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Got Lice Eggs? Welcome to School!
Filed under: Opinions
Back when our son was in kindergarten a note came home: Someone in his class had lice. We should check behind his ears and alert the school nurse if we found anything.
Since that day, I have had a little bit of what might be called "lice-quest obsession." I worry about lice. A lot. Sometimes, while I'm stroking my kids' sweet heads or the heads of one of their friends, I'm think, "Aw, I love this kid! Anyone alive in there? Hmm? What was that? And what was that?" I realize this can't be healthy.
And now comes news that many schools will allow kids with lice eggs, aka nits, to stay in school. The idea is supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of School Nurses. The point being, since nits themselves aren't contagious, kids with nits should stay in class. "To withhold a child from school due to nits really interrupts the educational process," the National Association of School Nurses Executive Director Amy Garcia told the AP. Apparently, about 60 percent of schools already allow kids with nits to stay in class.
This concept inspires a little anxiety: Aren't nits just "about-to-be-hatched" lice? Apparently, not always ...
It turns out, some nits never hatch into lice. And children with actively crawling lice in their hair are sent home from school, though some new thinking is that schools should let crawling-lice-infested children stay in school for the rest of the day, and just "avoid close head contact with other children."
If you've ever tried to keep your child from sharing hats, hair bows, or jackets, you have some idea of how well that warning must be working out.
This is a tough and divisive issue: Parents of kids who don't have lice definitely want children with nits to go home for a thorough comb-out, while parents of those children who, through no fault of their own, keep getting nits just want their kids to get back to learning their colors and new math. Most of all, no one wants any child to be shamed with a public "Go home! You have lice!"
Meanwhile, the US has anywhere from six to 12 million cases of head lice a year. That's a lot of hair crawlies. In the end all we can do is try to keep lice at bay as best we can, since that's best for everyone.
Part of my personal lice obsession has been driven by the fact that I'd never actually seen live lice and everyone kept talking about how impossible they are to see and how you never know if you have them until you're "really infested." (Gross. Gross. Gross.) I recently found a few videos that show you exactly what those little critters look like crawling along in the hair, and how to treat lice. Since I saw them "live" on video I haven't been as obsessed. Much.
PS: Your school nurse should know the policy at school. Ask if you don't know.
Do you think kids with nits should be allowed to stay in school or sent home?
Sabrina Weill is editor-in-chief of PrincessLovesPink.com
Since that day, I have had a little bit of what might be called "lice-quest obsession." I worry about lice. A lot. Sometimes, while I'm stroking my kids' sweet heads or the heads of one of their friends, I'm think, "Aw, I love this kid! Anyone alive in there? Hmm? What was that? And what was that?" I realize this can't be healthy.
Healthy or Hurtful?
Lice
Once upon a time, that kid in kindergarten with the lice had to stay home until he (or she) was nit-free. Not any more. Some schools are letting nit-infested students back into the classroom. Makes you itchy just thinking about it, doesn't it?
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And now comes news that many schools will allow kids with lice eggs, aka nits, to stay in school. The idea is supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of School Nurses. The point being, since nits themselves aren't contagious, kids with nits should stay in class. "To withhold a child from school due to nits really interrupts the educational process," the National Association of School Nurses Executive Director Amy Garcia told the AP. Apparently, about 60 percent of schools already allow kids with nits to stay in class.
This concept inspires a little anxiety: Aren't nits just "about-to-be-hatched" lice? Apparently, not always ...
It turns out, some nits never hatch into lice. And children with actively crawling lice in their hair are sent home from school, though some new thinking is that schools should let crawling-lice-infested children stay in school for the rest of the day, and just "avoid close head contact with other children."
If you've ever tried to keep your child from sharing hats, hair bows, or jackets, you have some idea of how well that warning must be working out.
This is a tough and divisive issue: Parents of kids who don't have lice definitely want children with nits to go home for a thorough comb-out, while parents of those children who, through no fault of their own, keep getting nits just want their kids to get back to learning their colors and new math. Most of all, no one wants any child to be shamed with a public "Go home! You have lice!"
Meanwhile, the US has anywhere from six to 12 million cases of head lice a year. That's a lot of hair crawlies. In the end all we can do is try to keep lice at bay as best we can, since that's best for everyone.
