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Head lice in swimming pools

Posted: Jul 22, 2010

I am having a pool party/birthday party for my daughter tomorrow and I know of a little girl who has had head lice 3 times in the past year. (I don't really think she has gotten rid of it). If she gets in my swimming pool, what are the chances she could she give it to the other kids? I do not want to insult her by "checking" her head when she gets here and then not letting her go swimming. I know I will find nits. Any advice?

;

re: Heatwave - sl

[ In Reply To ..]
If you know for an absolute fact that this girl has lice, I mean absolute fact, then address the parent! It is imperative that we keep our kids safe and protect them from this (very common) childhood malady if at all possible and you are potentially putting at risk ALL the children that will be swimming in your pool and yourself!

I would as tactfully and delicately as possible tell the parent that you do not want to be the reason that the other children be exposed because as we all know, this is extremely contagious!

It is an uncomfortable topic, but it can be handled. I had to do this for a child with chicken pox. The boy obviously had open, oozing lesions, yet the parent said "the doc said he wasn't contagious anymore"... I told her as kindly as I could that I was not going to allow him to swim with the other children and apologized, asked her to take him home. I of course cut into the cake early to send them home with a couple of slices and gave him a goodie bag as well, apologized again, and said goodbye.

Mom was a bit embarrassed, angry, but oh well. I figure if she thinks about it long enough, she'll understand. If not I at least know I protected the other kids who were swimming at our party.

well said - xox

[ In Reply To ..]
I agree. You must speak up and tell the parent your concerned about it. Naturally if the kid is free of infectious lice gladly welcome her and apologize to the parent, say something like "I hope you understand....". But most definitely speak up.

lice - heatwave

[ In Reply To ..]
The school nurse has addressed this 3 times last school year, and her mother does not take the necessary steps to get rid of this at home obviously. She sleeps all day and works at night. Her mother is not going to do anything. She would have by now. I think I will take the little girl aside without the other children knowing and check her head. If she has nits, I just won't let her go swimming. If her mother finds out, then I will have to explain how difficult and expensive it is to take care of it.

re: heatwave - a mom

[ In Reply To ..]
I hope you are aware that by simply inviting this child into your home you are putting at risk all the other children as well. Nits are one thing, the lice themselves can jump pretty good. All you need is one female louse and you have an infestation in your home.

Taking the girl aside will only make her uncomfortable. I agree with the person who said to talk to the parent. Go to her home and talk to her.

I would like to say that if you say anything to your own child, you run the risk of the other children making fun of her at school, so I hope you are silent about that. Children are cruel. It's just how they are. You don't want that child to be the "lice girl" for the rest of her school days.

And BTW - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
My group of friends and I had lice my entire 7th grade year. As soon as one household would get rid of it, another would have it, and it would start all over again. It is possible that this mom is doing the best she can, but the girl is getting it somewhere else repeatedly (from family members, friends, sharing stuff at school, etc). The mother is not a hopeless cause. My mom would MAKE me call all my friends whenever we found out we had lice in the house again, it was horribly embarrassing, but the only way we could get rid of it was if everyone knew when one of the girls had it so we could take care of it all at once, even if we couldn't find traces of it in our house. Summer finally came when we were off doing our own things and it stopped, thank goodness.

Talk to the mom, call her before the party, and let her know your concerns. How in the world, may I ask, do you know she's had it 3 times? It could just be gossip.

lice - heatwave

[ In Reply To ..]
I know she has had it because when she comes to my house, I check her and see the nits. I then call the school nurse (I know her personally as she is my neighbor) and she looks at her at school and has her treated because she has it.

lice don't jump, they crawl, they are not like fleas - sm -

[ In Reply To ..]
My kids got it from a friend of their's that went on vacation with us, actually we all ended up with them. She kept complaining her head itched the whole time, as I know she has a sensitive scalp I just though it was a reaction to the shampoo which was a different brand than she used. The girl forgot her hairbrush, I could not find my girl's brushes (left at home) and all we had was mine which we all proceeded to share. Even my DH got them, though he did not use the brush, they probably got on the furniture and crawled on him that way since were were there for 5 days. But after the mom informed me of her daughter's lice, I found the four of us had them too, this was 3 weeks after our exposure. We were able to get rid of them relatively quickly, though it took three rounds of tries on my one daughter, along with 2 home remedies. I picked and picked and picked out nits, took six weeks in all to get rid of the suckers. ----- Our school won't even let you in school if they find nits, how does this girl attend school if the mom won't deal with them? It is a horrendous pain bagging up most everything, vacuuming, washing, taking all the bedding to a laudramat, etc. I spent several days not working and doing that, spending 4-6-hours a day for a couple weeks picking nits out, then having my kids pick through my hair (which is long...though DH cut off about 4 inches to make it a little easier...still halfway down my back). You have to be anal to get rid of them. -------- as for transmitting them in the water, no clue. They can hold their breath for days so it is feasible I would think that they could be transmitted in a pool.

