American Pediatrics says children with lice should go to school

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Eh, I see their point. I had it once as a kid and once as an adult (got it from work.) Really, all I did as an adult was use the shampoo and comb, wash my bedding, and vacuum, and I was free and clear.

I don't think you can compare this to a cold. A cold can indeed be life threatening and can cause enough illness that a person needs to stay in bed. It can also lead to problems like bronchitis (although I am still in the if you don't have a fever, come to school camp). Lice do nothing more than itch. They are not a gateway to other illnesses. I'm not saying that children with live bugs should be in school, but if there are no live bugs, that's fine. It sounds like that is what they are advocating: No live bugs.

And frankly, I couldn't care less about the money, it wont' make a difference in my paycheck if your child is here or not. I care about how hard it can be for some kids to catch up after a multi day absence.

 

[spacemermaid]

Reading all this makes me itchy.

I remember when I was a teenager, my little sister brought home the gift that keeps on giving...no, not "that" gift that keeps on giving...our entire family caught head lice.

It was gross.

It was itchy.

It was embarassing. I had to call my BFF & the other girls who were at her slumber party birthday party & inform them that, guess what, they probably had lice, too.

It was expensive to buy all that lice-killing shampoo...we all had to do 2 rounds of it.

I can't believe that anyone would recommend sending a kid to school with lice. They must be getting paid secretly by the makers of RID shampoo, for bringing them so many new customers.

 

[luvsJack]

Every time I read one of these threads I am astounded at the trouble some people have getting rid of lice. I just don't find it that big of a deal. My eldest is 28 and throughout his childhood down to the last 12 years with dd, we have had lice two or three times. Never had an issue. Shampooed the hair, used the comb to get the nits out, vacuumed everything I could (usual weekly vacuuming), washed sheets, towels ,etc in HOT water (again, usual weekly thing) and used the lice spray. 1 day of that, shampooed again in a week--problem solved.

As for the recommendation, going by the experiences we had in the child care center, I agree with it. If we had a kid with lice, very rarely did it spread to another child. Maybe it had something to do with our cleaning techniques but in 12 years we never had a breakout of lice. 1-2 kids once or twice a year, that was it. There are a ton of things that can be done to prevent a break out in a school setting and a ton anyone can do to prevent your child from getting them (simply spraying their hair with hairspray everyday will do a lot). Prevention will go much, much further than sending a kid home.

 

[smb6]

Every time I read one of these threads I am astounded at the trouble some people have getting rid of lice. I just don't find it that big of a deal. My eldest is 28 and throughout his childhood down to the last 12 years with dd, we have had lice two or three times. Never had an issue. Shampooed the hair, used the comb to get the nits out, vacuumed everything I could (usual weekly vacuuming), washed sheets, towels ,etc in HOT water (again, usual weekly thing) and used the lice spray. 1 day of that, shampooed again in a week--problem solved.

As for the recommendation, going by the experiences we had in the child care center, I agree with it. If we had a kid with lice, very rarely did it spread to another child. Maybe it had something to do with our cleaning techniques but in 12 years we never had a breakout of lice. 1-2 kids once or twice a year, that was it. There are a ton of things that can be done to prevent a break out in a school setting and a ton anyone can do to prevent your child from getting them (simply spraying their hair with hairspray everyday will do a lot). Prevention will go much, much further than sending a kid home.

I think you really lucked out on being able to get rid of them so easily. It was crazy hard for us to get rid of them. I will admit that I think part of our difficulty was that I had previously zero experience with head lice and so the kids were infested by the time I realized they had it- I'm sure that made it all the harder to get rid of. But, I must say the shampoo did NOT work at all. I ended up hand picking the nits out and shaved my boys heads.

 

[PatsMom]

I could just imagine if my DGD - with her very long, very, very, thick, very naturally curly hair - came home with head lice!!! It would be an absolute nightmare trying to get rid of them..

I'm with the groups that says, "keep them home"..

