Head Lice

*Page* · 14-03-2005 1:32pm #1

ok i hate them but they happen to nearly every school nation wide!
what have you found that stops them getting a grip!
i use tea tree shampoo in my daughters hair. this so far has prevented her from getting any this time. (her class is so bad that the princlbe is monitoring each day! untill the get ride of them.)

the lotion that kills them stings and burns her(making her itch more) does anyone know of any other lotion that works just as well?

Nevyn · 14-03-2005 1:59pm

Repeated combing will remove them,
but you could be looking at doing it everyday after school for at least 2 weeks.
Thankfully my to have never gotten them yet, but I do know it is a case of yet
and that there have been other classes in the school that have undergone the same ordeal that you are.

The thing is if even one or two children are unfortunate have have parents/ gaurdrians that are not being as carefull as you are those kids will them reinfact the whole class

Comb everyday with a lice comb having put a lot of conditioner in your childs hair and talk to the other parent/gaurdrains of the kids in your childs class if possible and encourage them to do the same.

Teatree oil is often better then the shampoo, you can rub a drop of the oil on your childs collar and make up a spritz spray and once your childs hair is tied up spritz before they leave the house. It is a lot less harmfull then all the chemicals in the conventional stuff.

I hope that this is resolved quickly and it wont get to the stage hwre health workers have to be called in.

madison 1 · 15-03-2005 12:05am

this is getting beyond a joke in my childs school, every two to three weeks my child head dose be walking, ive complained to the school and they have done nothing.
its other lazy parents that wont check there children and send them to school manky dirty, also the wont pay the money to get the mouse or the lotion to kill the ****ers, excuse the language but im pissed off .
I have spent a fourtune on the lotions.

Nevyn · 15-03-2005 12:48am

Push the issue with the school principal, the home school lisaion officer and if nesscary the local health nurse.

You may need to get a petition going.
In the school my kids attend there was two children andone of them kept
reinffecting one of a set of twins and hence the rest of the 4 children in the family.

It go to the stage the some of the mothers clubbed together and bought the
mouse which was given to the class teacher and then send home with the kids.
alas this didnt work and in the end with the threath of children being
withdrawn from the class the health nurse and a socail worker paid the parents of children who were 'walking' with the headlice.

*Page* · 15-03-2005 5:05pm

i have spent a fourtune,
what i've been doing the past while seems to be working but the tears and the delay in the morning is terrible.

tea tree spray platted hair and glued with hair gel(i know not the nicest thing to be doing but there are less tears this way. the little feckers dont deem to be able to get a grip on her hair.. i've found them on her coat though!!

any idea of how long they live off the human body?

Nevyn · 15-03-2005 9:14pm

The thing is like all incects headlice are becoming immune to the chemicals used
to kill them off. They have a very short life cycle and dont live long off a human.
Honestly if any of mine came home with them on thier coat like that I would be on to the school and the health nurse that day for I would take it that things
are very much out of control in that class room.

We did last year have a nitbusters talk in the school, amybe that needs to be done where you are, unfortunatly I could not find an irish website on it but here is one any way . http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/headlice/nitbusters/parent_info.html At this stage surely we need to stop overing chilrens heads in pesticides ?

*Page* · 16-03-2005 12:05pm

cheers thank you very much.

i've been into talk to the princpal today i have pointed out that if all the children arent checked he'll be getting bills from parents who have checked there childrens hair! i spoke to a few of the parents yesterday at my daughter after school care, and even parents from different schools said if it comes to the after school care classes they will be billing my daughters school also.

madison 1 · 17-03-2005 3:33pm

They make me shiver i hate them, my daughter's hair is very long and every morning i tie it up in a bun, but no matter what she get's them cos her head i clean. in her school i can spot were there coming from and i can't just say hey your the one with the nits stay away from my child.
THIS IS FOR ALL THE PARENTS OUT THERE !!!!!!! CHECK AND CHECK AND CHECK AGAIN, THEN CLEAN IT.

Stop the problem before it spreads to clean heads !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bessacadia · 25-03-2005 12:13pm

Try using an electronic lice comb - I have had mine 10 years and it is fantastic. It doesn't get rid of the eggs, but it zaps the living lice.Just comb it through dry hair daily for about a week, and it beeps when one has been electrocuted,it sticks to the teeth on the comb so you can flick it out onto a saucer and then count the buggers, the kids think it is gross!Great fun

I bought min in Argos years ago, but I think you can get them in chemists.Very good value if you have a few children and/or you are infested with lice regularly. I highly highly recommend it.

here we are, found a link
http://www.expresschemist.co.uk/index.jsp?subframe=product&productid=1732&newcurrency=2

100% worth it!

