to tell headmistress a child in DD's class possibly has head lice?

[AliciaMum]

Just bathed DD and did the tea tree conditioner and comb through and guess what? Yep, she got lice again 5 of them. Used the nitty gritty but not sure if I got all the eggs out.

Since DD started school 1 year ago she has lice almost constantly. I asked her if she noticed any of the kids scratching their heads a lot and she said the girl she plays with is always scratching.

I obviously don't know if this child has head lice or not but AIBU to inform the headmistress? Not sure what she can/will do about it though as head lice in DD's school is an every day occurance.

I am getting sick of this. DD has a bath one day shower the next- on the days she has a bath I use the nitty gritty - can't understand why she is getting lice all the time .

OMG - sorry this is meant for the AIBU

That little girls mum could be about to report your dd for all you know

It's really irritating, but I can't imagine that the Head doesn't know already- ours would have no time to do anything other than listen to disgruntled parents about headlice if we all went to her.

I would speak to the teacher about it.

You would seriously speak to the head about this? Even telling the teacher seems a bit odd to me - kids at school get nits. You deal with it.

Bar forced head shaving of the child with the most, not a lot you can do really

of course you should tell head although dont expect her to be shocked! I work in a school and we get told about this kind of thing all the time. School nurses were stopped from dealing with this problem because they made no difference! Headlice occurance has stayed static since they withdrew from schools. Headlice is a home problem. If the children do not get rid of it at home withintheir families then they pass on to children at school and this will happen again nad again but there's really nothing school can do about it except for talk to the child, talk to the parents, and send letters home to inform.
I know thats not really helping you.
best thing is to tie her hair well back and spray lightly in place.

The teacher probably already knows. The child in question probably has a parent who doesn't bother to check or treat their child. It is altogether possible the teacher has mentioned it to the parent already and got nowhere. It is very irritating though, I do sympathise. I found lice in my own hair every week or so during one particularly bad term.

There were never nits at the school I attended, there were never on any of the nurseries DS attended, although we have seen some notices in his current school.

I really don't think is something that has to be part of school life, granted I had them once as a child, but I really don't think is something to be put with in a regular basis. I would talk to the teacher (not the headteacer) and ask if a note could be sent around for all parents (without reference to any child in particular)

I wouldn't tell the teacher that AN Other child had nits - but I would tell her that mind did. 50% of children with nits don't itch, and 50% of itchy heads aren't nits. It's not a big deal - just use the nitty gritty comb regularly and you'll keep on top of them.

Are the kids checked in school in the UK now? At my kids' school, the class mums have recently set up a system whereby all the kids are checked once a month or so by a volunteer mum and if they have headlice, the teacher and the parents will be informed. All very low-key, all the parents happy to do this, no big embarassment etc. TBH, headlice is not a big problem in my childrens' school but I think all the parents just want to catch it early and do something about it. Sounds very sensible to me.

MeMySonandI - I regularly sent notes, wheeled out notices onto the yard at going home time and even phoned up parents. It made no difference.

Frontline.