Is it inevitable to get used to head lice in the UK?

[OlyaR]

Hi there, I've got a daughter who is 10 months old, and recently one of NCT mums whose baby is already attending the nursery dropped a message in our chat that they are going to buy some shampoo that can delouse her son because he picked up head lice in the nursery. At first, I thought it was a joke, I'm from overseas and where I grew up head lice are so rare because when it happens and the child is seen with head lice the nursery/ school will inform the parents and the child will be allowed to continue only after their hair is clean from it. No one tolerates head lice, so I'd say they nip it in the bud. I can't imagine that other parents would put up with the situation of someone in the class infecting the whole class because the parents are okay with it.

Why are people so relaxed about it here? I've got long thick hair, it's a nightmare to think that I need to have it myself or my child will have it. I accept that this can happen but I find it hard to understand why do people keep saying that it's only head lice, not a big deal. So pity, because I love UK, its people, and nature but I don't know if I can accept it. I realize that for someone it may be ridiculous what I'm writing but my husband and I still can't get over the shock that people treat head lice normally and even make jokes about it.

So my question is, is it possible to find a nursery/ school that will take the head lice problem seriously and not allow spreading it ? I know that nit nurses are in the past but I'm sure measures can be taken ( excluding ) + I truly hope that there are such parents who agree with me and also take it seriously.

Also the lice are becoming resistant to the treatments so there are actually more around than when we were kids.

The source of many years of school nits was like this - assumed dumping one treatment on was enough then blamed everyone for reinfection.

She eventually made some comments to other parents she tried to blame and it came out she really wasn't treating properly- no second treatment no combing - shortly afterwards she treated properly and there was a blessed year before anyone had problems. She was uni educated professional woman so why she didn't read the leaflets [shrug].

The school tried - they tried to suggest weekend all parents should treat - parents like the above never did. They can't send the kids home - so they are hampered.

I'm thought past primary this wouldn't be an issue - but in early secondary it was a problem as well - and we've just had to treat few weeks ago - one in college one Y11 - Y11 says there were rumors going round there were nits - I assume younger kids not being treated but still bit shocked.

@Boxblue thank you for that suggestion of conditioner and combing every other day. My child has brought them home to us for the first time ever and I have ended up catching them too. I am actually really embarrassed and freaked out by them, even though I realise it's not our fault and just one of those things. Tried Full Marks and it didn't resolve them. Tried Nitty Gritty comb at the weekend and it was effective but I still feel itchy so I'm sitting with Hedrin on at the moment as I type. Have left on a full half hour so hoping it blimmin' works as stated to leave on just 5 minutes. Will do the conditioner and combing every other day going forward for peace of mind!

www.amazon.co.uk/Nitty-Gritty-Comb-Assorted-Colors/dp/B000KUALPE/ref=asc_df_B000KUALPE/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=697234440369&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9790662434848693815&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007009&hvtargid=pla-457236721354&psc=1&mcid=5ba53211ea9c31f29672002c8e79694d&th=1&psc=1&gad_source=1

I don't know if advice has changed but when my DC were young this was the recommendation. We were told the treatments are often not 100% effective and why use pesticide on DC's hair when regular combing does a better job?

You already have demodex mites living in your eyelashes eating your skin and laying eggs at night (everyone does). You can avoid having lice without having to get so disgusted and judgemental about it

Truly the same, I'm from Ukraine. What is the reason that it's so common here? Climate, hygiene, lack of acts at school? I don't think that there's something major done to prevent it there, they truly almost don't exist in these areas.

Lice prefer clean hair so perhaps it’s that so many people wash their hair every day here?

That's not true. It makes no difference if hair is clean or not. The clean hair myth is one that was used to try and remove the stigma, so it wouldn't be something no one talked about.

I'm middle of 3 girls. Eldest and myself possibly got them once if at all when going through primary school. Youngest would have missed most of y1 and 2 if she was forced to stay off school. There was one girl who wasn't getting treated and my sister had them endlessly occasionally passing them on to the rest of us. Mum kept on top of them with weekly preemptive sessions combing through with conditioner every Sunday evening and then mid week when needed.

I don't know if there was a lot going around at the time as I have a memory of my TA auntie at a different school being horrified that her hair dresser found nits in her hair.

My daughter has just started school and whilst she had a couple of letters about head lice in nursery she never had them.

Grew up in the UK, got headlice once as a kid then not until I was an adult living abroad. I informed my kids school and a letter went out to all parents.