link for information about your topic - justthefacts

[ In Reply To ..]
I ran a daycare for 10 years and it was not uncommon to have head lice from time to time. We never, never had a problem getting rid of it because we took an aggressive approach. No one was ever singled out. I attached a link for you to read.

lice - heatwave

[ In Reply To ..]
That article was very helpful. Thank you so much.

head lice - Tara

[ In Reply To ..]
My kids have had lice before and I tell you what. If any of their friends invited them over for a party knowing full well another kid had lice I would be so MAD!!!!! It is expensive and time consuming. Alot of people think you can just wash with the lice shampoo, but it's not that simple. Just some advice for this mother. Wash with the shampoo, then go through every strand of hair and pick the eggs out. Use a light to shine on WET hair, that is how you will see them best. Close off their bedroom after having vacuumed the mattress and washed all the clothing. Anywhere you carried the clothing and bedding to, vacuum your trail. Vacuum all floors, furniture, and vehicles. Have them sleep somewhere other than their bedroom because lice die after not having a head to live on after so long. After the kid wakes up in the morning, throw all their blankets, pillows, and clothes they were wearing into the washer. Vacuum the floor where they swept. If you have a bagless vacuum, empty the container into a plastic bag and put it out in the trash. I put mayo on my kids' head and covered it with a shower cap for 3 hours to try to smother the lice. Also, lice love clean hair so put hairspray on their head. Also, tea tree oil shampoo is another way to help ward them off. The smell of it is very potent. If you have to bring your kids anywhere, every time they get out of the car vacuum where they were sitting. If they sit on furniture, designate one spot they can sit and vacuum it as soon as they get up. Vacuum and cleaning and picking the eggs out of the hair is the only way to rid them completely. This may sound obsessive, but it works. My kids never had a recurrence.

Exactly what I did when mine had it....sm -

[ In Reply To ..]
as I put in my post (above I think) you have to be totally anal to get rid of them. I did the same thing with the kids roooms, they had to sleep out in the LV for a few days as after I cleaned, vacuumed, bagged, etc. their rooms I also sprayed lice stuff in there. Then every day would run their stuff the dryer with high heat to kill any that may have crawled off in the night or nits that became dislodged. It was a drag for a while but we killed the suckers. Just glad we did not have to shave our heads like a friend of mine's brother's family had to (a doctor no less). They had a resistant strain of lice, nothing would kill them, so they shaved their heads to remove the "source", and obviously turned their house into a museum to eradicate them, took them six months to rid themselves.

headlice - Ayala

[ In Reply To ..]
I would come right out and ask her mother if she is clean. I mean you have every right to be asking her this question in a nice way of course. Tell her you are concerned for the other children.

A pool typically has chlorine, why are you more worried about the pool? sm - RoadRunnerMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I would be more concerned about the child coming to the party or your house period! It shouldn't be a pool thing. Lice jump all around and can easily go from her hair to a chair, to your hair, onto the couch, etc. But chances are if it is your neighbor, your child is exposed to it all the time anyway.

I would not pull her aside and check her. I would call up mom and ask her. That is only embarrassing that poor child that can basically do nothing about it and no fault of her own. When I was young, they found lice in my hair when I was at the beauty salon. I still have phobias about going to a salon 20 years later.

I personally think instead of calling the school when you find nits, you should perhaps be calling mom if you want to put an end to it and offer your help instead of your judgment. Sounds like you frequently let her in your house and that is a set up for exposure. Talk with the mom, treat the child yourself, and work with mom instead of against her. Mom may be at wits end trying to get rid of it. She may not even know where it is coming from if indeed it keeps coming and going. I heard blow drying daily and washing with tick/flea shampoo about once a week helps keep them away.

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