Some child put suncream on dd at school and now her eczema has REALLY flared up

[foxinsocks]

and to be honest, I'm quite pissed off. The school has a policy of not allowing children to bring suncream in themselves. I know some mothers find this annoying and this child hid some suncream in her pocket so that she could put some on at lunch break. Unfortunately, she put some on my dd's face and she was up in the night scratching and complaining about the stinging in her face.

The thing is she's not per se allergic to suncream but because she does sometimes get eczema, she tends to react to some creams (but not all). I'll speak to the school but this really is a parent problem. Some parents think it's irresponsible not to let a child have suncream during the day at school gggrrrr.

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I saw one of the swimming teachers come in dressed in one of those all in ones (he must have been about 25) and I nearly passed out - had to force myself to focus on his eyes.

Ds now happily swims in his little pants and separate swimming shirt thing.

pmsl!

After what i was saw in a childs ward (a 4 yr old with severe burns on morphine becuase he dad didn't put suncream on, his excuse? There was shade for her to sit in) I don't think parents can be too precious about it.

I agree that school's outside spaces are generally poorly designed wrt sun protection.

Not suprisingly really as 'most' schools were built before such things would be taken into consideration

Lived abraoad a lot as kid an im sure we never did

DH is black (yes that IS relevant to my post) and from Zimbabwe.........he wears sun cream on really hot days here - and once got burned when he was visitng Australia.....that was 14yrs ago - but he's never forgotten what a shock he had as he'd never burnt before and had 'assumed' that because he was black and grew up in a hot country he wouldn't burn

The only time I got burned was when in SA, it was a mild and overcast day, with very light drizzle, the only 'wet' day of the holiday I had........and I didn't put my sun cream on. Went kayaking.......woke up the following morning and my whole face was blistered - took weeks to heal properly

I don't know foxinsocks, as a mother with a child with eczema I think that rather than organising a crussade against mothers who want sunscreen, or about the school policy about children bringing or not their own creams (which can certainly backfire on you), is it far easier to teach your DD to say "no thanks". However, I can understand that you are angry... though I can not help it and find it sweet of the other child to share his cream.

but Chandra - is her DD is 4yrs old it's very difficult for her to be able to learn to say no - and mean it........my DS1 is 4.5yrs old and while there's lots of things he knows to say "no" too - I doubt very much he could stand up to strong persausion..........and it wouldn't stop another child putting suncream on her DD again if they wanted to do it. IMO

DS's school have caps with the school logo on, which is great, means it matches the uniform they also are allow sunscreen in school, but only for their own use and they have to apply it themselves...

DS has allergy to bananas and can certainly say no, even when he is not yet 3 yrs old. It takes time but is worth teaching )

Chandra are you telling me that you are 100% certain that your DS could not be forced, bullied or persauded to have some banana??

Although having said that 'eating' a Banana is a much harder thing to 'make' someone do that applying suncream to them.

I'm not denying that you can't teach them to say no - I know you can - my DS knows to say no to lots of things too........BUT when he's out of my sight, and under the 'influence' of his friends I know that I can't be 100% certain that he won't do some of those things IKYWIM.

There doesn't have to be "malicious intent" for things to be serious. A child kindly giving mine a peanut could kill them! There is too much emphasis on teaching kids to share. The latest anaphylaxis campaign newsletter has questions from kids about what to do when others "think it funny to throw nuts at you", FFS!

foxinsocks my kids school ban sunscream and I find it very annoying. It is possible to buy p20 - although I only learnt about that from mumsnet, but its very expensive and we don't have any children who have a problem with skin cream. I think its ridiculous that teachers can't put suncream on children or at the very least supervise kids doing it themsleves. But if they can't do that I can buy an all day cream cream and I'd rather do that than have some other child suffer.

I can only talk from my own experience, and yes, there's no power on Earth to make him eat a banana as he has felt the consequences. Sure, you can hold his hands and legs and ask another person to force his mouth open to push the banana in but I think such scenario is highly unlikely... But that's only my child and I understand that it may be difficult in other cases, I just wanted to say that it's possible (as DS's case testify it) no need to try to contradict me. I don't lie about these things.

I probably haven't made myself very clear (always the joy of internet posting when you think to yourself that everyone will automatically know all the details!).

I'm fine with mothers who want sunscreen and with the school's policy on it (which seems v sensible) but not with the mother who got her child to take it in hidden in her pocket. I'm not overly angry just a bit annoyed really.

I also gave my dd a talking to about not letting someone put cream on her. I don't think she wanted this child to do it but it just happened. As it happens, she has an egg allergy (and had a milk allergy that she has outgrown) so she knows full well how to say no to things. But she is only 4, as I said, the youngest in the year and those who are already 5 (and will turn 6 before the end of the year) seem SO much older. Although she is very sensible, I just think she got carried away 'trying to be a big girl!' - I really wouldn't underestimate playground persuasion when it comes to little ones!

I think the difference with food v creams is that she has loads of creams put on her by me (including some sun creams) so probably doesn't automatically think 'no' whereas if someone presented her with an egg (whoever it was) she would probably run a mile!

I just wanted to say that it's possible

If you read my post I acknowledged that forcing a child to eat something is much less likely - but with a cream that a child has in their pocket it's not too difficult to put some on another child IMO

Part of the probelm with teachers putting on sunscerean is the 'no touching' rules. But also there are time constrains to take into account. Supposing it takes a minute to put on sunccrean and rub it in properly, say you get very good and it is 30 seconds. For a class of 30 that is still 15 minutes, and that doesn't even take into account that, becuaes of allergies, you should wash you hands between children!

I work in secondary schoo so this isn't an issue for me. We have a 20 minute break. Assuming that primary schools are the same, that has cut break time down to 5 minutes!

And teachers use break to prep for the next lesson. Let alone needing a cup of tea and a trip to the loo!

I realise that it must seem very, very petty that teachers don't put on suncrean, but the logistics for a primary class of 30 would be hellish.

Hope the episode doesn't repeat itself then. How is she feeling today?

Tatt, it does make me feel terrible for those who have children with anaphylactic nut allergies.

Throwing nuts at them FFS how horrible.

chandra you're lucky. I know that I had to constantly reinforce the messages about the dangers. I can now rely on mine to avoid nuts but it took a long time. Also when it comes to hand washing to avoid the cross contamination risk they still aren't reliable

OK, then is not possible... what should we do then? I'm not quite sure yet if I would like DS's school to ban creams at school (because he needs to have his applied at least three times a day). Any suggestions??

hmb primary teachers usually have classroom assistants so they wouldn't be doing the class alone. They could even ask for volunteers as they do for swimming lessons. They only need to wash hands when there is a child with a problem - not the case in most classes. As for a no touching rule when it comes to a serious health issue they have their priorities wrong.

maybe schools could actually point out to parents where they can get the all day sunscreen. Round here there is only one place I know of (superdrug) and I'd never have known what to look for but for mumsnet.

but tatt - even using the classroom assisants it would still take a huge chunk out of breaktimes!!

so they just do it at lunchtime, better than nothing.