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blessed mom 10:27 PM 02-08-2013
I have a child who comes one day a week on Monday's. Mom notified me tonight that her child has a mild case of lice. May not have affected us since he was last here Monday. I'm freaking out!! Checked my kids and they appear to be clean. Washing all the day care kids bedding and such. Oh my gosh! Now what? If it gets in my house then not only do I have to rely on all my parents treating their kids properly but I also have to worry about when I could take these kids back into care. Does anyone have experience with this? ACK!! I don't even know what it looks like other then pictures I have seen!
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Blackcat31 06:46 AM 02-09-2013
Some other threads about lice https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.php?tag=lice
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e.j. 08:35 AM 02-09-2013
Originally Posted by blessed mom:
I have a child who comes one day a week on Monday's. Mom notified me tonight that her child has a mild case of lice. May not have affected us since he was last here Monday. I'm freaking out!! Checked my kids and they appear to be clean. Washing all the day care kids bedding and such. Oh my gosh! Now what? If it gets in my house then not only do I have to rely on all my parents treating their kids properly but I also have to worry about when I could take these kids back into care. Does anyone have experience with this? ACK!! I don't even know what it looks like other then pictures I have seen!
You'll know it when you see it! Looks like dandruff at first and then when the bugs hatch, you actually see them crawling around. I had a dcg who got them at school and had them when she came to my house. In addition to washing sheets in hot water, vacuum your home thoroughly, wash toys that can be washed, stick the others in plastic bags and seal them up (I forget for how long but if you look it up, you can easily find out.) If she's been in your car, you may want to vacuum that, along with any carseats she may have been sitting in. I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot but I'd check the link BC gave you and/or do a google search. There's a lot of info on how to stop the spread. Bottom line, I just wanted to let you know that the dcg I had was heavily infested. She was out for about a month before she was finally clear of them. No one else here got them, thank goodness! Hopes that helps you to relax a little but just do some extra cleaning to be safe!
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providerandmomof4 10:20 AM 02-09-2013
I've had some experience with lice with my own children years ago. Before dc- thank goodness! We liked to never get rid of them. My daughter had long hair down to her bottom and not only did we have to get it cut to shoulder length to manage better, but we finally had to go to the doc to get a prescription to finally get rid of them for good. My son...got a crew cut , unfortunately. He was not happy..... It would be up to the dc parents to thoroughly treat dcg and their house and anyone else in their home that may be infected. And up to you to look her head over-every strand of hair. If I saw one egg....I wouldn't let her return. It's such a nightmare the way it can be spread around.
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Starburst 12:38 PM 02-09-2013
Once you have two cases of it, its considered an epidemic by licensing (since it is a small group). I would do random lice checks at the door. In your contract you can put they either need to be "louse free" (a single living lice) or "nit free" (no lice or eggs) for them to be admitted,. If they came into your program you may need to put up an exposure notice which just means at least 1 kid in the program has it (annonymous) and you should do a daily check of everyone until .

Some stuffed toys and bedding I heard you can put in a big garbage bag for two months and seal it up tight (sufficate them) or you can spray it with RAID and leave them in for a day (probably in the garage) then machine wash everything.

In my health safety nutrition class, someone said that lice are starting to become immune to that proscription head lice medicine, which can take several times and cause scalp irritations and hair to fall out after a while. So what they did (with school age kids- probably not little kids) was got like a snug plastic shower cap and sprayed it (on the back of the kids hair- not near the face) with RAID and put the cap on their head for about an hour or 2 before washing their hair and they said it got rid of them the first time and it's not as damaging to the scalp/hair as the medications.

I heard that you can also try that method with baby oil, olive oil, cooking oil, or viniger to the scalp/hair because that makes the hair greasy and hard for the lice to move around- you can also do that when combing the lice/nits out and it makes it easier to get them.
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rmc20021 01:33 PM 02-09-2013
During my earlier years of having daycare I had all girls...8 of them, one with waist length hair. We had lice go through my daycare for about 3 months straight because the girl with the long hair's mother would not treat her.
At that time, I didn't make the kids stay out, so I sat for hours on end outside on the picnic table picking nits out of heads for weeks.
Finally I got sick of the parents with the child with long hair not treating her and went with her to school one day to point out to the school nurse the nits in her hair.
What I had forgotten was that the school nurse was best friends with mom...boy did I feel stupid. BUT, what made me so mad was that they had a school policy that if there was a single nit in a childs hair they were sent home. School nurse did not send child home but notified mom privately after work.
Mom finally treated her, and I made it MY policy to not allow any child into daycare if they had even a single nit as you cannot tell if they have been killed by the meds or not. That was the school policy, that became my policy. And if I do a head check and find anything...they go home immediately.
I ALWAYS, ALWAYS check heads frequently. I NEVER want to go through that again.
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makap 02:10 PM 02-09-2013
I have never had this with my dc kiddos but oh goodness this brings back memories!

My children got this many years back. We are talking over 25 years ago now.

My oldest daughter 7 came home from school with it. She liked her hair short so it was easy to treat her. My second daughter 5 had hair down to her butt and she was covered! I wanted to cut her hair but she cried and cried, begging me not to. My 2 boys 3 and 1 were fine thank goodness!

I remember now like it was just yesterday how I treated her hair with a fine tooth comb pulling every single nit out of her hair strand by strand and then braiding each section as it was done. We went through seven hours of Disney movies that day while I did this! She had such thick hair.

