Lice checks at camp!

amother

Dodgerblue

Mon, Jun 25 2018, 11:27 pm

My daughter (age 9) who was so excited about going to camp for the last 3 months. Could talk about nothing else. Finally arrives at camp and goes through the "lice check". It's the first thing they do when they get off the bus. Of course, the nurse said she has nits and she had to get "treatment". Of course, she becomes socially ostracized on Day One. I know for a fact she does not have nits. I checked her very carefully. She does have dandruff. It's a developmental thing that her older sister had and grew out of. Hopefully, she will too. But she had no nits when she left our house. We have had lice before and I will never, ever forget what lice and nits look like. There has got to be a better way to do this lice-checking thing and why can't people be properly trained? Venting. I feel heartbroken for my poor child.

amother

Amethyst

Mon, Jun 25 2018, 11:44 pm

I find it very hard to believe the nit checker mistook dandruff for nits. If she did, she should be fired.

But I agree the nit check should be done in private. Anyone can have nits but the stigma is strong. Sad

I had nits in camp too and was traumatized.

thunderstorm

Mon, Jun 25 2018, 11:49 pm

Nits and dandruff look nothing alike.
I always had a camp nit check BEFORE camp started in private, set up by appointment with the camp mother. So sorry you are going through this.

amother

Dodgerblue

Tue, Jun 26 2018, 12:29 am

Apparently they look somewhat alike because according to this article that was references by another author, Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2000 Aug;19(8):689-93; discussion 694, only 32% of specimens sent in to the authors as "example of infestation" deemed by supposedly "trained professional" were actually accurate. Meaning, 68% were inaccurate. As in the "lice checkers" who thought something was lice, were wrong in 68% of the time.

amother

Amethyst

Tue, Jun 26 2018, 12:45 am

I think its ridiculous to deny your daughter has nits and blame it on dandruff--unless the nits cleaner says on second check she found no nits. Did that happen?

Dandruff is very common and if teh nit checker thinks dandruff is nits half teh camp would be declared infested.

I have a lot of sympathy for your daughter. It really sucks. But denial wont get you anywhere.

PS: The time I got nits in camp my mom had declared me clean the day before too. I definitely had nits.

mom39

Tue, Jun 26 2018, 9:07 am

I thought camps allowed you to have your head checked before you go to camp and bring a note from the nit cleaner. I have a neighbor who checks for nits and there are so many girls in front of her house this time of year - all getting checked.

JoyInTheMorning

Tue, Jun 26 2018, 9:27 am

Your poor daughter.

In my experience, this kind of "professional" lice checking is worthless. When I found lice on my kid's head, it was after painstaking conditioning and combing through with a special lice comb, not after a few seconds of lifting a few sections of hair. Those quick checks they do with a few sticks are useless. They can't see the lice at all, because the lice run and hide. You'd have to have a lice epidemic of major proportions to find any lice with the sticks lifting hair method. So, what do they do instead? They look for nits. And it seems they don't even know how to look for nits.

In my experience -- and as you can tell, I sadly have had a fair amount of experience -- nits and dandruff look and act nothing alike. Nits are anywhere on the shaft of the hair. They stick really hard to the hair through many shampoos. Dandruff is on the scalp and you can flake it off quite easily.

I had the same experience as your daughter in sleep away camp, many years ago. I was told I might have nits and given a dandruff shampoo to use. I used it, and passed the lice test the next day. It was never nits in the first place.

JoyInTheMorning

Tue, Jun 26 2018, 9:36 am

amother wrote:

When I went to camp, the incompetent nurse who did the checking did declare nearly half the camp to possibly have lice. She obviously had no idea what she was doing. If she saw dandruff, she gave out the shampoo. I feel bad for the kids whose dandruff wasn't cleared by one application of the dandruff shampoo.

I can guarantee you that I did not have nits, since I had never had lice. I had garden-variety dandruff.

I do agree that nits and dandruff do not look alike.

Last edited by JoyInTheMorning on Tue, Jun 26 2018, 2:00 pm; edited 1 time in total

amother

Dodgerblue

Tue, Jun 26 2018, 11:16 am

I agree they do not look alike either.

