Conference moira::parenting

    My sister-in-law told me they had this problem this past winter and
    what a nightmare to clear it up.  Take your kids to a doctor and have
    them checked now.  If they have them start the special treatment
    available in most drugstores (talk with the pharmacist).  If they
    don't, you may have to watch them closely and to be safe, start the
    shampoo treatment anyway.  My s-i-l said it tooks weeks to get rid of
    them - and she washed sheets, sofas' pillows DAILY!  What a pain!
    
    Definately talk with your doctor or the nurse at the doctor's office.
    Not something to play around with - it can be really tough to get rid
    of them - but it is possible!
    
    This is usually something that the kids will bring notices home about
    on the first days of school.  The school nurse will also do lice
    checks - not just of school-aged children, but of the whole family if
    necessary (at least at my s-i-l's district - in Missouri).
    
    -sandy
    

	From our experience, it's not necessary to take them to a doctor to 
get checked.  (In fact, if I were a doctor, I'd be very reluctant to let a 
child who may have head lice in my waiting room; head lice aren't medically 
dangerous to a normal person.  The worst that happens is that the child gets 
bitten, and the bites itch.)  Checking for lice is something you can do 
yourself.  It can be difficult, particularly if your child has thick hair, or 
if it's very blond.
	You can't see the head lice; the way to check them is to look for the 
nits (eggs).  They are usually most visible near the roots at the nape of the 
neck.  They are light tan or blond colored, and the way they can be 
differentiated from other stuff, such as dandruff or dirt is that they adhere 
to the hair.
	Yes, your child can "get" them, but not like they can catch a cold.  
They don't "jump" from one kid to another, so there has to be some contact.  
Typically, though, the contact isn't direct.  It's far more common for the 
lice to reside temporarily in a carpet, hat, or jacket.
	If your child gets them, yes, it is a pain in the ___.  There are 
treatments available, but it smells like you are shampooing your kid with 
insecticide.  And yes, you do have to wash bedding daily, with very hot 
water.
	The best way to avoid them is to have your kids stay off the floor, 
especially carpets, and to avoid the hats and coats (and, if they nap 
ESPECIALLY the bedding) of other kids, especially kids who have them.
	I don't know about daycare, but common sense and common courtesy 
would say that no kid should be there.  Schools often insist a child who has 
had lice can't be in school until they have been checked by a school nurse.

Clay
 

RE: school admittance

	In Massachusetts the local board of health sets regulations for
"contagions" and lice is usually among them. A certificate from the BoH
or an attending physician is usually required (stating child is lice free)
before the child will be allowed back in school. However, the fact that
the child may have been found with lice more than once is not that uncommon.
As others have pointed out lice are easy to get rid of. A child could find
themselves reinfested if the child's environment is not being completely 
cleaned after them. a few eggs caught in the nap of a rug can reinfest a 
whole family real fast.

	This is still one of the most feared entities in public education. Not
because of any great danger posed to people but the fact that it is disruptive
and a real pain to clear up if it gets going.

    Our after school care director says she usually sees this problem
    (lice) in the summer after a field trip to the movies.  She says 
    the little kids heads touch the seat back and the lice transfer
    leaving all kinds of opportunity to spread to the next occupant.
    
    I haven't enjoyed a movie since she told me this :^)
    
    Jodi-
    

    Check at your local drugstore for rosemary (rosemarine?) oil.This is
    by far THE best thing we've ever used.You just take few drops and put
    it on your kid's head.No need to wash afterwords,just leave it on.It
    does not kill the lice that are already there but prevents the "eggs"
    from creating new lice.
    Great stuff.
    rivka
    

    
    Last spring my boyfriend's daughter's entire 1st-grade class (minus 2-3
    kids) contracted lice, they believe from a field trip.  She had them
    and had spent the w/end before with my boys.  They all sleep in the
    same room, share hats/toys/brushes,combs/play areas etc.  Essentially
    anything siblings would do together, they do together.  Fortunately,
    she didn't have them "bad", and never passed them on to her brother or
    to my kids.  I had my kids checked at their school, and they were both
    fine.  I was kind of nervous about it, so the nurse sent home a
    fact-sheet about them, and said that it would be fairly obvious from
    their symptoms, if they had them (itching, bites etc).  There's 2 weeks
    from eggs to lice, so they had to be checked again in 2 weeks.
    
