Hi gang,

I was hearing some readers at school today, and one of the girls was literally CRAWLING with lice! I thought she had a greenfly in her hair, til I looked closer and saw loads and loads of creeping beasties.

I noticed some weeks ago this girl had nits in her hair, and she now has big lice, its obvious no one is attempting to treat her.

From what I know from my TA course, its considered unlawful neglect to withold medical treatment when a child is ill, and as a TA, you have to let the child protection people know, etc. Why, then, doesn't headlice come under this umbrella? Kids who never get treated are communicating a parasite to other kids, and its just not going away.

At our school they are so overly diplomatic, and never send a letter home saying a child has lice, or even that there are lice at the school at all, we just get a letter sent to everyone, saying, "remember to check your childs hair regularly". God forbid anyone should approach the parent and draw it to their attention! Mustn't do that, dontcher know, we might upset someone! I dont know about you guys, but lice were seen in my kids hair, I would want to know about it!

The thing that drives me nuts is, this girl sits next to my son, so I find myself wanting to frantically comb his head every night after school! I feel like smuggling a comb in class and sorting the poor girls hair out myself! Bring back the nit nurse!!!!!!

hi,i am having problems with head lice with my daughter- I condition and nit comb her hair every week but so no avail-a friend a mine raised the issue of a nit nurse with the school and the response she got was that checking for head lice was considered a form of abuse!!!!! I too have stood in the playground recoiling with horror at crawling scalps and scratching children! I have even tried keeeping my daughter off school when she has head lice but this is not considered enough reason by the school board for being abscent. Sometimes it feels like I am fighting a loosing battle against the parents who obviously do not care. All i can advise is that oyu warn your little one about head to head contact and just keep a ready supply of conditioner and METAL lice combs handy!!!!

The school of which i am a Governor gave out combs to everyone at school... and did a voluntary session with parents when they got someone to come in to demonstrate to parents how to nit comb!!!
However, one of my daughter's friends had a major nit problem... and the parents didn't realise. Mum is a nurse... and Dad is a GP. I kept suggesting to them their daughter might have nits... "No... she's allergic to the shampoo etc... we've looked etc etc". Well... the aforementioned child was sleeping over...and I was checking my daughter's hair. This girl asked me to do her hair. She had so many nits in her hair!!! I didn't know what to do. Next day... I told the mother.... very embarrassing. I also showed her how to nit comb.
If a dr. and a nurse can make a mistake... or not know how to look/ nit comb.... might these other parents just be ignorant?

Nicki, I can see your point, I'm sure some parents dont realise it, but I really dont know how you could miss the monsters in this little girls hair, they are enormous, and her hair looks like its moving. I saw them from a foot away. Ok, headlice can go unnoticed, I'm a really busy mum myself, and am not claiming to fanatically comb all the time, or judging people whose kids get lice. My neice gets them a lot, she just has the kind of hair lice seem to like! She's also very sociable, so I know some people struggle with them, but seriously, this case is very obvious, and I think some of these people just dont check, or dont care. Still, even if they are ignorant of the problem, if a teacher/TA sees them clearly in a childs head, surely we should be allowed to approach the parent and draw their attention to it? If we saw a child with impetigo we would send them home, why not with lice? The system just infuriates me.

Clair, oh my gawsh.... nit checks being a form of abuse, what?????? Surely its more abusive to neglect a case of headlice to the point where a child is infested? I just think that this day and age there is no need for headlice to be the problem that they are. They certainly weren't as rampant when I was little, back in the day of the nit nurse. I really resent the whole thing!!! It just BUGS me how politcal correctness and treading on eggshells to avoid upsetting people is contributing to a nationwide lice problem, surely our modern society should be able to sort this out?

Sorry guys, I just really needed to vent about this
I feel better now

Liz x

Just a thought but this girl must be itching like mad so must have sore patches...so if you can't mention the nits maybe you could mention the sore patches and advise the parents to take her to the gp...who is bound to notice the obvious.
I've heard this thing about checking hair being abuse too, sounds stupid but I suppose teachers have to protect themselves from accusations these days. Sad world we live in.