To expect to be able to leave dry skin cream at school for my daughters hands?

[BollyGood]

I don't usually post in here but am so surprised by school this morning. My daughters hands sometimes get very sore and dry in the winter,I use Oilatum cream for her to soothe it. The soap at school really irritates her poor hands too. Usually she has a little tin of Vaseline lip balm to put on it in her book bag but this week as its been so cold the Vaseline didn't help.

Instead of hiding the oilatum in her bag,I took it to the office with her name and class on asked if her hands were cracking and painful could she come and put her cream on, she can do it herself. Same as with the sun cream policy. But no apparently not. It has to be prescribed cream with the child's prescription sticker on it. We have had it prescribed and do for the baby but I buy it when haven't had time or been able to get a docs appointment and it lasts forever. Dd's soreness is seasonal so sometimes she only needs to out the cream on for a few days and we do not need to bother the doctor. Haven't had a bottle with her name on for ages.

I have now had to ring for an appointment which I couldn't get but the receptionist kindly offered to see if she could get another presciption for dd with her name on even though we have just had a big bottle for the baby and do not need it. I know schools have policies but honestly what's the difference between a day or two of hand cream to stop a little one feeling distressed and sore and sun cream which is not prescribed? I didn't need to call the docs or make an extra trip for cream I don't need and dd could not have anything on her hands today as they wouldn't let me leave the cream nor would the school let her stay in at playtime( she does wear thick gloves but still seems to happen)so when her hands are sore no-one can help her.

I have even got the lovely teaching assistant in trouble who helped her put Vaseline on yesterday as I said dd was so upset it was hurting and she couldn't manage, the secretary said ' oh we have Vaseline in school do we?' So now the helper will be asked why she helped my child who shouldn't have had Vaseline. I feel terrible! I will not have this problem again as will pick up the new bottle tomorrow, but seriously WIBU? Has the world of school gone mad??? You don't always need a prescription for something do you? And if I signed a form which said I am happy for my daughter to use her cream surely that's ok? If she had a reaction it would be my responsibility and she still could react even if it was prescribed. I know it isn't the secretary's fault and I did ask to see the head or deputy head but they are both out today and tomorrow. Massive post over cream sorry! When dd1 was at primary school 16 years ago life was so much easier for these things. Go on tell me I am naive and should have known better...

Yanbu at all, common sense gone ou te window. Catching are you do real! The op sighted has a medcal condition which reures te application of cream. I is so hard to get a doctors appoinmentwt is th poor child meant to do suffer . I suffered from severe eczema at school so much so I had to be sent home and dad doing bandage treatment on me. Once my mum forget my cream and my legs were so sure cracked and weeping its no joke.

May I just add catch further to your comment about posters who say YABU and everyone turns on them- that's just not true. You were very patronising up thread, trying to incite a reaction from me which you did not get, you did this twice. I on the other hand admitted yes the school policy said this and that and I am ignorant to certain changes in school policies over the years. So could you perhaps have expressed yourself in a more polite manner? Yes it's a public forum, yes I asked the question blah blah blah but don't feel sorry for yourself if you use a patronising and sarcastic manner. Expect a few biscuits lobbed your way and eat them.

Apparently it is now frowned on to rake your child to a doctor if they are in pain.

Sorry, really irrelevant post now, but that really did make me giggle. It's like scooby doo took over the keyboard for a second.

Many people like us have battled eczema for years. E45 now does a hydro cortisone cream and there r many creams available without prescription that work a million times better than the crap drs prescribe that make it worse. The only time we need to see a dr now is if it gets infected. We would live Down the drs and never make it to school if the means to treat eczema were not available over the counter as they r! It's a waste of an appointment and resources to go asking for prescriptions all the time when we can just go to boots ourselves.

fakebook

Yes exactly wheresmycaffeinedrip ( love your name haha) oh well learnt my lesson for next year, silly me for thinking it would be ok. School bag it is!