    She had also been to 3 "family" parties/gatherings that weekend, and no
    one else contracted anything - I got the impression you had to either
    "have a lot", or have some pretty prolonged physical contact in order
    to "catch" them from someone else.
    
    Remember if you do get them, everything has to be washed in **HOT**
    water - cold/warm won't do it.  
    
    Good luck!!

    As far as stuffed animals, throw pillows, etc. go, you can bag them all
    (twist-tie garbage bag type) and leave 'em for a month.  By then any
    nits would have "hatched" (or whatever!) and died having found no
    nourishment.
    
    Leslie

re .7 (bagging things for a month):

Certainly possible, but we thought it would be rather traumatic.  Fortunately,
lice and nits are pretty heat sensitive, and an hour or so in the drier will
apparently do the job perfectly well.  All of our important pillows and stuffed
animals were robust enough to stand the drier.

	-Neil

re: .3

Those regulations (statement from  physician or BoH) are absurd as they apply 
to head lice.  Ain't no good reason I can think of to go to a doctor for head 
lice (and some good reasons not to) and Boards of Health are as often as not 
unavailable or not any more expert in head lice than a typical parent.  We've 
been through the head lice routine twice, and were never asked for a note 
from a doctor or BoH.  But our daughter was sent to the school nurse before 
she could resume classes.  School nurses are the REAL experts in head lice.

Clay

    re .8  If the dryer does it, great!  (It gets the nits too?)  In my
    experience with getting "The Notice", the fine print was very alarmist. 
    None of my household goods had tags saying "wash in boiling water and
    plenty of it, for extended periods of time"--which is what the notice
    advised!  Not to mention that I was in an apartment at the time and didn't
    have the bags of quarters I'd need to wash *everything*.
    
    We did the shampoo routine, and I did Alex's sheets in as hot water as
    I thought they could take; I ruined a couple of very nice winter hats
    that way, and we got 'em all.
    
    The next appearance of The Notice was accompanied by a parent/teacher
    meeting at the daycare, and that's where I learned the hefty-bag-for-
    a-month trick.  Traumatic?  Alex never missed any of that stuff (she
    had plenty of second-string stuffed animals who had been beyond the
    pale, on her closet shelf, and so were not suspect).  Traumatic is that
    D*mned shampoo and nit comb, grrrrrrrrrrr!
    
    Also, by the second daycare notice, they had a UV light *at the school*
    to check for nits (they glow).  The nurse they had on call (I guess -
    she wasn't there every day) operated it, but I don't think any kind of
    license was required  :-)
    
    Leslie   

RE: .9

	And guess who the BoH usually designates to sign the forms for 
return to school? You got it - the school nurse. You probably never even
saw the form.

    Hi,
    
    I guess I'm late with my reply from UK but here goes!  My son caught
    the dreaded nits last year.  I never had them and had never encountered
    them.  I am now an expert on the little creatures!  They are slow
    moving, they don't jump.  They are transferred from heads by children
    leaning against their companions heads to do close work etc, (as
    children do).  They can only exist away from a scalp for approx 24
    hours then they die.  (I suppose this is where the 'bagging' idea comes
    from.  DON'T wash your children's hair unless they have the dreaded
    nits.  If you use the shampoo/lotion too much the nits can build up an
    immunity to it, don't abuse it's power.
    
    We have a spray in UK called Rappel.  The nits like warm heads and the
    Rappel spray makes the hair feel ice cold, not to the children. 
    Therefore the nits won't transfer should the situation occur.  The
    spray is fairly expensive and you have to use it daily, but for the
    sake of not having to wash all the family's hair, bedding, clothes etc
    etc it's worth it!!
    
    I don't think I'd get too worked up about it, (even though I was
    hysterical when I saw them!)  For your information they only like clean
    hair...
    
    (Ugh why is my hair itching...!)
    
    Regards,
    Angela Jevons (UK)

One little detail...  Maybe the vocabulary is different in the UK, but in the
US, the insects themselves are "lice", and the "nits" are their eggs -- the
little white specs attached to the strands of hair.

Since the presence of nits is a main indicator of the presence of lice (the lice
themselves are rarely seen), many schools require that children's hair be
completely clear of nits before they can be readmitted after a lice problem. 
After one experience of searching through a child's hair, trying to find every
nit and remove it, you have a crystal-clear understanding of the expression
"nit-picking".