KdjaCL · 25-03-2005 3:00pm

Ponytails and make sure your kid has a seperate coat hanger, have yet to see a head lice thingie.

kdjac

foxinsocks · 26-03-2005 1:12am

my 2 year old came home with em... i didnt know what the little black dots (lice poo) in her head were, so i didnt actually realise they were lice until i found one in my own head... bleh... She was pretty infested by the time i worked out what they were.

I used the full marks mousse, but while it did seem to kill quite a lot, it was by no means thorough... 2 days after using the mousse i combed 50 or 60 of the little bastards out of her head... So i started just combing every night, for quite a long time, and eventually we were free of them... I have no idea where she picked them up, no other mothers at the playgroup that we go to reported them, so who knows...

They ARE gross

Fox_in_Socks

Blinda · 28-03-2005 8:59pm

The lice issue has been going on for decades.
First it was the school nurses responsibility until sense entered the system and the issue was put where it belonged - the parents and school.

2nd. Its the schools job to identify any barriers to learning and ensure quality of teaching. Therefore if there is a lice problem its up to the school to highlight the problem and after risk assessment pinpoint the 'hazard' eg..KIDS/parents & repeated non-complience with 'riddence' .

3rd: Class Teacher is contracted to teach. A child with lice will be itching and distracted and will therefore not learn effectively - Teachers contract could be in breech of GOV guidlines if does nothing about it.!!!
Somebody some day will test this in the EU courts.

Lice do do not fly, nor live on clothing eg hats etc. Kids catch lice from other kids family and older people. Once a louse has crawled onto preferably nice clean hair it injects anaesthetic substance into skin, sucks blood for nourishment and takes on the owners hair colour.
LICE uses BACK legs to PUSH OUT egg/NIT and cement-like substance to make NIT stick to a hair strand. TEA TREE oil does nothing and as a matter of fact when absorbed into childs skin may be harmful later on = research evidence. Its the old Elbow grease what does the trick- parents focusing on ridding hair of blighters - same result even if use nothing but check and COMB hair daily using close toothed comb. BREAKS LICE LEGS THEN CAN'T LAY eggs/NITS TO HATCH OUT MORE BABY LICE.
Most community pharmacies (under orders of Public / environmental Health Depts) change PX lotions appox every 6/12 as blighters become immune. What causes ongoing problem is people not going along with this directive and stickly ridgetly to guidlines. The whole community /country together is what is needed. But there is also evidence that it is adults & elderly who are also responsible for passing lice on to their kids.

When LOTION is used (to kill the adults/crawleys/LICE) a hairdryer should NOT be used nor should child go swimming as both these make lotion inaffective. LOTION should always be used again 7 DAYS later to kill the baby lice emerging from the eggs/NITS - as shell cannot be penatrated by any substance. Shampoo is a weaker substance and totally inaffective.

netwhizkid · 28-03-2005 9:37pm

Hi,

emm, I notice that head-lice are still a common problem in our schools. A few years ago when i was 12 i rather unfortunatly picked them up, as i suffer from dry-scalp i tend to be itching and scratching alot, i still do to this day if i havent showered in 2 or more days, but anyway i copped noting as this itchy hair was normal for me. But one day i noticed it under my finger nail and i showed my mum, and said i may have lice, as we got the usual stuff in school to show our parents as a precaution. And sure enough i had them i was literally ate !, my mum got an Ivory comb and an large sheet or plain paper and combed them out and there were loads. So to cut a long story short, i used Chinese Whispers natural headlice spray to kill them off, I also used the preventetive shampoo until i finished primary school. I never got them using it despite several outbreaks after that. A quick google search may help you to get it if you want. It turned out i had infected my sister also as an Inspection showed her to have the nits only. The ironic thing about it is that they prefer clean to dirty hair and they are very common so there should be nothing to be embarresed about. Just remember what they wont know wont bother them. I never told no one only my immediate family knew, and it had no affect on me whatsoever, expect that the annoying itch went away. But Kids being kids would be so cruel as to tease kids who may have them so keep it under wraps if you get em. An urban myth has it that hens and other fowl has lice that can spread to humans like the head lice, i dont know if its true. Perhaps a case for the discovery channels "Mythbusters"

Regards netwhizkid

Khannie · 06-12-2005 12:41pm

Our little lad came home with them again last night. Every time he gets them (this is about his 5th time), its a weeks long effort of combing to remove them and the eggs completely. A right pain in the hole tbh. It seems obvious to me that he's contracting them in school from some kid whose lazy assed parents couldn't be bothered.

