Monday at camp, kids arrive, meet their counselors, move into cabins, eat lunch, and then spend 4 hours touring through camp. The go to each program area and do activities, and they go to the health center where the nurse asks about medication and checks for lice.
The lice policy is this: if a kid has lice, they have to go home. It is too difficult for us to treat and not fair to the kid to be quarantined the whole time he or she is here. Lice can happen to any kids, not just "dirty kids" or whatever the stereotype is. It is just one of those things that happens sometimes. It's no fun and kind of embarrassing, but it's not a big deal. Lice doesn't spread as easily as you think, and lice can't live very long when it's not on a person's head. That being said, we can't deal with it here, so kids have to go home.
Yesterday a kid had lice. It was a tough call. She really just had lice eggs, and her head wasn't itching yet. The nurse and I were fairly confident it was lice, but it made it difficult since she wasn't itching. Adding to the difficulty was that the kid is in a foreign exchange program from Ireland and this is her last week in America. If she had to leave camp, it wouldn't be the fun last week she'd expected.
I called the parents and they were surprised and not exactly happy to have to drive all the way up north, but when they arrived 3 hours later, they were the nicest, calmest people I've ever dealt with. They brought lice treatment with them and shampooed her right in the health center. They took her home and this morning, treated her again so that she could return this evening. They drove her all the way back up to camp today, meaning that those parents drove 3 hours, dropped the kids off, 3 hours home. 3 hours to pick her up, 3 hours home. 3 hours to drop her back off at camp, three hours home. All of that within 24 hours. Like I said, they were nice people.
When she got back today, her head was clear of lice and she was excited to be back. But she was stressed out that her cabin mates would think she was dirty or make fun of her. So I did what you sometimes have to do with kids and I lied. I said she was feeling sick and had been in the health center the whole time. They didn't even question it and they were glad her "stomach" felt better and laughed at the silly rumor about her going all the way home. Whew.
My entire body has itched since the moment I found out she had lice, but I think it's psychological, so all is well. It ended in the best possible scenario (happy, lice-free kid, happy parents, lice-free camp, happy Director). Hopefully no more lice for the rest of the summer.
The lice policy is this: if a kid has lice, they have to go home. It is too difficult for us to treat and not fair to the kid to be quarantined the whole time he or she is here. Lice can happen to any kids, not just "dirty kids" or whatever the stereotype is. It is just one of those things that happens sometimes. It's no fun and kind of embarrassing, but it's not a big deal. Lice doesn't spread as easily as you think, and lice can't live very long when it's not on a person's head. That being said, we can't deal with it here, so kids have to go home.
Yesterday a kid had lice. It was a tough call. She really just had lice eggs, and her head wasn't itching yet. The nurse and I were fairly confident it was lice, but it made it difficult since she wasn't itching. Adding to the difficulty was that the kid is in a foreign exchange program from Ireland and this is her last week in America. If she had to leave camp, it wouldn't be the fun last week she'd expected.
I called the parents and they were surprised and not exactly happy to have to drive all the way up north, but when they arrived 3 hours later, they were the nicest, calmest people I've ever dealt with. They brought lice treatment with them and shampooed her right in the health center. They took her home and this morning, treated her again so that she could return this evening. They drove her all the way back up to camp today, meaning that those parents drove 3 hours, dropped the kids off, 3 hours home. 3 hours to pick her up, 3 hours home. 3 hours to drop her back off at camp, three hours home. All of that within 24 hours. Like I said, they were nice people.
When she got back today, her head was clear of lice and she was excited to be back. But she was stressed out that her cabin mates would think she was dirty or make fun of her. So I did what you sometimes have to do with kids and I lied. I said she was feeling sick and had been in the health center the whole time. They didn't even question it and they were glad her "stomach" felt better and laughed at the silly rumor about her going all the way home. Whew.
My entire body has itched since the moment I found out she had lice, but I think it's psychological, so all is well. It ended in the best possible scenario (happy, lice-free kid, happy parents, lice-free camp, happy Director). Hopefully no more lice for the rest of the summer.
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