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Rethinking Lice
September 12, 2006
Be honorable yourself if you wish to associate with honorable people.
-Welsh Proverb
-Welsh Proverb
Health authorities in the U.S.A., Canada, and Australia recommend a "no nit" policy, i.e., the immediate dismissal of all children who have head lice, eggs, and/or nits on their hair from school, camp, or child care settings. These children would be readmitted to the institution only when all head lice, eggs, and nits have been removed. The "no nit" policy assumes that all nits seen when examining the scalp are viable and therefore the infested individual should be treated for lice, and all nits must be removed from the scalp.
However, according to the authors' abstract, "it has been repeatedly shown that only a small number of children who have nits on their scalp are also infested with living lice. Accordingly, in the U.S.A. alone 4-8 million children are treated unnecessarily for head lice annually, which amounts to 64% of all lice treatments. In addition, 12-24 million school days are lost annually. The annual economic loss owing to missed workdays by parents who have to stay home with their children adds US$4-8 billion to the country's economy. The policy also results in serious psychological problems for children and their parents. Therefore, the "no nit" policy should be abandoned and alternative ways of examination and treatment for head lice should be found."
Mumcuoglu, K., Meinking, T., Burkhart, C., and Burkhart, C. (2006, August). "Head louse infestations: the "no nit" policy and its
consequences." International Journal of Dermatology, 45 (8), 891-896.
Contributed by Michael Kalinowski
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Comments (14)
Displaying 5 of 14 Comments [ View all ]United States
How does one discern if a nit is viable or not? If all children with nits are admitted to school, how would the remaining viable nits (and resulting lice) ever be eliminated?
I agree that children and parents are traumatized by a lice infestation. But turning a blind eye to nits doesn't seem to address the real issue: eliminating lice and viable eggs.
Towns County Daycare
Hiawassee, usa, United States
The no nit policy has made all the difference in the world for our center.
I know the children are the ones that suffer
My 26 years in child care I see the same families and friends of those familes that seem to be the ones you can count on getting head lice every year.
The no nit policy does create more hardships on the parents. The education of treatment and removal in homes is available thru Health resources. However, alot of parents just are willing to do all that cleaning.
If we did not have the no nit policy.
The numbers would be 70% greater.
We work hard to keep this problem in control. I vote to keep the NO NIT POLICY
FOREVER.
YMCA
Albemarle, NC, United States
From someone who has lived in FL, HI, Fiji Islands, and now NC, I have had to deal with lice on more than one occasion. A "No Nit" policy is absolutely the only option. One case alone infected at least a dozen children and everything in my YMCA nursery had to be treated accordingly. We took extreme permanent measures, i.e. no bedding in cribs, no stuffed animals, no dolls with "hair", steamed cleaned carpet, etc. in order to rid our facility and to reassure our parents! That's a big reason right there, our parents, to maintain a "No Nit" policy.
United States
There is no other alternative! I believe "better safe than sorry!" The problem will just reoccur and reoccur if you do not approach it aggressively. Not doing so will also put other children, staff members and the cleaning crew at risk.
I also have a family based daycare and I will not, by any means, take that kind of chance.
Tamra's Tots Koala T Child Care
Spokane, WA, United States
In my opinion I have found that the best thing one can do is to pick,pick,pick until all the eggs,nits and lice are gone. I don't like the idea of toxic chemicals being used on anyone let alone a child. Equal parts vinegar and oil seems to work pretty to help kill the pests, but you still have to pick the hair & scalp clean no matter what type of lotions and potions you apply.
I will continue to enforce my "no nit" policy and educate parents on ways to treat and prevent head lice because my family & I live in the home where we provide a quality early care & learning environment for children.
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