Has anyone actually suceeded in changing things at the school level? If so, I may pop down this week.

Hobbes · 07-12-2005 11:10am

Sounds like an epidemic tbh. Sisters girls all had them this week, its driving her insane as soon as she clears them off they get them again a few days later.

The schools should send the kids home, or if they won't fix it shave all the kids hair off.

Cutie18Ireland · 07-12-2005 12:39pm

once they are gone start using a leave in conditioner... they cant grip the hair then...

PJG · 07-12-2005 4:41pm

We had the problem for months when or girl was in Montessori and we tried everything mentioned above. It was a nightmare, every night trying to pick them out using combs and lotions etc. My wife and daughter were seriously stressed over it until we found this http://www.nittygritty.co.uk/ng/index.jsp and used the nitty gritty comb and it worked.

But its pointless unless the other parents are doing the same.

Nevyn · 07-12-2005 4:51pm

Khannie have you tried talking to the principal of the school about what is the school policy ?
After an utter infestion last year in my childrens school it was decided that
head lice would be treated like an infecticous disease and if your kid had them you were to keep them out of school until they were given the all clear.

The school also sends notes home and it will be on the homework sheets that
the childrend hair is to be checked so the kids pester thier parents to do it.

Sleipnir · 07-12-2005 4:52pm

madison 1 wrote:

this is getting beyond a joke in my childs school, every two to three weeks my child head dose be walking, ive complained to the school and they have done nothing.
its other lazy parents that wont check there children and send them to school manky dirty, also the wont pay the money to get the mouse or the lotion to kill the ****ers, excuse the language but im pissed off .
I have spent a fourtune on the lotions.

Head lice only nest in clean hair so if every kid went to school "manky dirty" there wouldn't be a lice problem!!!!

Nevyn · 07-12-2005 4:58pm

Sleipnir really that is not a solution and posting such trite will get you banned.

mountainyman · 08-12-2005 1:44am

*Page* wrote:

ok i hate them but they happen to nearly every school nation wide!
what have you found that stops them getting a grip!
i use tea tree shampoo in my daughters hair. this so far has prevented her from getting any this time. (her class is so bad that the princlbe is monitoring each day! untill the get ride of them.)

the lotion that kills them stings and burns her(making her itch more) does anyone know of any other lotion that works just as well?

oat

Olive Oil

Coat nippers head in Olive Oil. Put her in a shower cap and send her off to bed.

In the morning comb out the nits.

Electric combs work quite well.

Do NOT under any circumstances stick a fork in the plug socket to make your own electric comb.

Also try and get the book 'Head Lice to Dead Lice'.

They are worse than they used to be because the lice are evolving. Now that we Irish have abandoned mother church Darwin's wicked theory is allowing the lice to adapt to hundreds (thousands?) of generations since the introduction of chemical lice killers.

MM

Khannie · 08-12-2005 5:15pm

Thaedydal wrote:

Khannie have you tried talking to the principal of the school about what is the school policy ?

Not yet. Though I will as soon as I'm near the school when it's open. I used to work from home two days a week, but haven't been able to for the last three months as I wait for my broadband.

Thaedydal wrote:

After an utter infestion last year in my childrens school it was decided that
head lice would be treated like an infecticous disease and if your kid had them you were to keep them out of school until they were given the all clear.

How was the all clear decided? We have all the live ones out of our sons head, but it takes repeated combings to find and remove all of the eggs. From previous experience, getting the complete all clear takes over a week of careful checking.

Edit: Thanks for that link PJG. Think I'll get one of them.

myjugsarehuge · 30-07-2006 11:45am

For all the parents out there whose kids have the dreaded head lice, there is a new product that has been in the UK for a while and is apparently for sale here in Ireland now, according to the Examiner the other day.

Its called Hedrin and it works by literally smothering the lice so they can't breath and so die. No nasty toxic chemicals that might harm your child after repeated use.

You have to repeat after a week or so I think, it doesn't work on the nits (eggs) as they are not breathing yet. So you have to catch any that hatch out by repeating the process.

My friend here swears by it, has been having her Mom in England send it over as it wasn't available at pharmacies here. My daughter gets headlice now and again so I'm going to give it a try.

Head Lice

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