreetly tell you they saw lice on your child, if they know you're concerned.

Yes, time has moved on... but is it really for the best?