Lice

There is an occurrence of head lice in my classroom...my sweet student has a K sister..not sure where it started..the mom already went to a nit picker and paid about $250 each to have the daughters' and her own hair/scalp treated. The school nurse has sent two notes home...all my students have been checked twice. This family is doing all they can but those little buggers are tough! My carpet is vacuumed daily. I keep my coat/etc at my desk. I'm starting to think maybe my students shouldn't be hanging coats in closets together? Other than that and keeping kids' (and my!) heads apart, what else can I do?

 

Can anyone come and spray your classroom with something? I know some districts don't like to spray chemicals.

 

Nope. They only spray for critters of any type when there will be no kids in school for several days. Could be a possibility over the thanksgiving break but doubtful. I'm not alarmed about this. I know this happens.... Just empathize get with my kiddo and her family and looking to do what I can at school

 

Is it just that kiddo having difficulty, or are other students having lice issues? If it's just her, there's probably nothing you can do, other than trying to find a discreet ways to avoid having her spread it to other kids. If other kids are having difficulties, then I'd probably start having kids keep their things at desks, rather than the closets, and minimizing circle time.

 

It's one student in my room. We don't do 'circle time' in grade 3, but we do meet on the carpet for morning meeting, whole group instruction. A lot of kids have been hanging their jackets on their chair backs this past week instead of in their closets.

 

With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, that would be a good time to spray if the school would do that for you. I guess the hard part is if the lice are coming from her home, I suppose it would be up to her family to fumigate their house.

 

Blek! It's that time of the year. The cost of ridding the house of those pests has ruined or family Christmas before (over 1000 dollars in nit pickers, special shampoos, dry cleaning, sprays for home and car ect).

Watch out for hats and coats for sure. I'm a nut about it and I have secretly sprayed my carpet and cubbies after my students went home to keep them at bay since my school only stayed during long periods of absence too. Ugh my head itches just thinking about it. Also this age of student they like to play with each other hair. Talk with them about not doing this while not drawing attention to/embarrassing the affected student. Forgo the carpet morning meeting and say that your gouging to do it at your desks for a couple of weeks to try something new.

Keep your hair up and encourage students to do so also. My niece at 3 years old got some super lice (and passed them around the whole family with her gorgeous waist length curls) that wouldn't be killed by standard lice treatments. My sister got RID and treated as directed and after she rinsed the chemicals out the bugs were still alive, so she retreated and it they still lived. She got a prescription treatment and they still lived. 500$ nit pickers was all she could do and since they didn't die with chemical use she had to go in and be retreated every week for 3 weeks at that price. She also had to by expensive essential oil spray (tea tree oil and lavender). If your student has super bugs like that it can be horrible to get rid of them. Nothing but constant vacuuming of home, car, and laundering of everything including the drapery, and removal and bagging of all dolls and stuffed animals will do and even that takes time.

 

The good thing is I only have the carpet. No upholstered furniture or pillows or stuffed animals. That kind of stuff gives me the skeeves even without lice! I might secretly spray after school next few days.

 

I'm a little confused. There are lice treatments at any grocery or drug store,, that are inexpensive and actually get rid of lice, even keep the eggs from hatching for a week or so. When my daughter was in elementary she got headlice from other students a couple of times, I used the treatment from the store and had no problems. What am I missing? why does this student keep coming back with lice after treatment? Is there someone else in his family that has it but it's not treated?

I also agree that the Thanksgiving break is a good time to spray your room of possible.

 

Now a days the standard stuff at the store doesn't always work. The lice are building up a tolerance to it. And and depending on how thorough they are being about cleaning at home it can reoccur. Also if they keep being re-exposed somewhere, lice a dance or gymnastics studio or daycare then all your hard work is for naught. But figuring out were it's coming from can even be hard. I know where I live it was getting passed around at a gym daycare in dress up clothes. Blek!

 

Thanks, biblio! As I mentioned, the mom has gone to a Lice treatment professional as well as trying the home remedies. The student in question has been coming in with braids every day since the lice were found and it does seem she has some sort of treatment in her hair. I have a feeling the kindergarten kiddo might have picked it up in her class and now the family is battling it. Just want to do what I can in my classroom.

 

Keeping coats on chairs is a good idea, rather than hung up together on hooks or in a closet. Also, double check how you store your gym clothes. My kids were required to change for gym and I kept all the gym bags in a large basket. Whenever there was lice in the class I always sent gym clothes home for a while.

 

Here's info from the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/head/prevent.html

I don't think the carpet is an issue at all, especially if it's getting vacuumed every day like mine is. Unless your students are rubbing their heads into the carpet, I don't think that's going to spread lice.

 

Lol. My kinders do get to lay down on the carpet during our after lunch read aloud so it does worry me more than it would most teachers. My little guys go to school the same amount of time as the 8th graders, it's a long long day and many of them were falling asleep in class the first few weeks. They need that 15 minutes to rest their bodies before our afternoon activities so mine do kind of rub their heads on the carpet.

 

I could definitely see that being an issue, but cza teaches 3rd, so I doubt her kids are doing that.

As a side note, I feel for you - full day kinder is so rough on those little guys. I'm glad my school still does a shortened day for kinder.