Part of my personal lice obsession has been driven by the fact that I'd never actually seen live lice and everyone kept talking about how impossible they are to see and how you never know if you have them until you're "really infested." (Gross. Gross. Gross.) I recently found a few videos that show you exactly what those little critters look like crawling along in the hair, and how to treat lice. Since I saw them "live" on video I haven't been as obsessed. Much.
PS: Your school nurse should know the policy at school. Ask if you don't know.
Do you think kids with nits should be allowed to stay in school or sent home?
Sabrina Weill is editor-in-chief of PrincessLovesPink.com
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ReaderComments (Page 2 of 3)
2-19-2009 @ 8:37PM
sithich said...If kids are allowed to stay with nits, doesn't that increase the risk that the classroom itself with become infested, and as such become the vector for a constant battle with lice for all the kids, an the teachers? Just gross. A friend of mine whose kids had lice had to have all her upholstery and rugs cleaned as part of her lice removal plan. THAT costs money. My kids' classroom had a rug where they would all sit for long periods, and nap on. If kids with nits were allowed to stay, would not there be a really good chance of that nap rug giving all teh kids lice? I say again....just gross.
Reply
2-19-2009 @ 8:51PM
Kathy said...Sorry, head lice(nits)are contagious, can cause other irritants to a child, and it's not fair to those parents to have to cut their child's hair, clean their clothing in hot water, lysol, and exterminate their homes, as these critters jump from clothing, onto pillows, mattresses, etc. Why aren't parents up in arms, protesting and having their child protected from this? Why should those parents that continuously use Quell or other lye type shampoos to rid their child of this annoyance, have to repeat this over and over due to others in their class not being taken care of? This should not be allowed, would they allow a child in school not to lose educational time, if they are infected with bacterial menigitis, hepatitis, and/or tuberculosis? Parents send your doctor's, pharmacy, extermination and cleaning bills to the school administrators for being so ignorant in allowing this to occur.
Reply
2-19-2009 @ 9:14PM
Anita said...Lice are contagious, not nits. Nits do not move off of the hair they are attached to without some effort, thus--not contagious.
2-19-2009 @ 11:38PM
Uly said...Lice don't actually jump. They crawl.
Fleas jump.
2-20-2009 @ 9:54AM
Kathy said...Incubation period with the eggs sticking to the hair, nits(head-lice)do JUMP from head to head, if ever you should be in a classroom, or near students on line, you can note that those whom heads are infested, untreated with lice, they are jumping off them. Hope you never ride a bus or subway, and come home to find that the lice did crawl on you, and you wonder how? They do jump! In warm, dark closets where children hang their coats, scarves and hats, these critters do crawl into them. Unless the infestation is treated by all, it will continue, and for any school nurse, administrator or teacher to allow this in their classrooms, I would hope the parernts that do treat these pesky critters sue for medical, pharmacy, exterminating and cleaning bills. Years ago, schools shaved the child's head, sent them to the nurse and only after they didn't have the lice, were they allowed back in class. It was a routine that students were checked for clean hair, ears, nails, otherwise they were sent home!
Needless to say children with ailments and allergies may be affected more if they should contract lice!
3-31-2009 @ 8:33PM
steffiw said...please stop the hysteria as a well informed parent i can tell you that nits are not dangerous,they do not carry tb or any deadly viruses at all.they are just annoying and time consuming and seem to be a normal part of school life more and more.the cleaner the hair the better they like it,so everyone should stop and take a breath and stop persecuting the "infected"child,home etc,heaven forbid it could have been your child that started it.in the first place.how would you like to be labelled dirty/infected just because the nits chose your childs head/home!nits become immune to the same old stuff used to get rid of them,a metal/plastic close toothed comb used daily is much more effective and cheaper.even if the child is kept home(ridiculous)once clean and returned to school the child is just as likely to get them again as they are not.
2-20-2009 @ 6:39AM
Amy Wood said...Another way to avoid upsetting "working parents" who can't miss work to take care of their children. Sad. . .just sad.