It's awful where's my caffeine drip, prescriptions are so expensive even the gp tells me I may as well buy the omaliants over the counter and I only go to gp if it ecomes infected. Having eczema does not mean you get free prescriptions. Those who are saying Yabu do not know how painful eczema can be and if eft to go dry is so painful it feels like sandpaper

catchafallingstar the op has already got cream that works. It just needs to be applied enough, if it does not work I am sure she will go to the GP. We are not there to govern your silly school policies.

Likewise if a child had a basic headache I would hope a parent has enough sense to try paracetamol or similar and not visit the Drs how ridiculous and waste of a professionals time. I also hope parents would self treat vomiting and diarrhoea common sense seems to have gone

I got given that Trimovate cream for a fungal infection, dont even bloody work.

The stuff I use for dd is not available on prescription so I can either waste a drs time and nhs money on stuff that doesn't work or spend my money on something that actually helps. A schools need for a label wouldn't feature at all in the decision. And yes thru dd I can see just how miserable it can be and any policy preventing a child from using a cream in break times to stop them from being sore is beyond a joke. It's only a big deal as they have made it one and I wouldn't hesitate to put it in her bag!! I'd probably put some soap in too in fact

Piglet that's right it's horrible and dd only has what I would class as a seasonal skin problem. But it does get incredibly painful at times. I just don't understand the reasoning behind having to have the sticker with the prescription on it. I know it is free for children but we don't NEED to see a doctor all the time. As it is they have just called and our doctor is away until next week. There is a locum but rather than issue a repeat prescription he wants us to come in for an appointment incase dd needs something different. The appointment is available thrursday at 4.10 very nice of him to be so thorough and careful but he will end up prescribing the same thing, I know as this has happened before! So dd now has to go three days without being able to use the cream at school. By Friday morning it may well have cleared up. It's more to ease the discomfort at the time she needs the cream. We have tried so many in the past and oilatum works!!!! As you are probably lurking catch I will say this for you- yes I should have read the policy years ago and then I would have gone to the doctors sooner and had the relevant label. But as it only occurs yearly and not entirely sure if it will be back each year it's just one of those things. And I already have the CREAM!!! So infuriating and ridiculous.

Our school does not demand items are prescribed, so this is not a blanket policy OP. A form has to be filled in for any item, but it can be over the counter. DS1 had hideous hay fever last spring for the first time (enormous rapeseed field next to school - yippee! Looks pretty in bloom, but poor DS1, he has another 6 springs there!). He had to take a combination of 4 different meds (eye drops, nose spray, medicine) at the office, and 2 of them were non-prescription. Our receptionists are beyond grumpy, but they did this without question, for which I was v grateful. YANBU.

Cakecrumb thanks. I am actually feeling as though I am not mad now nor ignorant it is daft to not be able to help dd. am going to speak to the head when she is back because its a seasonal thing, what if our cream had run out from last year and I hadn't bought anymore or the baby didn't have her prescription? Dd's would have flared up this week I still wouldn't have been able to get the prescription until thurs.

Absolutely ridiculous policy.

We had similar recently when DS2 had an accident playing rugby at school. He broke and dislocated his shoulder, and when I rang to report the extent of his injuries I was told that all painkillers brought into school had to be prescribed! As if I am going to ask the GP to prescribe Paracetomol when they are 16p for 32 FFS. So DS(16) takes the 2 Paracetomol in his inside blazer pocket (which is zipped closed) and takes them at lunchtime.

Oh honestly landofsoapandglory!

Can't schools write into their policies 'at the discretion of Head 'or whatever.

I missed if you said how old the child is? Can you ask for the cream to be dispensed in a more appropriate packaging than those huge bumper-size pump bottles - a tube maybe. Or go and choose something from Boots since similar creams are available without a prescription. Then your DD keeps it in her bag or pocket, school don't need to know or care. And it lets the Head off the hook who probably does, to be fair, have a lot of other thing to do.

We have about half a dozen tubes of E45 around the house for taking to places.

