UrbanHealthRN BSN, RN

I completely agree with you, OldDude! I'm guessing her maternal instincts were kicking in real strong and she just HAD to get those babies out. Do lice have labor contractions? I don't know, lol. And as far as the temp goes, this house would definitely not be mine! I'm up in New England, and short of my cat deciding to roost on top of the bag for 10 days, I'd say this scenario's home involves Miami without air conditioning.

It all comes down to the nits and very hypothetical worst case scenarios. Picture this: My child comes home from school needing head lice treatment. After doing all the necessary hair care, I move on to cleaning her bedroom and decide to bag up some stuffed animals on her bed that she always sleeps with. My daughter's head last had contact with those stuffed animals twelve hours ago. There's a stray, pregnant louse sitting on one of those animals that hasn't died yet. The louse makes her way into the plastic bag and proceeds to lay her nits the next day before dying. The nits don't die, because I somehow leave the plastic bag near a heat source that provides constant warmth. The nits also take a full 10 days to incubate before finally hatching. After the nits hatch, the new lice turn out to be very hardy and don't die off until nearly 48 hours later. The lice are now dead, 2 weeks have passed, and I proceed to take the stuffed animals back out of the bag and give them back to my daughter. The end. That's science for ya!

Sorry- I meant in my state. I felt like my first post in this thread wasn't clear, and then I tried to clarify, but maybe I'm not doing a good job of that.

I had a grandma who does relative foster care tell me that the vaccinated kids in her household got the flu worse last week, while the unvaccinated kid only had a mild case of it. She also believes that by being unvaccinated, he's more prone to becoming a silent carrier of various diseases without showing any symptoms, and vaccinated kids who are prone to getting sick should stay away from him, which is why she keeps him home for 72 hours every time he gets sick. Oh, and Airborne works better than vaccines. Yup.

State mandated. But my state is pretty lax about vaccine "religious exemptions"- personal objections also fall under that definition, and nobody questions it.

Anything related to supervision of medication administration? Or any kiddos with complex procedures like tube feedings that might need special training prior to delegation? I can probably think of more, but I haven't had my coffee yet.

The flu vaccine actually is a mandated vaccine- kids have until December 31st each year to get it done- and the only non-vaccinated kids who can stay are the ones who have medical or religious exemptions filled out. And because there's a vaccine for the flu, I'd assume it's a vaccine-preventable disease. But we all know what assuming does, and after doing a little digging yesterday, it looks like my second phone call to the health department was the correct one, and not everyone excludes kids during this particular disease outbreak.

While we're on the subject of flu... It's showing up now with my kiddos. I was told by our health department back in the fall that If I see enough cases pop in a classroom or building, call the department to determine if it's an outbreak and then exclude any non-vaccinated kids until the outbreak has passed. A paragraph about excluding non-vaccinated kids for vaccine-preventable diseases is also written into our state law for schools. I called the health department today because I have multiple kids in the same one-classroom center who've all come down with the flu. I asked about the non-vaccinated kid in that class, and am now being told yes, this classroom has an outbreak, but flu is not on the list of excludable vaccine-preventable diseases. Does anyone's state or health department give guidance on this? I can't believe I just got a totally different response today.

I'm so tired from this week, I thought you meant wild bears were paying attention to these foods . Can't wait for the weekend! Just gotta make it through the polar vortex first.

I didn't know this until encountering kid with a latex allergy this year, but apparently people with latex allergies frequently have cross-reactivities with certain foods (bananas are a common one). I'm just wondering if there's more to this girl's allergy history that mom has forgotten to share- it would be good to find out from the pedi.

Definitely go for it! I'm sure he's noticed by now what the other kids can do to help themselves during bathroom time. As long as there's no developmental delay, a 6 or 7 year old can put most if not all of their clothes on. It's just a matter of working around any physical limitations.

If you typically screen kids for height/weight/BMI, and have some sort of follow-up letter that you send home after these screenings, then I think that's all I would do, and make sure to include my phone number if mom wants to call and talk. If the little girl is demonstrating inappropriate behaviors around mealtime, like stealing food from kids or shoving food into her mouth, then that could be addressed with mom. It could also be used as a gateway conversation to discuss her health. I know we all want kids to be their healthiest and happiest, but honestly, I don't feel that I'm the appropriate healthcare provider to address weight issues with a parent. Compared to the kid's pedi, I'm a stranger who does not have a long-standing professional relationship with the parent. Side note: we check each kid's height, weight, and BMI at the start of the year, and send home letters with that information + available resources if a parent would like help. One parent was so offended at her child being categorized as obese, she actually got the pedi to write a letter saying he's aware the kid is obese but it's fine.

I was talking with a new coworker about head lice this week, and she told me that at her last job (small, privately owned preschool), there was a lice situation that "spread like wildfire". I guess all the parents kept claiming that their kids were constantly re-lousing each other in the classrooms, and they demanded action from the school. The school actually paid for a private hair combing/delousing agency to come in and delouse EVERY CHILD'S HEAD. I can't even imagine how much that cost.

I've gone a few ways ways with this. If there's concern for abuse because of a conversation with the student, or something the student said, then I like whoever heard those words to make the call, so that there's no "lost in translation" effect going on. If there's concern for abuse because of a physical finding, then I don't mind taking a look and, if what I see is concerning, making a call. I'm certainly no abuse expert, and as mandated reporters we're not here to decide if something is definitely abuse or not, but with the physical stuff, teachers like my assessment skills. I'm also happy to bounce ideas off a coworker who is thinking about making a call based on some other category of concern, but at the end of the day, they know it's on them to call.