Reply
2-20-2009 @ 7:41PM
working mom said...Wow, us horrible parents who have to work to take care of our children! Even worse are us shameful single parents who, often through no fault of our own, are forced to take a job outside of the home to put food on the table!! I sure wish I could be a PERFECT stay-at-home mom like YOU must be!!! Since I can't perhaps I should just put my kids up for adoption??? Or maybe you can take care of them! Certainly you're a better mom than me! After all, my husband passed away, so I'm certainly not capable of taking care of my kids AND working.....
Here's an idea....quit spending all your time online being judgmental, take care of your kids and be THANKFUL that you have the option to stay home rather than ridiculing us who can't.
2-20-2009 @ 10:25PM
Amy Wood said...working mom--
I am very sorry for the loss of your husband. I can't even begin to imagine how hard it must be on you--I truly mean that. I am certainly not referring to all "working parents"--I am only speaking of the people who work that don't want to miss work, just because. I have a friend who works and sends her child to daycare just to have the"extras" in life and admits that she sometimes sends her back before she is better because she doesn't want to stay at home. She even sends her to daycare on days that she has off so that she can relax, play, etc.
I just feel that they are allowing children to return too early--all because of the number of working parents out there.
2-20-2009 @ 12:17PM
Jack said...All the information you'd ever want concerning lice is at http://www.headlice.org.
Reply
2-20-2009 @ 11:10AM
Inger said...Ok a few points:
1 - Lice do NOT jump. They have no rear legs capable of jumping. They crawl, not jump.
2 - Even after being treated, nits that are dead (i.e. not capable of hatching) are still stuck to the hair. It is very difficult to remove every single one of them. It can take several days of trying to pick them all out one by one.And nits will not spread from one child to another.
3 - Many schools have free lice treatments that they will give you if it is discovered that your child has lice
4 - Lice cannot survive for more than 24 hrs without a human host, newly hatched nits even less. Cleaning carpets etc. is unnecessary, a good vacuuming will take care of it. Cutting hair is also not necessary.
Yes, lice are gross. Yes they even more disgusting to find on your children. They are a terrible nuisance, and many of them are very treatment resistant unless given a strong prescription treatment. But it should be noted that the problem can be contained very quickly and that if the child has no live lice in their hair, only nits which are most likely dead if the child has been treated, they pose no risk of infecting other children.
I speak as someone who has recently dealt with this issue in my 5 year old, and had to stay home from school until every nit was gone even after the infection was treated. He has very thick blond hair and as nits often turn gray after being treated in took my many many hours of searching to find them all.
Do your research, you'll see.
Wife of a pediatrician
Reply
2-22-2009 @ 3:03PM
Deb said...I agree with you. I have four kids that have had lice a couple of times over the years. My two daughters have very long hair. I tried the over the counter medication to get rid of the lice, but they don't work and it is basically a pesticide you are putting on your childs head. I found that by simply using olive oil to coat the hair at night, combing it through the hair with a metal nit comb, then wrapping with plastic wrap and placing a towel on the pillow (so as not to get the pillow oily), combing again in the morning to remove any nits or dead lice and shampooing with a clearifying shampoo works wonders. The oil coats the hair shaft to get the nits out of the hair, and suffocates the live ones. It is a bit messy but is non toxic. After a couple of days the kids are lice and nit free!
I also want to say that lice know no class barrier and it is not fair that some people here have infered that it came from the "dirty" kid in class. A friend of mine sends her kids to a fancy prep school and two of her kids came home with lice. It can happen to anyone of us.
2-22-2009 @ 2:50PM
allison said...Oh my gosh! I wont even walk down the isle in Walgreens where the Rid is kept. My daughter got lice when she was in elementary school and it nearly drove me to a complete nervous break down. So much so that Im suprised her head doesnt glow in the dark from all the treatments I gave her as well as I took her to get this...a professional nit picker. My pediatricain sent us to a Hasidic Jewish women who does this for a living. Al I did was check both my kids heads and do wash and die my hair since they dont necessarily like dyed hair. I lost probablly 20lbs from being so upset. And my children were not allowed to wear their hair down for years. In fact it had to be braided even for a vcery long time.
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2-22-2009 @ 3:07PM
fabianowens said...send them home!!!
