Am I dreaming this, or does anyone else's have a policy of not sending children to school if they had head lice?

[earlgrey]

Noticed dd2 scratching this morning, so decided to go over her with the electronic comb. Needless to say I managed to zapp about 10 before they crying, shouting and clock got the better of me.

But, I've a funny feeling I shouldn't have sent her in, or am I just dreaming it and that's V&D?

Our school don't want your child in school until he/she has been treated. Whether that is treated as in had some chemical slop poured over their scalp, or just wet-combing isn't clear.

Not sure just zapping them would be enough. I would have wet-combed to be sure.

Ds1's school likes you to tell them if your child has headlice so that other parents can be warned to check their child's head but they don't ask you to keep your child at home.

Might be an individual policy for the school. But ours its just a case of informing the school and taking whatever steps you can to sort it. I had this with DD 2 weeks ago, she picked them up at preschool, I called the leader to advise, and she wasnt that interested. I thought i was being polite and doing the right thing, but there has been no communication to the other parents about it all. Normaly our primary school just sends out a bog standard letter when they have been informed..but as my teacher friend tells me, not all parents read it, and even if they did, not all would do anything about it! I would probably ring the school and tell them, and leave it at that...

Thanks everyone. No time to wet comb this morning freckle, and I've got my bloody evening class tonight. Am on playground duty this arvo so will try and catch her teacher.

It would be dd2, would hair reacher down to her thighs, and not dd1, who has a bob, wouldn't it She's been asking for two baths a day since Friday and this is obviously why - she thought that would eradicate them. When I quizzed her this morning she said 'F's (her friend) got them'.

Grrrrrrr.....

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Shame DD2's previous school didn't have some policy in place. There was a girl in her class with long-ish hair who has had nits all year, to the point that her scalp is quite literally crawling (I have seen it myself). My friend had her round to play last week and said she could actually see them moving about in the rear view mirror. When they got home, the kids went to watch TV and apparently they were falling off her head onto the sofa. When her mum came to fetch her, my friend gently pointed out that she needed treating, and her mum apparently said: "Oh, I kekep telling my ex to do it but he's a lazy fecker and hadn't done it yet." Needless to say, the rest of us have been treating out kids constantly since September. Anyone else think that's neglect??

Well, I told dd2's teacher (luckily she was in the dining hall today) and she said "Oh, the whole class has" !!!!

GameGirly, eek! This being said DD's school sent a letter out in January, I checked then and found her hair was clean, but having never seen a nit in my life, didn't realise what I had to do anyway(the letter was full of what I now regard as guff about how you should just wet-comb, and then shampoo with vinegar). Lo! One month later, horror. Hedrin has dealt with the beasts. I did warn DD's friends' mothers but it's a bit like admitting to having leprosy, they all rushed to say that NO-ONE has them, NO-ONE has been treated, etc. Somehow I don't think DD is the only one in a class of 30, but I'm happy to be corrected...

our school policy is that you dont send your child to school if you find live nits. if your treating it for the 12 day period everyday then its fine.

how could you possibly know where your chld has got them from?

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hedrin

nitty gritty comb

tie girls' hair up (in french plaits or suchlike so that it's not floating around)

NOTE - nitty gritty comb works BRILLIANTLY on dd who has VERY thick hair but I noticed that it misses a lot on both ds and I because we have very fine hair. Luckily he is blonde so I can see the nits on his hair (and he has v short hair) and I can pick them off. Otherwise, we'd be buggered because even the nitty gritty (and the white plastic combs) miss the nits on v fine hair ggrrrr

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you can get it in the chemist (or some large supermarkets I think)

it's a brand of nit comb but the teeth of the comb have grooves so they pick the nits up better

it's expensive (like £10/£11 something like that)

i wish our school would make kids stay off til treated, that's what happened when i was at school and i can only ever remember one case of nits in all that time!

top tips that have worked for me and dc's:
(and boy, were we infested!)

in addition to wet-combing, instead of conditioner, try hair serum (e.g. frizz-ease or whatever) it doesn't clog the comb up and because it's see-through you can still see what you're doing.

also, put cheap white vinegar with a bit of tea tree oil together into a spray bottle,use when combing. apparently the nits hate it.(well you would, wouldn't you!)

try pure coconut oil (superdrug,99p, looks like a tub of lard but melts on contact with skin) comb this through, apparently they hate coconut oil too. (it doesn't smell of coconut sadly)

i've used all the above separately and in various combinations and
all these have been better than the chemistry-set versions for us. and when you immediately catch nits back again from the same untreated child the next day at school, there is some consolation for all your wasted effort: your dc's hair will be gorgeous and soft!

oh, forgot to say: i had heard that you can get nitty gritty comb set on prescription (free for kids of course)

they have their own website too, not sure of address sorry.

Nitty gritty site