Head Lice and teachers - help, need advice - just a little angry right now!!!!!!!!!

[Lizziekid]

Hiya, i'd like some advice on headlice and teachers!!

Headlice has been an on going porblem for my daughter. We manage to get rid of them and then about a month later they seem to re-appear, summer holiday, easter etc etc she is all clear, the minute back at school she gets them.

Today my daughters teacher pulled me to one side after school and explained that a helper had looked in her hair and that she was crawling with lice, she then went on to say that the headteacher had said that unless they are gone she has to stay home from school until they are gone. I was made to feel like my daughter is the root cause of the whole schools problem with headlice. Having spoken to my daughter who is 7, no-one has touched her hair today, and having combed through her hair tonight with a nitty gritty comb i found one lice in her hair. i'm so angry and want to say sonething to the head as

1. surely being made to stay at home is like a suspension from school and would have thought a letter would need to be written to me
2. why is she being singled out, as no other parents have had this said to them
3. and why did the head send a message through the teacher and not approach me herself???

am i over reacting????? pls help!

They are not allowed to touch the kids head so how would she know . And if she had gone against the rules she would have seen that there wernt any there .

Thats part of why i'm so cross, i cant understand how they can make assumptions, as my daughter did say no-one had touched her hair! i'm quite confused about the whole thing really

Has she got lice? How are you treating it?

Does the school have a policy on headlice ? Ours will ask us to take them home if they see a live one . Not suggesting this excuses the way they have handled it win your case . Are you sure noone else has been spoken to in the same way , people are hardly likely to discuss it openly after all.

she did have lice, tried using lots of lotions and potions but none seemed to work, then started using the nitty gritty comb which is great, and they eventually went, i try to use it every 4 days, to catch them early if any are there! She has got some little white bits in her hair, and she's got black hair so they show up, i think they're the dead eggs, but cant seem to shift them

lizs, we do chat about it in the playground!! its pretty sad really, but beats talking about the weather. We have notes in the school bags now and then about a lice outbreak but thats as far as it goes

I think they will eventually take over the world. My two girls are mixed race with afro type hair and they have both had it lots. It is a bloody nightmare. I now have a tried and tested way to get rid of them. It is time consuming. I don't use chemicals, just do the tedious nit comb and conditioner thing once every three days for two weeks. Yes two weeks. Centimetre by centimetre. We put on a dvd and I get them to sit still with sweets. Yes sweets. I find star burst the best because it takes ages to unwrap them.....In the meantime I put on tea tree oil and tie their hair up a la croydon facelift. Plaited to decrease surface area. Nightmare.

How rude of them Lizziekid. I'd be fuming. My kids keep on getting headlice too. I manage to clear them in the holidays then as soon as they go back to school the whole thing starts again.

It really is very common and very hard to eradicate. You are clearly tackling the problem anyway so they had no right to single you out and humiliate you like this.
Suspension would be a ridiculous over reaction and I'm not sure if they'd be allowed to do this.

I would be expressing my indignation in no uncertain terms. Perhaps you could even put the blame back on the school by letting them know that the lice keep returning and suggesting a school strategy (eg send letters out with advice about Hedrin and Nitty Gritty combs and with a joint strategy. Perhaps everyone could sychronise their lice removal and do it in half term to try to get rid of them all at once.

In fact, I may even do that myself because I'm so sick of headlice.

I don't think children can be excluded any more for lice. To be honest, I wish there was a nit nurse (as with years ago) and ALL children with lice were either treated or told to stay home. However, they most certainly can't pick out your child alone. I would be cross too.

I had this with the last two primary schools DD attended. We ended up having to nit comb once or twice a week to keep them at bay. It's a sorry state of affairs. The fact that you acknowlege the problem is more than a lot of parents do. I've seen kids with heads scratched raw who clearly have been left untreated for weeks, if not longer.

I would kick off about them suggesting DD stay home and remind them that she's not the only child in the class who has them. I would suggest the school have a "bug busting" day where everyone agrees to check their children and treat them on the same evening or weekend.