Every time any one of my children previously have been declared to have lice by the checker at their school, we take them to the doctor's the same day because they get kicked out of school for the day and aren't allowed to return without a note. They get the "all clear" and no lice the same day at the pediatrician's. And it's only with the girls with long hair and dandruff or sebum plugs who have had this difficulty. So, I'm mistrusting of the whole process in general.

My mistake this time with camp is not having my daughter checked by someone who can fill out a form and sign it before she arrives at camp. I won't make that mistake anymore. Lesson learned. But that is not a "fool proof" process. Anyone can sign that form. There is no way to check validity.

I'm assuming the lice checker at camp has made the same mistake as previous lice checkers but maybe my DD did have nits. Okay, fine. I concede. Kinda. I'm fallible. Given my previous bad experiences, I should have just gotten her checked before camp.

Iymnok

Tue, Jun 26 2018, 11:39 am

Dd has lice.
They are so tiny that they would be missed by a professional.
I know she has because I’ve found them. They are the size of nits, but translucent with a black dot in the middle. If I squish them between the backs of my nails they pop.
I remember those lice checks. I was called to verify dandruff in a 4yo since 7th grade me was an expert since I had recently been declared clean from a major infestation. Her scalp was flaky as anything. Don’t know how they couldn’t differentiate.

Alternative

Tue, Jun 26 2018, 1:39 pm

I can't believe they do this publicly.
I would cause an uproar. An absolute uproar. And insist they publicly declare my child free of nits, whether she has them or not. This is not the kind of thing you let other kids know.

This kind of thing should totally be done behind closed doors.
Besides the fact that it seems like it's not being checked professionally at all, and they are just pumping kids' heads full of chemicals for nothing.

amother

Pearl

Tue, Jun 26 2018, 2:36 pm

Why are people being so snotty about this? IF there are articles in medical journals saying that xx% of the time, there are no lice when the so-called lice checker examines, why all the outrage?

amother

Amethyst

Tue, Jun 26 2018, 7:07 pm

amother wrote:

Why are people being so snotty about this? IF there are articles in medical journals saying that xx% of the time, there are no lice when the so-called lice checker examines, why all the outrage?

There is no outrage. I dont know what article she's referring to but experienced lice checkers dont mistake nits and dandruff. I've worked in several schools and never ever was a child sent home found with nits that turned out to be dandruff. Never.

I'd like to see this article firsthand and see who these lice checkers were.

It's not helpful for the mom to decide her child has dandruff when lice checkers said she has nits particularly as she's not on site to see what they found. I do feel terrible for her and her daughter. It is humiliating even though anyone can get nits. I had nits in camp too, as I wrote. It sucks big time.

amother

Amethyst

Tue, Jun 26 2018, 7:11 pm

I just read the post above where the op writes her children have been found with nits by checkers several times only to get an all clear at the dr. Seems the checkers don't know what they're doing at her school. Looks like its time to hire new ones.

FranticFrummie

Tue, Jun 26 2018, 7:32 pm

When DD had nits, the lice checker sent home a piece of paper that had a strand of hair and nits taped to it. The checker snips a strand of hair to show the parent exactly what to look for.

amother

Blush

Tue, Jun 26 2018, 7:37 pm

amother wrote:

Or maybe it's the doctor who has no idea what he/she is doing? How much training do doctors have in nit or lice identification? Medical school is not entomology.

thunderstorm

Tue, Jun 26 2018, 7:41 pm

amother wrote:

Or maybe it's the doctor who has no idea what he/she is doing? How much training do doctors have in nit or lice identification? Medical school is not entomology.

When I was a kid the pediatrician was very involved with our nits and lice situations and were the ones that gave my mother instructions of how to clean us out etc. It may not be so common to do nowadays .

amother

Dodgerblue

Tue, Jun 26 2018, 9:00 pm

amother wrote:

Refer to my post from yesterday, 11:29 pm. I gave you an article citing.

"Never ever" is strong wording. Are you sure?