Oh what the sweet eff?! NBFR

CFjo2010

The girls' school is infected with lice.  And by "infected" I mean a notice went home to every household and we received those recorded calls from the school district informing us of the problem.  There are at least 9 classrooms with infected children, and those classrooms have more than 5 or 6 kids infected.  One of those classes is K's.  Lovely.  

It was brought to my attention today that there is a girl in K's class who has lice and is still coming to school each day.  What the eff?!  I asked the Principal what the policy on lice is and guess what?  There isn't one.  Kids can keep coming to school with lice untreated.  I am livid.  I have had to pick up DD and K before for having 99.2 degree temperatures and they aren't allowed to return to school for a full school day (come home Tuesday and can't go back until Thursday).  But a kid gets lice and there's no policy?  Are you kidding me?!  

I'm livid.  I'm flabbergasted.  I'm appalled.  Lice is awful.  Sure, there aren't any huge physical problems, but it's a pain in the ass.  And it infects not just everyone in the household, but the entire damn house.  I would rather burn down the house and move before having to deal with lice.  I had to see/hear a friend of mine deal with this last year with her daughter and it was honestly a 6 week process.  Combing and checking the hair every day, treatments every 3 days until it was completely gone, washing and ultimately destroying most of the clothing in the house, throwing away and replacing pillows and throw rugs, having to pay hundreds of dollars to have furniture and carpets deep cleaned... But the school says it's no big deal?

Have any of you dealt with this?  What is your school's policy on lice, if any?

SueBear

I think the feeling is that while lice spread and are gross, they aren't a health hazard. Some tips: keep the girls' hair "dirty" with hair spray or gel, and if they become infected, a maoynaaise cap will kill lice (not the nits). Also, tea-tree oil (shampoo, hair products) may deter lice.

CFjo2010

SueBear said:

I think the feeling is that while lice spread and are gross, they aren't a health hazard. Some tips: keep the girls' hair "dirty" with hair spray or gel, and if they become infected, a maoynaaise cap will kill lice (not the nits). Also, tea-tree oil (shampoo, hair products) may deter lice.

I completely understand that they aren't necessarily a health hazard.  But the way it impacts an entire household and house itself is worse than the cold or flu.  And really, if DD or K got lice I wouldn't send them to school.  That's just so unfair to other families. 

I bought a bunch of tea tree oil and added it to the girls' shampoo, conditioner, leave in conditioner, etc.  I have been making DD wear her hair in french braids every day and hair spray the heck out of it.  I've been checking her hair every morning and already found a company that will come out and professionally clean her hair if lice appears.  K never has her hair up, and at this point she's the one I'm most worried about getting it.  One of the other moms has been going into class this week and putting K's hair up.  Tomorrow she'll be hairsprayed and french braided as well.  The little girl who has lice is one of the girls K plays with and I told her not to hug her friends, play with each other's hair, or share jackets/sweaters/hats anymore.  I was careful to say all friends so that the little girl doesn't feel ostracized.

Lice is a dirty 4 letter word  

(

bebe11

I am really surprised they don't have a policy on lice.  My dd had it once (we think she got it from a movie theater since it was during the summer and one one else had it), and oh what a pain in the ass it was! I hope your girls don't get it!

coopsbaby

Oh lice suck! My older dd brought them home from tball (they were sharing batting helmets.) The mayo treatment really worked for us, and I ordered a special comb that is metal instead of the cheap plastic ones that come with the shampoo at the store. I got a lot of tips from my mom since she worked for head start and they see that a lot. 

After that we used the tea tree oil in all shampoos/conditioners, kept their hair up and sprayed at school, and did spot checks with the metal comb and we never got them again even though they went through the school a few times.

You can also get a robi comb (that might not be spelled right), which is an electronic comb that zaps the lice. I never used it, but my mom said they use those at head start when kids are infected.