Easiest t hing to do in your DGD's situation is cut her hair off very short before you wash/de-nit. That's what we did to my daughter's waist length hair when she was in second grade. She came home about 4 times in first grade with lice. We'd shampoo, mayonaise, comb, and she would be checked by the school nurse and declared nit free. A few weeks later I'd get another call from the school. Lice were terrible around here that year!

Got through first grade but when the epidemic continued into second grade I just said I'd had enough. I took her to the hairdresser when she was nit free and got her a very nice short hair cut. And I gave her a trash bag to put her coat and hat into at school and told her to use it. And she got the speech about no sharing combs, hats, coats, etc again. She thought it was cool that the boys would just shave their heads entirely and said that if it happened again, maybe we could just shave her down. I think I would have strongly considered it at that point!

But things got better that year and she never did get lice again. But we remained paranoid for years! I always made sure to have a full jar of Hellman's mayo in the cupboard so I wouldn't have to stop at a store on the way home after I picked her up at school!

 

[Piglets Mommy]

I never said it should become policy, so not sure why you quoted me.

Sorry...didn't mean to imply that you thought it should become policy...just bouncing off the week to get rid of them once thing....which if it bacame policy like the article the OP posted, it would be week, after week, after week. Sorry for the confusion!

 

[ols386]

Sorry...didn't mean to imply that you thought it should become policy...just bouncing off the week to get rid of them once thing....which if it bacame policy like the article the OP posted, it would be week, after week, after week. Sorry for the confusion!

No problem.

 

[freckles and boo]

I have mixed feelings about this. I have a kid with autism and sensory issues. Treating her for lice would be a huge PITA. On the other hand, the little girl down the street missed two weeks of school last year (and had to suffer the humiliation of being sent home day after day for failing the nit check). I figure it could as easily happen on a playdate, at the movie theater, at camp, in someone's car, etc. I think that reasonable precautions can be taken to keep kids in school as long as it is taken seriously. The kids don't have to know which of their classmates is affected, only that lice has been seen in the classroom. As disgusting as it is, head lice are an annoyance, not a serious health risk. And yes, my head gets itchy just thinking about it.

 

[mickeysaver]

I am shocked that I haven't been flooded with calls already about this. I work in a doctor's office and I can tell you that absolutely everyone gets super creeped out over lice. I don't know if I could tell a parent to send the kid to school without major guilt. What happened to first do no harm?

 

[Minniemama350]

Two years ago I cut off my long hair because I had a child in my class who had spent most of the previous year with lice because "they" didn't seem to care at home. I held out for awhile, but then one day during winter I bent over to help the kid and noticed that my hair had gently rested on top of their head. The next week I cut it off short enough so it would never happen again. "What if I had helped spread it?" was all I could think. IMHO, no child should have to cut their hair because another kid's folks just won't deal with it. Most of the time Idon't think its necessary, but... I didn't cut mine because I had to. I cut it because I was itching just thinking about what if. I have really thick hair.

 

[Colleen27]

Got through first grade but when the epidemic continued into second grade I just said I'd had enough. I took her to the hairdresser when she was nit free and got her a very nice short hair cut. And I gave her a trash bag to put her coat and hat into at school and told her to use it. And she got the speech about no sharing combs, hats, coats, etc again. She thought it was cool that the boys would just shave their heads entirely and said that if it happened again, maybe we could just shave her down. I think I would have strongly considered it at that point!

Oh my, I'd almost rather deal with the lice than with my daughter's reaction to cutting her hair to get rid of them. She's almost 9 and has never had more than a trim, and she would freak at having to cut her butt-length hair short! I made the mistake of suggesting it once after dealing with some massive tangles when she came home from scout camp, and she actually burst into tears at the idea (and has not "forgotten" to brush her hair again, not even when she's been away from me for a few nights ).

 

[angie@dvcstore]

Heck no my kid would never go to school with head lice no no no lol

 

[luvsJack]

If your daughters have medium length or long hair, braid it or put it back in a pony tail and spray it with hair spray every day--easy prevention as recommended by the health department. The hair spray, of course, works on any hair not just long hair.