DS gets very sore lips and I send him in with little tins of Vaseline but they are very fiddly to open. I hadn't thought for a second about bothering the school office about his "medication".

YANBU and its not unreasonable to expect someone to help your DD. I do feel for your dd, my hands crack and even bleed if i dont use a specific emolient soap and hand cream, its not nice. Hope you get it sorted! Schools are ridiculous! My DS nursery couldnt give him his penecillin because i hadnt written down its full 25 letter name on the sheet!

I think it's been well established that you ANBU OP.

As a TA i have many a time been responsible for overseeing a child taking their dose of that banana flavoured AB, or non prescription cough syrup, ect, and been responsible for it's storage as well. (staff room fridge in the case of ABs!)

Just to say - in our local primary we do discourage the younger children from keeping lotions and potions in their bags. We like to know who's got what and where and who it's meant to be going onto or into! Kids share stuff ALLOT, especially girls, (even if the parents don't think they do )

IME the majority of teachers in our primary would prefer the cream kept in 'teachers drawer', or shelf. A form signed by the parent, kept in the office - fine. Yes to non prescription med's, and yes to helping the child with them. I think your school is being OTT.

The only thing we stipulate is that we wont be responsible for forcing the child to take the medication during school hours if the child doesn't like it! :)

I don't know what the problem is really osmiornica, it more the case that if they let dd have non prescription cream then others will follow suit as one poster pointed out. I do understand this but it should be at their discretion surely?

I would do this instead of complaining about school policies and why they should be changed for 'my' child because they were a special case.

No they should be changed because they do not fall in line with ofstead policy and all schools are surposed to do so.

Op YANBU

And I think its quite wrong that the school is advocating running off for a unnessacery doctors appointment and a unnessacery prescription as well as any unnessacery time off school that happens as a result of this. When we are all being told how cash strapped the NHS is. Its a great way to give children the attitude that the slightest little thing requires drama time off and a doctor.

When dd1 was in year 1, she got a thing about going to the toilet-it could be 2-3 times an hour or more. Then she carefully washed her hands-and they very quickly became sore and cracked. Her form teacher suggested she had a small pot of cream to put on after washing her hands. It lived in the teacher's desk and she was allowed to go and put it on every time-even when the rest of the form were sitting on the carpet. Lovely teacher!

Fluffy, that is the sensible approach! And yes children do share things you are right. I just thought I would be open and honest about the cream. I expect there are lots of things in children's bags which shouldn't be there. Another parent spoke to me earlier she said in foundation year( same school)two years ago they were allowed to sign a consent form for their child to put hand cream on during winter for the same reason. It wasn't prescription cream. The policy was been rewritten but as i understand it isnt any different so someone allowed it. What's the difference between cream for the summer- non prescription sun cream and cream for the winter it's still protecting against the elements. Not all children will need the hand cream so it's still going to be less cream at school than in spring or summer. I will put this to the head later.

Ds's primary is pretty accommodating about creams, medicines etc. and we just have to sign a form (no prescription necessary). However, I once got into "trouble" for sending homeopathic throat pills in in DS's pocket. They were the "suck as and when necessary" variety (and are magic for any kind of throat thing) and as there's no limit to how many or when, I assumed they'd be ok for him to keep in his pocket so he didn't have to go down 3 flights of stairs to the office every time he felt a bit sore. He's 10 and I thought he could manage this. However, teacher rightly pointed out that they could have dropped out of his pocket and been picked up by a five year old somewhere around school. They wouldn't know what they were and even if they may come to no harm, it could give someone a fright wondering what they had taken. It hadn't occurred to me, obviously. Policies are there for safety of all children in school - not just yours - but it seems like your DD's school need to rethink their systems for making sure your child's, albeit seasonal, skin problem is properly managed. I would have thought that in the case of hand cream, leaving it with her teacher ought to be feasible. Presumably if it doesn't contain steroids or similar then it should be safe enough to have around the classroom.