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Dear Care and Feeding,
My now second grader got lice from an outbreak at school last year, when she was in first grade. Getting rid of it was a nightmare. This week, she told me that a girl at her table has lice. When I asked how she knows, she said the girl itches her head like she has lice (okay, that could be a number of things) and that bugs have fallen from her hair onto her paper while she’s working (!!!). I contacted the teacher so she could get this poor girl help, and she said thank you, but she had already contacted the nurse and family and it was in their hands. She also said that school policy no longer requires children with lice to stay home. (She didn’t sound happy about it.)
Where do I go from here? Call the nurse and beg her to reconsider this policy? Send my kid to school in a shower cap? Ask for my kid’s seat to be moved? I don’t want to stigmatize the girl with the lice, but I REALLY don’t want to deal with lice in my household again.
—Lice Lice Baby
Dear Lice Lice Baby,
I chuckled at your signoff, which doesn’t happen often—so I have to give you props for that. However, that’s where all of the laughs end, because this is serious business.
Two days before schools shut down in 2020 due to the pandemic, both of my daughters’ thick, curly hair were filled with lice. I tried everything to get it under control on my own, but nothing was working. Then I called “lice professionals” and they weren’t seeing anyone because they were deathly afraid of COVID. Finally I found a woman who was willing to make a house call to treat my girls’ hair as long as we did it in my backyard and everyone was masked. After four hours of treatment, an absurd amount of money that I paid to the specialist, and the most laundry I’ve ever completed in a 24-hour span, it was all over.
I’m sharing this story because to call that ordeal a “nightmare” would be the understatement of the century and I would do everything humanly possible to ensure I never have to relive it again. Talking to the nurse is fine, but you’re not going to change a school policy overnight. A shower cap at school is pretty extreme and would bring unwanted attention to your daughter. Now I am not a licensed professional like the lice specialist who rescued our family, but I’ll give you the information I have based on her advice, which I followed. Ensure your daughter’s hair is styled in a tight bun at school, she washes her hands often, she hops in the shower directly after school, and her clothes are thrown directly into the laundry each day, for starters. As far as controlling her school environment, you should insist at the bare minimum that your daughter’s seat is moved to another part of the room. Kids change their seats in school all of the time, so I doubt the girl with lice would know it’s because of her. (The irony isn’t lost on me that a dude who has chosen to be bald for the past twenty years is giving anyone advice about lice, but here we are.)
Last, but certainly not least—please ensure that your daughter doesn’t spread rumors about this child. I know that should go without saying and I’m sure you have that part covered, but it would be irresponsible of me not to bring it up. I’m sure she feels bad enough as it is, and it would be horrible if she was bullied as well.
This too will pass, but you’re wise to do whatever it takes to make sure it passes as painlessly as possible.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2022/11/learning-trust-children-cell-phones-privacy.html
My now second grader got lice from an outbreak at school last year, when she was in first grade. Getting rid of it was a nightmare. This week, she told me that a girl at her table has lice. When I asked how she knows, she said the girl itches her head like she has lice (okay, that could be a number of things) and that bugs have fallen from her hair onto her paper while she’s working (!!!). I contacted the teacher so she could get this poor girl help, and she said thank you, but she had already contacted the nurse and family and it was in their hands. She also said that school policy no longer requires children with lice to stay home. (She didn’t sound happy about it.)
Where do I go from here? Call the nurse and beg her to reconsider this policy? Send my kid to school in a shower cap? Ask for my kid’s seat to be moved? I don’t want to stigmatize the girl with the lice, but I REALLY don’t want to deal with lice in my household again.
—Lice Lice Baby
Dear Lice Lice Baby,
I chuckled at your signoff, which doesn’t happen often—so I have to give you props for that. However, that’s where all of the laughs end, because this is serious business.
Two days before schools shut down in 2020 due to the pandemic, both of my daughters’ thick, curly hair were filled with lice. I tried everything to get it under control on my own, but nothing was working. Then I called “lice professionals” and they weren’t seeing anyone because they were deathly afraid of COVID. Finally I found a woman who was willing to make a house call to treat my girls’ hair as long as we did it in my backyard and everyone was masked. After four hours of treatment, an absurd amount of money that I paid to the specialist, and the most laundry I’ve ever completed in a 24-hour span, it was all over.
I’m sharing this story because to call that ordeal a “nightmare” would be the understatement of the century and I would do everything humanly possible to ensure I never have to relive it again. Talking to the nurse is fine, but you’re not going to change a school policy overnight. A shower cap at school is pretty extreme and would bring unwanted attention to your daughter. Now I am not a licensed professional like the lice specialist who rescued our family, but I’ll give you the information I have based on her advice, which I followed. Ensure your daughter’s hair is styled in a tight bun at school, she washes her hands often, she hops in the shower directly after school, and her clothes are thrown directly into the laundry each day, for starters. As far as controlling her school environment, you should insist at the bare minimum that your daughter’s seat is moved to another part of the room. Kids change their seats in school all of the time, so I doubt the girl with lice would know it’s because of her. (The irony isn’t lost on me that a dude who has chosen to be bald for the past twenty years is giving anyone advice about lice, but here we are.)
Last, but certainly not least—please ensure that your daughter doesn’t spread rumors about this child. I know that should go without saying and I’m sure you have that part covered, but it would be irresponsible of me not to bring it up. I’m sure she feels bad enough as it is, and it would be horrible if she was bullied as well.
This too will pass, but you’re wise to do whatever it takes to make sure it passes as painlessly as possible.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2022/11/learning-trust-children-cell-phones-privacy.html
no subject