It took about 2 months to get rid of them. I used so many different treatments, none of which worked as well the stuff my mum used on me in the 90s. It took about 6 treatments and hours and hours of combing to remove them completely.

There's no way I could have kept my kids off until they were gone.

I really hope your children never get worms! That's another league of awful!

Honestly it's not that expensive, one off cost of a nitty gritty comb (worth every penny) then cheap conditioner.

When mine were in primary one of my children got them constantly - there was a child in their class who came from a chaotic household and she was obviously not being treated. Should she have been excluded every time?

No one's saying having lice is fun or ok, but it's not a massive deal. Like someone said above, it's one of those things in childhood.

Everyone in the house needs to be thoroughly combed every 3 days until you are all fully clear. Please be careful putting that on your head for so long!!

Unlike me, I don't consider it as a part of childhood, I've never had it myself, and neither did my husband, my sister, and all my friends that I know

I never had them as a child and neither of my DDs have had them.
My siblings had them though and remember my mum having the hit comb out

I was combing for weeks. I would set an alarm for 60 minutes and once thought I was in the clear until I found one lone insect at 59 minutes of combing. Someone told me to go through my kids hair with a pair of scissors and if I saw an egg on a hair shift, cut the hair out. I ended up doing that, weeks after the first chemical treatment and after daily combing, dry, with conditioner and olive oil. It was dreadful!

I work in a primary school (in Wales, so it may well be different in Scotland, England or N.Ireland).

We are only permitted to tell the entire class that we have 'visitors' - we are not allowed to let specific parents know - apparently because we aren't medical professionals - even when the lice are literally falling out of the childs hair onto the table.

I'm not from the UK and feel the same way you do. Was very very very rare where I'm from in SE Asia. I'm always appalled how nonchalant people in the UK are about nits.

The source article for this says that the numbers are difficult to track because people do it over different time periods and different groups. Also that there is a surprising lack of information about the actual rates. That high English figure is an annual rate rather than an 'on this day' number. Same article says rate of lice in Ukranian adults is high but who knows what time period or group they're talking about?

I have to say that I'm not nonchalant at all about nits, and do everything I can to prevent them and check for them. Thankfully neither of my children have had them, despite them being present in their school class at various points. But, I do appreciate that you can't exclude children from school because of them, given that they are simply a nuisance and not actually a serious health issue.

@CocoPlum thank you. I washed it off a few minutes after my last comment and have just completed a very meticulous combing session (with the nitty gritty comb rather than the one that came with the treatment). Absolutely no nits/eggs and no lice came out at all which is making me wonder if my itching might be either psychosomatic or irritated scalp after having had them. Is that possible? Will keep up the regular combing regardless of course.

I've spent all day scratching after reading this thread. Well known fact that so much as thinking about nits creates an itchy scalp.

Mumsnet:well schools just need to tell the parents to sort it out

Also Mumsnet: how dare the school tell me what to do with my child

If schools are unsuccessful in getting all parents to not let their PRIMARY kids have
snapchat
online gaming passes
tiktok
imstagram
a smart phone
horror movie nights

why on earth do you think they’d be successful at stopping them letting live infected children go to school? We don’t punish children for their shit parents in this country. Ukraine, Asia, America aren’t RIGHT, they go about it differently.

I think it depends on your school and the other children (and parents).
I have 2 DDs aged 9 and 13 and they've only had head lice once (youngest caught them at nursery).
We've always done hair tied back for school and I guess we've been lucky that parents of other kids in their class have taken it seriously and treated their kids if they had lice

I never had them as a child and neither did either of my children (now aged 19 and 21.) We used to get round robin notes from the school about once a term saying someone in one of our children’s year groups had got nits - so we should check our children’s hair. We always checked, but never found any. I think all the parents were really on top of it at in my kid’s school.
My sister was not so lucky. When her daughter was about five years old (now aged 24) her teacher told my sister that she had nits. She said she wasn’t officially supposed to inform her, but she knew my sister would want to know. As I said, we never had nits as children and my sister was appalled. She washed her daughter’s hair with special anti nit shampoo, combed through her hair with a nit comb etc and she and her husband treated their own hair too. The next day she told the teacher she had got rid of the nits. The teacher said, “I’d do it again if I was you. There’s several children here that have still got nits.” From then on she treated and combed through her daughter’s hair regularly, but her daughter got nits repeatedly throughout primary school.

Ha! Came here to say this! If you don't like the lice just wait for the worms 😈