Hi everyone,

How often is acceptable for kids to come home with lice?

Reason is: My son has had lice now on and off for the past 6-7 months now. Is this normal for kids attending Nursery school or is the school not following the correct approach/preventive measures ?

Any advice or personal experience regarding this?

Hi, this is certainly not normal! The school should be checking the children's heads for lice at least once every 2 months and those found with lice should be sent home immediately. There is a very good product on the market called Tea Tree Lice treatment. It has a maintenance spray that you can use to prevent further infections. I've used this on my little step sister's hair after she had a lice infection for almost a year! I do also think that it is the responsibility of the parent not to send their child to schoool if they have lice/nits.

Hi
Even with our nursery school checking very regurarly for lice, it still pops up. I have tried all the products on the market, and none works. At least, until someone suggested Pine Gel. Yes, plain old pine gel. You wash the hair with the pine gel (careful for the eyes) and for the first time, you leave it on for no more than 5 minutes, and rinse off. If you want to, you can comb it out with the lice combs. I didn't. Every other month I wash again with Pine gel, and haven't had any problems since. And my daughter's hair had to be cut a couple of times before to help control it. Not any more. Obviously, just check for irritations.

Please what ever you do, don't use anything on your child's head that isn't made for it. Puppy spray was made for puppies not humans!

What you can do is put a little bit of tea tree oil into your child's shampoo or conditioner (I use the leave on conditioner for my kids).

As for the nursery school you can demand that they clean the premises and exercise stronger methods towards lice infections, but as long as one child stays infected you will always have a problem.

There is only one way to get rid of lice and that is to break the cycle.
A single lice once hatched, takes between 7 to 10 days to reach maturity and is then able to start laying eggs. Eggs can take 7 to 10 days to hatch.
A mature lice can lay between 6-10 eggs a day.

Picksan, Nitagon and other lice shampoo's are all quite effective....follow the instructions, but then do it every second to third day for about 3 weeks. Combing with a lice comb also helps.

Ask the nursery not to brush your childs hair with a communal hairbrush and that they should tell other parents to treat their children too.

Lice, as taboo as it is, is actually VERY common in creche's and even in the primary and high schools because nobody wants to talk about it. the best thing you can do is to get into the habit of checking your childs hair regularly (and your own) and to not stop treating the hair until everyone in the family is clear.

also contrary to popular belief : lice LOVE clean hair

You should also wash all bedding and towels etc, and then tumble dry them as washing alone does not kill them.

Good luck!

Hi
I had the same problem when my daughter was in creche we were fighting lice every week until the lady at the pharmacy told me to buy Lennons products: Bayrum and Bergmont Essence added to either the shampoo or conditioner. This is for maintenance so you can do the whole lice shampoo process. Trust me my daughter has never come home with lice since and its been 3 years - the bayrum also helps to thicken the hair so she has beautifully thick hair.

For measuring purposes: Bay Rum 10ml & Bergmont 5ml - to half a bottle of shampoo or conditioner. I put it in the shampoo.

This is also cheaper than continually buying lice shampoo, besides the maintenance spray you get with the teatree shampoo stinks so bad no other child will come near yours.

Try it trust me you have nothing to loose but a happy child as they do not have be tortured with those lice combs.

Regards