Reply
2-22-2009 @ 2:49PM
sdfragg said...Sorry to bust bubbles out there but fleas jump not lice. How they infest is by moving from hair to hats to heads. When your child gets them you get them, the dog gets them, the cat gets them, the couch gets them, get the picture? So to get rid of them you must first treat the hair with the medication to kill the living ones and then you must remove them from your childs head and your own and it is a painstaking process of grabbing each nit and breaking it loose from the hair it is attached to and sliding it off. Each hair can have as many as a dozen eggs and how many hairs do you have? While you are treating hair you must wash all your bedding and coats and clothes and dry them in the dryer good. Check your dogs, cats, birds or any other animals with fur or feathers that may have come into contact with you or your children. Now that you have an Idea of what you must deal with do you want them to allow children who have them or their eggs to come into contact with your kids again?
Well after four times in one year I now teach my children at home.
Reply
2-22-2009 @ 2:58PM
Janet said...They need to be sent home and shouldn't be allowed to return until all nits are gone. Do you have any idea how hard it is to teach kids who are scratching half the day? Togerthewr with the ADHD and the scratching, it takes on a reminder of an institution!!
Reply
2-22-2009 @ 3:02PM
Sherry said...I just got the call at 959a this morning. My neighbors son has lice. I checked my three kids...nothing there. It brings back memories of 6 yrs ago when my husband and I went to pick up these three little children from DEFACS. We were told they had the worst case of lice they had ever seen. So began several weeks of HELL. I had never washed so many sheets,towels, stuff animals and everything in between. My husband the most patient man in the world would spend hours every single night for weeks with a little silver nit comb trying to rid the kids of the mess. Funny part was the kids Dr. would not give us any medicated shampoos. He was adamant that we are the only country in the world that freaks out about lice like we do. Eventually we got rid of the little pest. Adopted the three little ones. I hope we don't have to deal with lice again but chances are we will. Hang in there if your little one gets them. It just takes a lot of effort.
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2-22-2009 @ 3:01PM
AC said...I agree about the keeping the kids home. I wish the people who brought it into my daughter's class had done so with THEIR child.
Only one of my children had it and that was her only contact.
I had never had experience with this before. It is disgusting.
Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl. And it took HOURS to get every strand of hair checked, every piece of clothing washed,
everything pulled, vacuumed. And even then, how do you know you've gotten EVERYTHING? I really would like to express my appreciation to the parents of the kid who shared it. except the "expression" I'd use is not acceptable conversation in public society.
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2-22-2009 @ 3:53PM
Meme said...I think Floriida is the lice cacpital of the US. We lived there for 14 years and every time I turned around I got yet another call from school that one of my daughters had nits. Back then, in the mid-90s, the child had to go to the nurse's office and be 100% nit free. If I missed ONE nit, I had to take my daughter home and re-do her hair. Very expensive, yes it is. I did find a remedy online to use Vaseline on their hair and that kills everything. Even after washing their hair with whole bottles of Dawn dish detergent, the Vaseline wouldn't come out. The lice in Florida were (and according to my daughter there, still are) a nightmare! One of my daughters had so many nits that we had to shave her head. Good thing it was the end of the school year and she had all summer to grow her hair back. The "Nits allowed" policy is stupid at best. You have NO idea if those little buggers are going to hatch. Then you have people like a man in the nurse's office one day with me while I was picking up an ill child: his daughter was sent home for nits and lice. She had dark hair and SO many nits that you could SEE the white "dots" clear as day all over her dark brown hair. Obviously, she was not treated and over months she got to that point. With a "no nits" policy back then, I wonder when she ever got back into school. Nope, after ALL I went through with the little buggers, including getting them from my children myself (itch itch) I do NOT agree with the allowing children in school with nits - not at all. I feel bad for the children, but somehow they DO spread and I won't believe any different.
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2-22-2009 @ 5:27PM
abnrgrtx said...The US worked very hard for a very long time and at great cost over the years to be rid of lice, polio, TB and now with the uncontrolled invasion of Illegal immigrants, we are once again invaded by old nemeses we thought we had eradicated. Immigration was controlled to verify immunization and the disease-free new immigrants to the US. With smuggling and NAFTA and the "global" market place we can no longer control filth, disease, and pestilence.
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