Return of the nit nurse

[skintagain]

i read in the DM the nit nurse is going to return to schools, and about time too, something i argued for for years when my daughters school was infested, only to be told a nit nurse going through childrens hair could be classed as assault on children, and when i argued that even though the chances were very very small it was possible to catch Hepititis or HIV from headlice that have came from and infected person and that was a greater danger to children, they tried to say this was rubbish so i gave them the name of a number of doctors and a peadiatrician who could confirm this as they had to me, this problem went right through junior school to senior school and did not end until the parents of 2 girls responsible for contantly reinfecting the school were told not to return their children to school until they were clear of headlice, the thing that got me was everyone knew from junior school these 2 were responsible for constantly reinfecting the school for 3 years and nothing was ever done,
i welcome the nit nurse with open arms and hope it prevents any parent going through the arguements i had with the school and Gateshead Education department over this sort of problem.

[Jazz]

Skint, I know that this is a serious subject but I laughed at the title, "Return of the nit nurse".....it reminded me of films....ie "Return of the Nit Nurse 2".....in glorious technicolour, 3D...starring......etc! ;D

[Jazz]

"I welcome the nit nurse with open arms".........Is there something we should know about here, Skint!

[Ann1]

I remember our nit nurse - she was known as Nurse Chwain (fleas in Welsh ;D) she was about 5 foot nowt, had glasses like Goebbells, and a navy gaberdine mac with inverted "soup bowl" hat to match!! She scared the beejasus out of us. She can't have been that old, but we thought she was about 110!!! I can still feel her fingers going through my hair She took no prisoners!!!!

[skintagain]

no Jazz nothing going on with me and the nit nurse , i do know that head lice is still a problem in junior schools in Gateshead so it's probably like this everywhere else.

[Shadow]

It really is an ongoing problem.

We get letters home on a regular basis advising us of an outbreak and asking us to check the kids hair.

[Banshee]

When we had the regular checks from the nit nurse, we were at least sure that every child was checked and couldnt come bak to school until thay had been treated. When you just remind parents to check, its obvious that not all of them will, or perhaps dont know what to check for. We will never keep the infection down this way.
We need to check every child at the same time to ever hope to get anywhere with this.
I use to comb through my kids' hair once week with conditioner to check for nits. Every parent should be doing the same.
I remeber one mum sending her kids into school with nit lotion on their heads because she was fed up having to treat them all the time. The school sent them home, but allowed anyone who actually had nits to stay in school. Crazy!!!!

[Shadow]

I comb my kids hair regularly too-there are so many outbreaks that I prefer to keep on top of things and not wait til its too late.

But I would like to see a nurse in schools to pick up the kids whose parents cant be bothered-especially in the primary school-for some reason it does seem to be a greater problem there-at least as far as Ive seen anyway

[Banshee]

yes I agree.
I remeber when you could just pick up the lotion from the clinic, then where I lived, they changed it to only being ale to get it on script at the GP. But if you went too often the GP told me that he has to watch his budget so would be restricting it to twice year, so I would have to buy it. When you have a few kids to treat and you discover nits on a friday, with no money until Monday, we had to keep kids off school on the monday to treat them. Had I been ale to get it from the GP I could have done it over the weekend. There were lots of parents in the same position, leaving a choice of sending them to school with nits or keeping them off until you got some money together.

[Shadow]

Ive always bought it to be honest and it does add up when the whole familly has to be treated as a precaution.

Last time I was at the chemist they said you could get it on prescription but you had to take "evidence" as in an adult louse to the GP

It takes days and days to get a GP appointment anyway so its really buy it or keep the kids off

[Deleted]

My aunty was the nit nurse at my school, she also did the cough to see if you balls had dropped.
Can you imagine how embarrassing that was for me........cough see you on Sunday.

[skintagain]

hope she didnt do both jobs at the same time, you could have been left scatching at both ends.

[Shadow]

Gives a new meaning to the nurse looking for dickies

[Deleted]

She never warmed her hand either.