A nasty little subject

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Yes, going through the same problems now.
Little'un got them just before the school break, treated his hair, combed eyc, had the week of the school holidays and everything fine. No eggs, no live ones.
I picked him up on the Friday of the first week back at school, he was scratching, had a look and saw one of the b%%%%%ds running away up his head.
The stuff we first used you can only put on once every two weeks, so got a foam one from Boots which was rubbish. every second day we are treating with tea tree etc.
What a nightmare!
thinking about it makes me scratch!

 

[natalielongstaff]

Don't they have the nit nurse anymore then?

no sadly not

 

[Graeme]

Wish I had enough hair for them to hang on to

 

[carolfoy]

Wish I had enough hair for them to hang on to

well thats one solution I guess - shave them bald!

 

[Beth__WDW23/6/02]

No your definately not alone.

DD was sent home yesterday morning cause the teacher had reported her scratching and thought she could see something in her hair So I ended up on the blower with the headteacher which I had told him I am SICK to death of treating her hair and spending £10 x 4 times to treat the whole family! when everytime she goes back to school she gets reinfected.
I treated her on the 29th oct,we went on holiday we took nit combs,tea tree shampoo (I bought a special one from the shops which said it was a nit repellant)..She was clean I re-checked before going back to school she was fine.
Yesterday I get the call DP went to collect her,brought her home where I look "couldnt see anything" I combed her and used loads of conditioner found a few eggs but when I tried to crack them (so I have read if the eggs crack when placed between finger nails the egg is alive) they was dead as they never cracked so I am fuming! she lost a day of school and is off today as she has a prescription now off the dr to "make sure" nothing is in her hair.
I also have bought hair nets (very attractive) she will look like something out of star wars now when she goes back to school.

They are nasty little beggars! Also BOIL wash all bedding,pillows etc! towels so I have been advised off the GP as they can live upto 48hours in bedding and so on! so yesterday I spent all day making sure nothing was in them by washing all the beddings in the house,pillows.

What annoys me is we parents can do this but other children are crawling literally,so when they go back they only get re infected again.

I do find it harsh my dd was sent home when there was nothing only eggs which was dead in her hair! (but Im wondering if there was another motive on that - I got into a debate on friday at a parents-teacher meeting about bullying and our DD I give some very valid points across the her teacher who didnt seem impressed)

 

[fizz13]

Oh dear, while i am comforted i am not alone, it seems that it is one of those things that will never be erradicated, and the political correctness of it all is making me boil, in that the school is not allowed to single children out, they are not allowed to have a nit nurse as touching children is a very big no no, and i repeatedly told my DD's teacher to inform me, however discreetly, if dd had them or saw scratching, not once would she tell me as she felt it not right!

For an upate: I got up at 6am and washed and combed all hair. I found no actual adult lice at all...nope not one.....nada....... However i did find some eggs, or shells of eggs, not many at all though and certainly not enough to indicate that the headlice have been there this week. I took the boys back to the hairdresser before school as he opens at 8am, the same woman was there from yesterday. She asked if i had treated them and said yes and how early i had got up etc, she just said great, and without looking proceeded to cut their hair! For someone so self righteous yesterday she certainly didn't care this morning. And its not like you could smell the product so she knew Anyway, the conclusion is we seem to be clear for today, the boys have shorter hair and i will be combing again tomorrow as per the 21 day program that RobinB sent me.
To everyone suffering, I feel your pain and have my deepest sympathies, but at least we know we are doing everything possible unlike some others, so GO US!!!

 

[carolfoy]

best of Luck Claire, the problem is that although you may do the utmost to keep your childs head clear while there are parents in your school who don't give a damn about their own kids hair you'll never completely get rid of them. you have my sympathy (as do the poor little blighters whose parents don't care about their haircare)

 

[kkymmy]

i never had them during nursery, infant or junior school....not once, i went to senior school and got them twice in year 9. I didn't tell my mum and dad because I was ashamed and I treated them myself but obviously not having my own money to spend on treatments then I just combed and combed and combed and washed and washed and did everything I could to dislodge the adults and the nits. When I was pretty sure that I was at least clear of adults I went and got my hair cut, carried on combing for another week and they seemed to go

 

[Astrid]

Aaaagh, nits ... bane of my life (or should I say my daughter's life!).

