Lice

[nikia]

I am at my wits end!!! I have one child who has lice constantly, I mean every week she has new egg sacks. She has been treated so much that her head is now full of scabs and the back of her neck has a rash. The mom is a hairdresser, so I am hoping she knows what she is doing. No one in my family has had them, I treat my house everyweek too because she is here this is becoming quite the expense. She does treat her everyweek, but they keep showing up. Since she is a hairdresser I told her she can come check all the other kids, but I am not seeing any on the others.

So this morning she came and checked the other kids, none of them have anything. But one child is gone today so the mom is insisting that is her. What can I possibly say to this parent? I feel bad that the dcg has scabs and this is such a hassle. It is also a hassle for me because I have to treat my house over and over again. Any advice?????

[Blackcat31]

Parent is probably forgetting to treat things like hair brushes and accessories as well as the car seat....lice was a huge problem when I worked in Head Start and almost every case we had that was reoccurring was due to not treating things like care seats etc. The mattresses and pillows also need to be treated. Use an iron if items can't be placed in a dryer. A freezer or outdoors (if you live in the right area) for 48 hours works too! She can also get a prescription shampoo from her doctor because I've heard that lice can build up an immunity to over the counter treatments/meds if cases keep reoccurring. I had one case of lice in my child care and it was years ago...but I lost 2 families because I didn't term the family that kept bringing it in the first place. Good luck!!

Go here for some good info: http://www.headlice.org/

[Crystal]

uhhhh....no. She should not be at your house. If they have been unsuccessful in getting rid of it, they need to see a doctor. the doctor can prescribe a stronger medication to kill the lice. mom needs to be nit combing DAILY until there are ZERO nits in her hair.

NO WAY in H-E-double hockey sticks would I have that child in my house.

And, for Mom to come in and check other kids, and blame the issue on a kid who is not there.....ummmm, no, she shouldn't even have had her hands on the other kids. (this would piss me off if I was the parent of one of the other kids)

What can you say? Take your child to the doctor, clean your ENTIRE house and every single piece of fabric in it and get rid of the problem before bringing your child to daycare.

THAT is what I would say to her. Even if meant I had to lose her as a client.

[missnikki]

One piece of advice- don't let her check the kids. You can find out how and do it yourself. When we get lice here, we send out an info sheet to all the parents telling them what to look for, and that each child will be checked at drop off. That way, it becomes everyone's responsibility to handle the outbreak to minimize its spreading. The girl w/ scabs would benefit from a doctors visit at this point, so I would prob tell the mom that it is falling under the 'contagious rash' category and you cannot accept her until she is symptom free by your inspection, not hers.

[jen]

uhhhh....no. She should not be at your house. If they have been unsuccessful in getting rid of it, they need to see a doctor. the doctor can prescribe a stronger medication to kill the lice. mom needs to be nit combing DAILY until there are ZERO nits in her hair.

NO WAY in H-E-double hockey sticks would I have that child in my house.

And, for Mom to come in and check other kids, and blame the issue on a kid who is not there.....ummmm, no, she shouldn't even have had her hands on the other kids. (this would piss me off if I was the parent of one of the other kids)

What can you say? Take your child to the doctor, clean your ENTIRE house and every single piece of fabric in it and get rid of the problem before bringing your child to daycare.

THAT is what I would say to her. Even if meant I had to lose her as a client.

DO THIS!!! Oh my God, THIS!!!!!

[nikia]

Okay so mom just picked up because there was more so she is taking her to the doctor.

The other parents were okay with her checking the kids because they were tired of me sending messages every week to please check your child, they will be checked by me upon returning to daycare. This has been going on to 2 months. So they were like fine let her check them then she will maybe stop blaming everyone. I have a small group and even if I dont mention names they all figure it out. 3 moms work at the same place and then the other 3 dont so process of elimination.

I bet its the car seat they are forgetting, they brought it in one day for grandma pick up and it was filfthy.

Thanks Ladies, I felt bad for saying something to them to make them feel dirty or like it was their fault, but in reality if noone has it here it has to be something they are not killing at their own home. Thanks for the backbone building once again

[QualiTcare]

i caught lice at school when i was in kindergarten. i remember my mom took ALL of my stuffed animals too - she stripped everything!

then, she would get me up at night and dig through my head under a lamp. i guess her theory was the bugs come out at night! i'll never forget that...but i got rid of it quick and never got it again.

[MarinaVanessa]

Good luck with this. Lice is something that I absolutely HATE! Fortunately I've never had lice in my daycare and my daughter has never had any but I've had family members that have and it's awful.

I think that you should check the kids at drop-off before the parent leaves to make sure that the kids don't have it. If one has it then don't let that child stay. Sounds to me like this parent is either clueless, embarrassed or in denial. I feel for you. I hope it all gets sorted out and resolved.

I got a mental image of her at the doctors' telling him that her child got lice at daycare .

[nikia]

Guess who the doctor blamed??? The daycare shocking isnt it

[MarinaVanessa]

Guess who the doctor blamed??? The daycare shocking isnt it

This would make me very mad. At this point if you are sure that NONE of the other kids have had lice or have it I would have a serious talk with DC mom. At this point laying everything out point-blank is necessary.

"I know that you choose to believe that _____ has gotten lice from daycare but because none of the other kids have signs of lice even after being checked at the door and the only child that has them is yours it is obvious to me that your child is getting them elsewhere. Your child is has been the only child to show signs of itching, nits and actual lice whereas none of the other kids have had any. Only your child has needed to be sent home because of this. I will continue to check the childrens heads until none of the kids, including yours, have them. If your child, or any other child, shows signs of lice or nits that child will not be allowed in daycare until they are lice or nit free." End of discussion.

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/head/treatment.html

Here is treatment infomation for lice that you can print out and give to the parent from the CDC.

[countrymom]

the problem is, I will bet you that mom isn't doing it properly (just because she's a hairdresser doesn't mean anything) ask mom what stuff is she using (many people use home remedies) she needs to keep her child home for roughly the next few days and just keep combing her hair with the nit comb.
how about a hair cut at this point
is this child going somewhere else, like a cousins house or a friends house, maybe sleeping over.

[Candyland]

Don't know if you can suggest this - I've never had to try this - but since you mentioned that the little girl already has scabs due to the medication, etc...ask her mom to use olive oil in her hair; then wrap up and wash out in the morning. I read in another forum that it works! The oil suffocates the lice. Just wanted to share.

[marniewon]

I've heard mayo works too - same way, put it on, keep it on for a while, wrapped in a towel. I'm not sure you want to try home remedies at this point though, after going so long with whatever else they were trying not working.

[kendallina]

the problem is, I will bet you that mom isn't doing it properly (just because she's a hairdresser doesn't mean anything) ask mom what stuff is she using (many people use home remedies) she needs to keep her child home for roughly the next few days and just keep combing her hair with the nit comb.
how about a hair cut at this point
is this child going somewhere else, like a cousins house or a friends house, maybe sleeping over.

This is what I'm thinking too...that the little girl is going to someone else's house and getting it from there.

Oooooh, I hate lice outbreaks!!

[Live and Learn]

Last year my child's classroom had a lice outbreak so the school kept sending home emails warning of the outbreak with icky photos of lice....really close up photos....ick just seeing those pics made me itch! I am friends with the school secretary so after weeks of the photo emails I told her (half joking) that I was going to start emailing her photos of hemeroids if she didn't tsp emailing me photos of lice::::::
Seriously though tell mom since she is the only one with lice she needs to stay home until they are Completely Gone.