Never known a bug busting day to work - you just can't get everyone to do it

At the very least, though, might make the head teacher see that everyone should do it, rather than him/ her pick off individuals...

spudmasher, your house hold sounds just like mine!lol!! I Sit them down infront of the telly and comb away! Mine are mixed race too, but have straight hair, but really really thick hair, so takes forever! And as you, scrape their hair back! I have put grease in her hair recently to try and keep them out, and seems to be working, but doesn't look great in straight hair!!!

Yes, i did mention something like this to the teacher when i was approached today, i suggested we have a day when everyone is treated, this way getting rid once and for all, but was made to feel like if i get my daughter sorted then everyone will be ok.
i hate the things!!! and just wish all parents would be vigilant!!! There are certainly other kids in the class that have them!

ive posted on your other thread but i just wanted to add,about the 'nits',my dd1 hasnt had any live headlice in months but i still cant get rid of the empty eggs that are now about 3inches down the hair shafts.i think they stick them on with super-glue!

I must admit I get fed up with parents saying, 'There are parents who don't bother to comb at all' because how do you know? So many people have said this, at home and in RL, and gone on about kids scratching in the playground. My kids scratch and I feel mortified and I hate the thought that other mums might be bitching about me because I spend hours and hours nit combing my four and the whole thing just starts all over again.

Really I think we all need to stop judging each other, relax about it, acknowlege it';s a widespread problem, and swap ideas. Fear, shame and finger pointing will only drive it underground.

We only recently realised that DS1 had lice when he was sitting in the barbers chair!

When he came home, DP went to get nit combs but got the rubbish metal ones that don't get anything out of their hair. So we kept DS1 off school the next morning, bought a treatment and new combs and combed and combed until there was nothing in his hair. DP took him to school when we were finished and explained the situation to the Head and asked him to inform the rest of his class.

I checked his bag when he cam e home and there wasn't a note.

I went to playgroup with DS2 and DD the following day and warned the mums there that we'd had an outbreak. I was discussing it with one of the mums whose eldest DD is at the same school as DS1 and she said that we wouldn't get a note home because the school policy is not to tell anyone incase it embarrasses anyone and makes them feel they are being accused of being the cause of them!

So we have no option but to keep on combing.

I think the Nit Bustng Day is a great idea. Its so frustrating when I've spent an evening combing us all and for DS1 to come home from scholl the next day with fully grown lice in his hair that i know weren't there when he went in the morning grrrr

Unfortunately it only takes one person to not bother....

Divastrop they do cement the eggs on so firmly. I've found putting olive oil with tea tree oil in it for about 7 hours (choose a day they don;'t have to go out anywhere) can losen the empty cases and get them off.

If that fails they'll just have to grown out.

God it's such a nightmare isn't it?

thanks diva! posted on here first then thought maybe had posted in wrong section!!! yep def superglue!!

I do agree spider, that is a good point

I expect the helper just saw the lice in her hair as she was sitting with her or passing by. She probably didn't examine her. I'd hope not anyway.

Although the teacher said 'the head says' she probably just means that it's school policy not that the head has specifically said that about your dd.

I understand that you feel aggrieved but isn't this exactly what you want the school to do? To tell parents of children with lice about them, to get them clear so that they aren't passed on.

Well done Lact8 for telling the teachers. I always do but why don't they pass it on? I'm sure most people don't tell others.

So spud how do you know there is such a person? Unless you have actually heard a mum saying, 'I can't be arsed' then you have no business judging.

Sorry. I don;t want to sound rude, but this sort of attitude is unhelpful and unfriendly. We need to support each other and not stand in the playground with folded arms pointing the finger.

i think a national nit busting day would go down a treat!!!

For example, as I have four kids I find they keep passing them on to each other. It only takes one child to pick up lice and they've all got them again. With classes of thirty or more kids it's going to be really hard to keep them at bay even if we are all utterly diligent and devote our lives to nit busting.

Don't bother even trying as the empty nits are not infectious (have been pharmacist for a few years so get this all the time), trouble is most teachers etc don't realise this. You can only treat the live lice (and eggs to some extent)
One of mine got sent home from nursery with head lice - it was actually compost where DC had been playing in garden I was not best pleased