Detest the little blighters, it takes forever to get rid of them from Carys' incredibly thick and curly locks.

However, I have found that Hedrin does the trick for us. It's like a miracle cure Carys puts it on her head before going to bed, washes it out the following morning and then we put it on again a week later - problem solved! I'm sure different products work for different heads but this is the one for us.

We all nit comb our hair on a frequent basis, but, as others have said, the problem is those people who just don't bother

Bring back the nit nurse!

Robinb - thanks for your links, they're really helpful.

Editted to say: Forgot to mention... the BEST nit comb in my opinion is the Nitty Gritty Nit Comb that you can buy at over the counter or get on prescription. My doctor recommended it and it's brilliant.

 

[DisneyJo]

My DD has had headlice a couple of times and she was very kind and shared them with me No potions worked for us either just good old conditioner and combing till they were gone. I have since discovered Headlice repellent made by Asda, it's Tea Tree and Lavender and you spray it on every morning. Touch wood she hasn't had any since and her last lot were about 4 years ago, the spray only costs about £3 and lasts ages, not sure whether it's just coincidence but I'm not going to stop using it

 

[The Fetherstons]

Hi

We normally receive a letter from the school to advise, but fortunately adam has never had them

 

[saratogagirl]

why are there no longer any nit nurses? I remember ours she was Nitty Nora the Bug Explorer, I still see her about the place now, she must be at least ninety bless... I remember my mother getting a letter and raking my hair with a nit comb....

 

[CHEK]

I found the egg's in my eldest DD's hair about 18mths ago and I was mortified , but one of my work friend's told me to use white vinegar! and much to my surprise it worked!, very smelly but it worked and to this day neither of my DD's have had them!, but I'm sure it won't last forever

 

[emily1982]

Just to be 100% clear: a nit is an egg. A newly hatched louse is a nymph. The eggs are OK to leave (in my opinion) as long as you get rid of them once they hatch.

Here in my DD's school district (Madison, WI USA) the school nurse can and does check for lice. My DD's whole class gets checked once a week after the latest outbreak. My DD has been lice free for about 2 weeks and I informed the teacher that she had them as soon as I found out so that means that they have had an infestation in her class for at least 5 weeks and some kids still have them. I don't know if she was the kid who infected everyone else or if she got them from another kid . I felt that it was my job to inform the school so other parents would keep an eye out for the little critters.

I'm afraid if i saw obvious eggs in a childs head i would inform the parents as normally their empty. Also teachers get them too and im afraid they will always be around!

 

[Queenie]

Ugh they're awful things aren't they? We had nits going around my secondary school when I was in year 11. Unfortunately we had a number of kids who couldn't care less so every day you got re-infected with the little blighters. I ended up getting up early, literally caking my hair with conditioner and leaving it in at school and washing my hair as soon as I got home every night - it was the only thing that did any good, the ££££s we must have spent treating the family (4 women in the house all with at least shoulder length hair) was utterly useless.

 

[kkymmy]

we got checked over termly by the nurse but even if you had them the school took no action, so you could spend the rest of the day infecting the class who had just been told they were clear!!!"

 

[CarolynU]

As far as I'm aware schools can no longer single out a particular child/children who have lice. They should just send out a generic letter to the entire class which has the infected child. They are also not allowed to check the hair manually, nor send a child home. If a school is doing so then it may be against the LEA guidelines and could be forced to stop if a complaint was made.
That's the theory. In practise most teachers know which child or children are infected and also know which parents will treat them and which will not, but there is nothing that they can do. They have every sympathy with the problem, and every sympathy with the responsible parents who do make every effort to treat their children, and would like it to be resolved for the benefit of everyone, but their hands are tied in these times of political correctness.