Headlice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was shocked the first time my kids got it. When I was a kid, the nurses came through the classroom inspecting all the kids with oversized Q-tips and if you were flagged as having lice, you got sent to the nurses office. Kiss the next 10 years of your social life goodbye. You would always be the kid with lice.nowadays, if you go to public school, your kid will get it at some point. I don’t think the stigma is as bad, because truly everyone gets it. Once it shows up, though, be vigilant. Lots of combing / washing / chemicals / hair drying. I was shocked when I realized that my kids’ classroom pretty much always had a lice outbreak, but knowledge is power and a little bit of vigilance kept things under control.

That's right folks, lice are exclusively a public school nuisance! If your kids were at private school, the lice would be kept away and also your kids would learn to love kale. Wallow in your shame.

The reason we don’t send kids home anymore is equity. Most UMC families will keep their kids home (saying they are sick) and clear them before sending back.

But for families who need school as childcare, and are more likely to catch lice in their home or families work environment, being sent home was very disruptive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was shocked the first time my kids got it. When I was a kid, the nurses came through the classroom inspecting all the kids with oversized Q-tips and if you were flagged as having lice, you got sent to the nurses office. Kiss the next 10 years of your social life goodbye. You would always be the kid with lice.nowadays, if you go to public school, your kid will get it at some point. I don’t think the stigma is as bad, because truly everyone gets it. Once it shows up, though, be vigilant. Lots of combing / washing / chemicals / hair drying. I was shocked when I realized that my kids’ classroom pretty much always had a lice outbreak, but knowledge is power and a little bit of vigilance kept things under control.

That's right folks, lice are exclusively a public school nuisance! If your kids were at private school, the lice would be kept away and also your kids would learn to love kale. Wallow in your shame.

The reason we don’t send kids home anymore is equity. Most UMC families will keep their kids home (saying they are sick) and clear them before sending back.

But for families who need school as childcare, and are more likely to catch lice in their home or families work environment, being sent home was very disruptive.

Except it's not equity- it has nothing to do with who gets lice and who doesn't. All kids can get head lice and it doesn't have anything to do with hygiene- having clean hair doesn't keep lice away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was shocked the first time my kids got it. When I was a kid, the nurses came through the classroom inspecting all the kids with oversized Q-tips and if you were flagged as having lice, you got sent to the nurses office. Kiss the next 10 years of your social life goodbye. You would always be the kid with lice.nowadays, if you go to public school, your kid will get it at some point. I don’t think the stigma is as bad, because truly everyone gets it. Once it shows up, though, be vigilant. Lots of combing / washing / chemicals / hair drying. I was shocked when I realized that my kids’ classroom pretty much always had a lice outbreak, but knowledge is power and a little bit of vigilance kept things under control.

That's right folks, lice are exclusively a public school nuisance! If your kids were at private school, the lice would be kept away and also your kids would learn to love kale. Wallow in your shame.

The reason we don’t send kids home anymore is equity. Most UMC families will keep their kids home (saying they are sick) and clear them before sending back.

But for families who need school as childcare, and are more likely to catch lice in their home or families work environment, being sent home was very disruptive.

Except it's not equity- it has nothing to do with who gets lice and who doesn't. All kids can get head lice and it doesn't have anything to do with hygiene- having clean hair doesn't keep lice away.

DP. The equity point isn’t about catching it, it’s about the impact to the student/family of having a child sent home for lice.

[Anonymous]

They do not carry disease or have really any bad effects besides itching. Why would they send kids home? It's also not even that contagious, you need to be very close to someone.

It's a bother, but not the stigma of shaming children with it can last a lifetime. So they deal with it differently now.

[Anonymous]

Welcome new elementary parent.

You should absolutely throw a fit. Blame the school. Blame the other parents. Put nix on your kid. Never take any blame yourself. Make a complete fool of yourself for a couple years as your kid keeps getting it.

Or, buy the comb. Comb them out. Then do a quick comb through about once a week for the next couple years until the kids are out of that phase of life and laugh at the angry morons who scream at everyone else while they exacerbate the problem.

[Anonymous]

Added bonus of the comb out approach: With so much conditioning and combing of our unruly curly heads, our hair never looked more beautiful. We all looked like Kate Middleton for a few weeks.

[Anonymous]

My DD went through when they were excluding kids. Needed the nurse sign off to return. Still had three rounds of lice in a semester. We finally stopped the cycle by cutting DD’s long hair into a cute bob. She has really fine hair, and braids didn’t stay put without a ton of hairspray. At the very least, when she got it again a year later, it was much easier to treat.

By late ES, the lice years were over and she grew her hair back out.

I hate live so much. But sending kids home didn’t seem to make a dent in them. Agree updating the nix formula would help. But then again, how strong do you want te chemicals you put on your kid to be?

We also had success with using tea tree oil.