Maybe we cab get the bedbugs to kill off the lice?

"Benign" is a relative term. No, they don't spread disease, but they are not pleasant to live with and, believe me, you do not want them. The process of getting rid of them (nitpicking, combing, washing with toxic shampoo, doing piles of extra laundry) is very difficult, time consuming and unpleasant. It took us three months to put an end to them in our house, and from what I hear, we got off easy. It is my understanding that they can be transmitted at school through things like sharing hats and playing closely together physically, which younger kids tend to do, especially. Kids should stay home from school for a day or two until they've had a treatment and a good comb through with a lice comb. We dealt with a break-out in Roland Park two years ago, and I believe that the school policy of keeping kids with lice out of school was a major factor in getting things under control. Again, the pediatricians seem to be basing their decision on "doesn't spread disease," but there's more to it than that.

How come no one talks about lice prevention?? We have been using Fairy Tales Rosemary Repel Spray every morning for years and my 3 girls have never had lice - even when there are outbreaks in school! One was at a sleepover and didnt get it. It's amazing stuff!!
www.fairytaleshaircare.com

Not only do I think kids should have to stay home but I also think that the school should notify parents if another child in the class has lice. My kids got it their first week of kindergarten. I called the nurse to notify her so she could alert the teachers to tell the other parents but she said that they don't do that. At least with some notice you can look out for it and not have to wait until it's so bad.

My daughter is 8 years old. Despite lice outbreaks every year of school she has never had it. Until one of her good friends continued to get it last year in second grade. Her parents obviously didn't take the time to get rid of it. My daughter had it on and off for 6 months. It was incredibly stressful. I am so pissed to see this article. They obviously don't have kids and have never dealt with lice. I used to think you just buy the shampoo and done. I never had it as a kid so I didn't realize. To go to such great lengths of shampooing, combing (for hours) and my daughter has long hair, then checking and vacuuming, washing laundry, putting toys in bags for weeks ETC. I felt like we were trying to avoid the plague. We sent my daugther to school and made her put her backpack and coat in a plastic garbage bag. We lectured her on hugging or getting too close and especially with the girl who constantly got sent home for it. We were extreme, I'm talking OVERKILL!! Yet she kept getting it. I will always have that fear in the back of my head. My worst nightmare is for her to get it again. Her school even has a no knit policy..or they did. Who knows now. I would never wish it on anyone. I pray I will never have to deal with it again. I am scared to share my own hairbrush with my daughter or lay next to her etc. and she hasn't had it for months now. It just felt like it would never go away. That whole time she didn't go in any other children's homes and we live in a new home!! She didn't have any friends over and the only way she was getting it was definitely from school. Her school is over crowded and they were having an issue with the janitor and not having thigns vacuumed on a regular basis. What a JOKE!! It was a horrible, horrible experience. Im so irritated with this article. She will prob end up having some weird cancer someday when they find out the lice shampoo's were more toxic than they thought. Stupid, stupid, stupid, I GUARANTEE they have never personally dealt with this. I'm so sick of the "experts" and mainstream doctors who think they know everything. Probably just a ploy to get people to HAVE to spend more on lice shampoo's. Things are so backwards in this country UGH!

Obviously the AAP has not personally dealt with families who have lice in their life. While seemingly benign (not sure I totally agree with this as I have seen the infections they cause, not to mention they are blood-sucking parasites spreading from person to person), head lice can bring even the strongest person to their knees. Trust me, I see it on a daily basis and it is not pretty! The financial costs as well as the mental costs are huge, and families often spend weeks and months trying to get rid of their infestations. This "new and improved" policy by the AAP basically lets parents off the hook in terms of dealing with their lice issues and lice will be even more prevalent than ever. We will be like a third world country and soon lice, not the common cold, will be the number 1 childhood affliction. What is the AAP thinking? Kids should not be allowed in school if they have lice or nits. We do not send our kids to school when they have the flu or a bad cold, why would we send them with something equally contagious? Hopefully schools with no-nit policies will keep these policies intact, and continue to give their families peace of mind. And hopefully, schools without these policies will realize that this is not in the best interest of their families and will create problems where they don't need to be. School administrations have a lot more to deal with than head lice so, as we tell our children, pick your battles. Why not keep families happy and implement policies that keep them stress-free, while at the same time allowing themselves to focus on educating our children. It's a win-win for everyone.

While at preschool, the younger brother of a school-age girl brought lice to the classroom. They implemented a no nit policy for everyone except the original offender, who then re-infected everyone again! My husband is a doctor and he would never tolerate this. I would pull my kids out of school rather than have them repeatedly infected.... In some countries, everyone has lice all the time and no one does anything about it. Is that what we want?

The new recommendation to keep kids with lice in school is absolutely ridiculous and harmful to everyone. How is not being able to concentrate because of incessant physical itching, not medically harmful?

This is HORRIBLE advice!

It is obviously some left handed (sinister) attempt to reduce school absences.

What exactly are doctors taking these days? Are they in to their own medicine cabinets?

The next thing you know they will be telling us to dip our children in sun blocks that were loaded with oxybenzone and retinol compounds- both STRONGLY suspected of cuasing cancer, not preventing it.

DO NOT send your child to school with head lice or when word gets out every uninfected other will be staying home.

Any of these "docs" want to identify themsleves?

The doctors, who are experts on childhood disease, have given their view on a health issue: do lice spread disease? No.

They didn't say anything about convenience issues, or parenting issues.

This article doesn't discuss the risks of repeated use of strong pesticides to control the lice, but many other articles have -- which is why "J" even knows to worry about cancer risk later in life.

Right now, I'm not angry at the doctors, but at the editors of this newspaper, who didn't bother to go beyond the press release from the AAP and create a full feature article that included interviews with parents and school officials! If you don't fully inform the populace, you can expect to get the sorts of responses posted here....

My son had lice for the first time this year, after avoiding previous outbreaks at his school and it was a nightmare to get rid of the lice - we all had them. I share concerns about the pesticide shampoos but we used one on my son since the pediatrician recommended it, and it didnt even slow the lice down. We tried a homeopathic product called LIcefreeee! that uses salts to dehydrate the lice and it worked beautifully, instant kill. We were able to get rid of them in one weekend, but it is stressful, expensive and labor intensive. I can't imagine how people who don't have their own washer-dryer cope. Amazingly, my son was not checked on his return to school. I am afraid that not keeping kids home would give the lazy parents even less incentive to deal properly with the problem! So yes, keep them home!

No, lice is not dangerous, but; we had an epidemic of it in our school 2 years ago and it was a nightmare. You would finally get rid of it, and it came right back a week later becuase the children kept passing it around. Itchy, raw little heads and constant deep house cleaning with mounds of laundry and poison shampoo. It finally went away once summer came and school was out. Do everyone a favor and keep your child home for a day or two while you get it under control and make sure its gone and everyone will be better off- including you because it won't cycle back.