Why is there so many lice?!

[Anonymous]

Put your kids hair in ponytails/braids. Teach them not to put heads close to each other. Check every other day for a few weeks for eggs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh. We are at a DCPS and fortunately our DD has never had lice and I am not aware of any outbreaks at school.

However she also doesn't really have friends and keeps to herself a lot. I feel like we could deal with some lice if it meant she had friends.

They can pick it up from clothing as they usually have the coat racks tight together and it can get on fabric furniture and other things and make way to your child.

Just use the fairy tale or other tree oil products.

Our school used cubbies and doesn't have many students with lice. I wonder if that helps.

[Anonymous]

For the love of god people, teach your kids to never share or even try on hats and headbands that belong to their friends.

[Anonymous]

Just for future reference, how do you know your kid has lice other than finding out there's an outbreak and looking closely at their scalp? Are they visible to the naked eye? Can you feel them? Dies the kid's head itch?

Was just shampooing my kid's hair and thinking about this thread and wondering if it would be possible to miss. My DD has light hair and it's in the thin side (you can see her scalp easily at her part) but does that matter? I never had lice as a kid but I remember it going around.

[Anonymous]

Our school had an outbreak last year and again this year. School refuses to take action. There were literally some parents who just gave up and admitted they stopped checking after their child got lice a few times. It’s awful.

Fortunately my DD is good about sticking with our rules: no hugs, no leaning her head near another person, no sharing hats or brushes, keeping her coat or hoodie in her own bag rather than hanging next to someone else’s (they have hooks for bags and coats at school)

I also put her hair up every day in braids, bubble ponytails and similar styles. I’ve started to come through her hair with a lice comb every week or two just in case. So far so good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just for future reference, how do you know your kid has lice other than finding out there's an outbreak and looking closely at their scalp? Are they visible to the naked eye? Can you feel them? Dies the kid's head itch?

Was just shampooing my kid's hair and thinking about this thread and wondering if it would be possible to miss. My DD has light hair and it's in the thin side (you can see her scalp easily at her part) but does that matter? I never had lice as a kid but I remember it going around.

Will eventually itch but only once there's a ton. Eggs will be visible once there's a ton and it grows out a bit. You can only watch it early with the comb.

Another reason there is so much lice is the shampoos don't work anymore, they don't kill the eggs. So you kill the live lice and then the eggs hatch and it's a continuous cycle. They don't sell the strong shampoos from a year ago and the lice have gotten more resistant too. We could t get rid of it with the pharmacy shampoos and had to go to a professional - $200pp for 3 ppl and a half day off work. Most people can't afford and manage that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just for future reference, how do you know your kid has lice other than finding out there's an outbreak and looking closely at their scalp? Are they visible to the naked eye? Can you feel them? Dies the kid's head itch?

Was just shampooing my kid's hair and thinking about this thread and wondering if it would be possible to miss. My DD has light hair and it's in the thin side (you can see her scalp easily at her part) but does that matter? I never had lice as a kid but I remember it going around.

Will eventually itch but only once there's a ton. Eggs will be visible once there's a ton and it grows out a bit. You can only watch it early with the comb.

Another reason there is so much lice is the shampoos don't work anymore, they don't kill the eggs. So you kill the live lice and then the eggs hatch and it's a continuous cycle. They don't sell the strong shampoos from a year ago and the lice have gotten more resistant too. We could t get rid of it with the pharmacy shampoos and had to go to a professional - $200pp for 3 ppl and a half day off work. Most people can't afford and manage that.

Same PP and I don't mean the shampoo from 1 yr ago - I mean from a generation ago. Also adding that my kids go to MCPS and same issues here too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh. We are at a DCPS and fortunately our DD has never had lice and I am not aware of any outbreaks at school.

However she also doesn't really have friends and keeps to herself a lot. I feel like we could deal with some lice if it meant she had friends.

They can pick it up from clothing as they usually have the coat racks tight together and it can get on fabric furniture and other things and make way to your child.

Just use the fairy tale or other tree oil products.

Our school used cubbies and doesn't have many students with lice. I wonder if that helps.

The stuff still gets intermixed. We never got it but I consistently used the tree oil products. Kid had long hair, never pulled back. We washed it most days too. Maybe it was luck, maybe the products.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it actually worse this year or is it just that more people are complaining about it?

It is the same every year. There is the one parent that doesn’t comb each week that poisons instead. So every three weeks they yell at the world that there is too much lice, but it is really just that they aren’t treating it right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gross why dont they send kids home like they did back in the day?

We are in upper NW DCPS and we had issue with lice only in elementary school. My youngest graduated from ES (now at JR) in 2020 and kids were immediately sent home if found with lice. My oldest once ws found with lice and we had to go snd pick her up from the nurse office so i al not sure what back in the day means

[Anonymous]

If my kid is in 2nd grade in a DCPS and has never had lice and I've never heard of anyone having lice are we just lucky or am I oblivious?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If my kid is in 2nd grade in a DCPS and has never had lice and I've never heard of anyone having lice are we just lucky or am I oblivious?

Is your child Black? Because lice don’t like textured hair. I think there are fewer outbreaks in schools with high AA populations.

[Anonymous]

According to our pediatrician, it's gotten worse the last couple of years. We were talking about it at my child's recent check up and the doctor mentioned a specific upper NW DCPS elementary that was getting hit really hard but also said it was everywhere in the District. This tracks with the fact that our DCPCS school is having an outbreak and I've heard from parents at other schools who have said the same. My child is in 3rd grade and the lice notices from the school have been nearly constant since last November.

Strangely, my oldest who is now in middle school never had this experience. There was only one lice notice the entire time they were in elementary school, which is the same school that my youngest still attends. Something has definitely changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to our pediatrician, it's gotten worse the last couple of years. We were talking about it at my child's recent check up and the doctor mentioned a specific upper NW DCPS elementary that was getting hit really hard but also said it was everywhere in the District. This tracks with the fact that our DCPCS school is having an outbreak and I've heard from parents at other schools who have said the same. My child is in 3rd grade and the lice notices from the school have been nearly constant since last November.

Strangely, my oldest who is now in middle school never had this experience. There was only one lice notice the entire time they were in elementary school, which is the same school that my youngest still attends. Something has definitely changed.

Lice was endemic in my kid’s 2nd grade classroom in 2015-16. What’s changed is lice died down because of the pandemic. Now it’s returning to normal levels.

[Anonymous]

Get yourselves some ivermectin lotion!