	-Neil

    My daughter brought some home the last week of kindergarten.  She is
    very "mature" for a kindergartener and was very embarrassed to be told
    she had lice.  I had no idea of what they looked like but can spot them
    a mile a way now.  She had them so bad the actual lice were crawling
    around her head.  Yes - we wash her hair every night and never saw
    them.  She has very long, very thick hair.  Alex was scratching her
    head occasionally but I honestly didn't think anything about it - (now
    - one itch and I'm checkign it out immediately).
    
    I had taken her to the Dr. for something else and asked him to check
    her out and he said - yep - she has it bad.  He was very laid back
    about it, however and suggested the over the counter shampoo and the
    "bagging technique".  We did all this but they have returned 3 times
    since then.  Poor Alex.  She's getting tired of the Shampoo treatments
    - she's had 3 in the last 7 weeks.  I never realized the nits could
    build up an immunity and I'm going to try the rosemary oil suggestion
    because I'm getting desperate.  She certainly hasn't had them as bad as
    the first time, but "lice is lice" and I'd like them gone permanently. 
    We also have a 4 year old that we treated to be safe the first time but
    she hasn't come up with them since then and no one else in the family
    either.  I am pregnant with our 3rd so stay away from the treatments -
    my husband is REALLY getting tired of this!
    
    Also - I've read some really terrible things about treating lice with
    Lindane so don't ever use that.  I think it is prescription only and my husband
    is an Environmental Engineer and is very aware of the hazards of
    Lindane.  I don't think they use it often anymore, but in my opinion it
    shouldn't be used at all...
    
    Wish us luck in treating these pesterly little creatures - treatment #3
    was just last night!

    .14
    
         I was just curious, are you also treating her bedding and toys,
    etc? This should be done at the same time you do the head treatment.
    Stripping down her bed. These critters will go off of her into her
    room. And then re-infest her.
    
       Just a thought. 
    
       Rose

    Yes - thanks for the tip but I am treating the bedding.  The Dr. said
    to wash it every day for 3 days after she has been treated and I've 
    been doing that.  Maybe that's not enough.
    
    I went and looked for the Rosemary Oil at lunch but couldn't find it at
    the drugstore.  I'll keep looking for that.

    Try a healthfood type store.  Ususally you will find rosemary oil in
    the essential oils or the beauty sections.
    
    meg

    The other part of washing, that is supposedly _critical_ is that
    everything be washed in HOT water.  Apparantly they can live through
    the warm/cold cycles.  
    
    Is there some place that may be infested that you're not thinking of?
    The seat(s)/headrest(s) in the car?  Arms of the couch?  A favorite
    hat?  A best friend/relative?
    
    Good Luck!
    

    Actually - she loves to curl up on the couch and read and the Dr just
    suggested covering the couch with a sheet - apparently if they don't
    find a "warm head" to live on they'll just die.  I covered it the first
    time but didn't since then.  I am probably just not being as "thorough"
    as I should have so I'm changing my ways for this round.  I'm also
    washing all her hairbands/pony tail holders (which she insists she
    hasn't worn in months but I'm not taking any chances).
    
    The seat of the car is definitely another possibility.  I'll cover that
    also.  I'm a little leery about spraying surfaces with the spray to
    kill them since I'm pregnant and don't want to breathe it - I'm sure
    it' a regular pesticide.
    
    I feel challenged this time! - Thanks a bunch for all the suggestions.!

We were told that actually washing things wasn't necessary -- running them
through the hot cycle of the drier is good enough (much more practical when
dealing with stuffed animals, and less traumatic than putting them in a bag for
two weeks).

I remember the time we went through this, I not only sprayed the car seats, but
brought in a can of spray for my chair at work...

	-Neil

    We seem to be making some progress, but believe it or not I really
    don't think we're out of the woods yet.  No more actual bugs, but I
    swear I still see some nits in Alex's hair.  We're doing the rosemary
    oil thing but she hates that since the odor is pretty strong - not
    really offensive - just strong.  I also comb her hair with the really
    fine tooth comb to get the nits out, but she has REALLY thick hair and
    it's impossible to get every strand.
    
    I soak every brush she uses, wash all her hair stuff - everything.  I
    really think we're nearing the end, but you can't be too careful with
    these little critters.  School starts in about 3 weeks which makes me
    even more paranoid.  I do appreciate all the suggestions - I think
    we're nearing the end.
    
    Cindy