As they say, an ounce of prevention. . .

 

[smb6]

I noticed a lot of people posting about cutting their hair short. (Including me- I buzzed my boys heads). I wanted to point out that nits are laid super close to the scalp and the bugs live on the scalp. Even when we shaved the boys heads completely; we had to treat them- but it made it much easier. I must saying cutting long hair, to shoulder length would not help much- JMO.

 

[SandrA9810]

It only helps on the combing and the amount of shampoo used to cut the hair short.

I got that dreaded hair cut and haven't cut mine since. Having short hair isn't going to get rid of them. It just makes it easier on the parent to deal with it.

 

[castleview]

I'm watching the today show and seeing that the APA is now saying children with lice should just go to school because having lice isn't life threatening. It may not be life threatening but it is just flat out nasty.

This doctor on the Today show seems to think that you put on the magic shampoo and then use the comb and the child is free and clear. When I was in elementary school, the school shut down for cleaning because so many children had lice at one time. Almost worse than chicken pox.

So what do you think? Send children to school with lice or not? I'm still saying heck no!

While I don't think kids should go to school with live lice, shutting down the school for cleaning is useless. Lice need a head to live on and will not survive if they are not on one. Once the live lice are killed, it can take a few days to get rid of the nits which are not contagious. Doctors are more offended by the nit free policies of school, I believe.

My guess is that the doctors are getting sick of the overall hysteria people have when dealing with lice. I have been there as a parent and while it sucks, IT'S NOT ECOLI! Pediatricians and school nurses deal with children who are confined to wheel chairs, children who are on IVs, children who are terminally ill and many other things. The last thing they want to hear is a parent freaking out demanding the world stop over lice - which although yucky is not a health threat, just a nuisance.

As the school nurse said at a PTO meeting regarding head lice - "If lice is the only health issue your child deals with then get down on your knees and thank your lucky stars!"

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

Heck no my kid would never go to school with head lice no no no lol

The AAP isn't suggesting that children go to school knowing that they have lice (keep in mind, that most children have lice for a month or so before they are discovered, so many parents do send children with lice unknowingly to school). It isn't suggesting that parents not treat their kids, or that schools let untreated kids return.

What it is suggesting is that when a child is discovered to have lice while at school, that the school doesn't panic, but merely keeps the child away from touching other people's heads with theirs. They then notify the parent who can pick their child up or wait until the end of the school day. Before the child returns, the parent is expected to treat them.

They then suggest that schools can take parents word that they have treated their child, just like we take parents word that they've gotten antibiotics for strep throat or that the child didn't have a fever last night. They suggest that only school nurses, who are trained in detecting lice, check kids scalps (not parent volunteers or random school employees, since there's a lot of evidence that they way over identify), and that they only do so with parental consent.

To me it seems like a sane policy, and much better than the overdramatized manner in which schools sometime react.

 

[castleview]

To me it seems like a sane policy, and much better than the overdramatized manner in which schools sometime react.

At my kids' school it got so hysterical that people were freaking out at the slightest flake…which could easily be caused by the treatment and care to get rid of the lice. Even the after school day care started diagnosing. One girl thought she had lice five times before the mom took her to the doctor. Turned out she had psoriasis.

 

[paigeandmorgansmom]

One thing my hair dresser said to help prevent it in girls hair...is mouse, hair spray and gels. Just any hair product we put on our hair will give the hair a good coating and they cant survive in that enviroment. Also if you have use a flat iron on your hair it will kill live lice....due to the heat.

 

[luvsJack]

One thing my hair dresser said to help prevent it in girls hair...is mouse, hair spray and gels. Just any hair product we put on our hair will give the hair a good coating and they cant survive in that enviroment. Also if you have use a flat iron on your hair it will kill live lice....due to the heat.

Yep, all of that works. Its much easier to prevent than to worry about treating.

Also: Anyone whose child has not had lice, do NOT read these threads and freak out and shave your kid's head if he/she gets them. You many not have that hard of a time getting rid of them. I 100% promise you that not everyone does.