Then I had to do all of the bedding and stuffed animals as all 4 of my kids slept with them, it was just so much work!

I really pray you are not affected by this. From my experience with this it is so much work to get rid of lice.
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itlw8 02:12 PM 02-09-2013
Walgreens carries the RIOBI lice comb. It has one AA battery in it and as you comb it through the hair you will hear a zap if it finds and kills one. do it every day for a week and you will know you got them all. Follow the directions. I would use the shampoo an anyone that you see them but you can even do your own hair on your own with this just to make sure.
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blessed mom 03:01 PM 02-10-2013
Originally Posted by itlw8:
Walgreens carries the RIOBI lice comb. It has one AA battery in it and as you comb it through the hair you will hear a zap if it finds and kills one. do it every day for a week and you will know you got them all. Follow the directions. I would use the shampoo an anyone that you see them but you can even do your own hair on your own with this just to make sure.
This is a great idea, especially for checking the day care kids. So far my kids are clean. I called the parents (because it was Friday night when I was notified) so they could check their kids. So far, so good, no one else has them. I am definitely going to update my policies on the lice/nits. I have never had them in my home, or in the center I worked so I just didn't think to put that in.

Here's another question. My policy states that if the child is sick you still pay for tuition to hold the child's spot. If there is an extended sickness then we can try and work something out. For example maybe pay for two weeks full tuition and then if still sick pay half. What would you do regarding payment with an extended lice situation?
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CedarCreek 04:01 PM 02-10-2013
This doesn't help at all but I just wanted to say that this thread is making my head itch like crazy!

Gah!
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Sunshine74 05:40 PM 02-10-2013
Originally Posted by CedarCreek:
This doesn't help at all but I just wanted to say that this thread is making my head itch like crazy!

Gah!
Me too!

On a more helpful note, we just had lice at our center a month or so ago. We do daily head checks for a couple weeks after the last time it is seen. And we check any child who is itching their head a lot.

I caught it once, years ago, and it was awful. What helped me was saturating my hair with Listerine and sitting with a shower cap on for about an hour (or was it a half hour? I don't remember now). This was after I had treated my hair with the shampoo and had someone help me comb through it with the nit comb. I am not exactly sure why it works, but it helped the DCG who had lice at our center when nothing else did.

As far as an extended lice situation, as long as the child's parent(s) are doing everything properly he shouldn't be out for that long.
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itlw8 05:48 PM 02-10-2013
If parents treat they can return the next day. heck the one time ds got them he went back that afternoon to school He had short hair so it was easy to get it nit free . They showed up easily on red hair.
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blessed mom 06:31 PM 02-10-2013
Originally Posted by CedarCreek:
This doesn't help at all but I just wanted to say that this thread is making my head itch like crazy!

Gah!
I have been "itching" all weekend!!!
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DaisyMamma 12:53 PM 02-11-2013
It was wonderful that the mom notified you.
I had a parent fail to notify me and did not properly treat/get rid of the lice. Needless to say it ran rampid through my daycare. It was so so so horrible.
In the end the ONLY thing that got rid of it was:
A) Terming the family who wasn't treating it.
and
B) Getting a RX from the DR
as well as all the ridiculous amount of cleaning. Vacuum everything and spray everything that is fabric with rubbing alcohol twice a day

The NIX and RID from the pharmacy DOES NOT WORK! It is a HUGE waste of $ and I will NEVER buy one of those products again.

I have some paperwork I sent home with families. If you want me to send it to you, let me know via PM.

'
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wdmmom 01:01 PM 02-11-2013
I have a "No Nit" policy.

I require parents to tell me of any exposure.

Head lice is a minimum 3 day exclusion here and if you bring it in, it's a $500 cleaning fee.

In order to clean everything in my house and treat everyone in my family, it would cost me that much out of pocket.

I don't play when it comes to lice.

GROSS!
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canadiancare 01:05 PM 02-11-2013
When my daughter was little (and now at almost 16) she had very long hair. I used to spritz her with a tea tree oil and water solution everyday when she went to school. I also tied her hair up so tight. *touch wood* no lice.

When I was on the PTA I used to run a volunteer group who helped out parents to pick the lice (this after a few families kept bringing it back into the school). I phoned a local children's hospital who swore by a oil and vinegar treatment instead of the traditional chemical one.

You saturate the hair in oil (olive is fine), stick a swim cap on and leave it for a few hours. Then you rinse the hair with vinegar and warm water and begin the fun task of combing. Apparently the oil suffocates the live ones and the combing is the only way to effectively rid the eggs.
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blessed mom 04:03 PM 02-11-2013
Originally Posted by canadiancare:
When my daughter was little (and now at almost 16) she had very long hair. I used to spritz her with a tea tree oil and water solution everyday when she went to school. I also tied her hair up so tight. *touch wood* no lice.

When I was on the PTA I used to run a volunteer group who helped out parents to pick the lice (this after a few families kept bringing it back into the school). I phoned a local children's hospital who swore by a oil and vinegar treatment instead of the traditional chemical one.

You saturate the hair in oil (olive is fine), stick a swim cap on and leave it for a few hours. Then you rinse the hair with vinegar and warm water and begin the fun task of combing. Apparently the oil suffocates the live ones and the combing is the only way to effectively rid the eggs.
Thanks, i will let mom know
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