CurlyQ284

I think here the kids can't come back to school until the lice is gone. Once SD got treatment resistant lice from a kid with a chronic problem. The Rid treatment didn't work. We got rid of it using lavender oil. Wanted to pass that along in case you want to add that to the shampoo/conditioner. We also put a few drops in her brush for after the shower.

CFjo2010

CurlyQ284 said:

I think here the kids can't come back to school until the lice is gone. Once SD got treatment resistant lice from a kid with a chronic problem. The Rid treatment didn't work. We got rid of it using lavender oil. Wanted to pass that along in case you want to add that to the shampoo/conditioner. We also put a few drops in her brush for after the shower.

Whoa whoa whoa.  There's treatment resistant lice?!?!  As in some sort of mutant lice that cannot be killed with regular OTC product.  Holy crap.  Since the infestation is so widespread at the school, I'm wondering now if it's this mutant super lice.  

Thanks for the suggestion of lavender oil.  I'll be adding that to our anti-lice potion.

What's so weird is I remember being a kid and the classroom having to go into the office for lice checks.  There were 3 or 4 nurses there checking all the kids' hair.  If you had it, you got sent home and couldn't come back until you had a note clearing you.  Now it seems like the school is completely hands off and saying, "Eff that noise, handle it yourselves".

Ilumine

My mother is a Kindy teacher.  Needless to say, we had lice at least once every other year.  At some point you just go EH

Hopeforthebest

at no point would I go 'eh. I'm itching just reading this shizz.

CFjo2010

Hopeforthebest said:

at no point would I go 'eh. I'm itching just reading this shizz.

When DD handed me the notice I started scratching my head and getting major anxiety.  Even now whenever I see one of the girls scratch their head I immediately grab the comb and start checking them.  Right now as I'm typing this my head itches.  I know I'm imagining it, but after hearing what my friend went through I cannot imagine having to deal with lice on top of everything else.

xmaryrickx

The new Bridget jones book has a chapter about lice and the imaginary itching. That's all I have to add. That and that is an AWFUL book.

twister22

Yuck. Just yuck. T&Ps and no lice vibes your way. I would say suggest stuff to BM, but she's BSC and would probably do the exact opposite of anything you suggested just to be a PITA. 

+just+j+

There was already lice reported at daycare earlier this month as well as 3 other contagious illnesses on the door.  I asked the director only about ONE.  The lice.

She said she couldn't tell me which child had it (privacy reasons) when I asked which room, she said with a smile and a knowing look of why I would be disgusted and concerned and said that she promises that I need not worry about it.

I so do not look forward to this.  I'm making note of all of this.

I have also been told that lice and ticks tend to gravitate toward certain people. (Sort of like how mosquitos will go to someone who ate bananas quicker than someone who has not.) Ticks like me.  When DD and I went for a walk out in the more natural part of the National Park we lived next to, I came back with 5.  DD didn't have a single one. My mom also gets them. Dad doesn't.   I am hoping lice have similar tastes or distaste for DD as ticks. 

Pamelacake

I recently found out when calling 5yo SD into school one morning b/c I was combing through her hair and found more eggs, that they don't have to stay out of school if the hair has been treated, not combed through... just treated. I was like WTF. That makes no sense to me B/C I'm pretty sure the shampoos don't kill the eggs and they can still fall out of the hair and get on other kids.

The nurse told me that they were checking everyone's heads and would be sending notice to parents b/c a lot of kids had it when they came back from summer break. No notice or anything was sent out.

hopanka

Im itching reading this thread.

ballmom

I was a licensed daycare provider in the past and we were told because it is not a communicable disease it is not suggested to exclude the child. Sure, it is a PITA to deal with, but it doesn't hurt anyone. In 13 yrs of providing care, I never once had to deal with it (knock on wood) nor have either of my kids had them.

Tea tree products do help. There is also shampoo that helps to repel them. One is by the Fairytale company and my hairdresser recommends it.