to wish that parents would send their children with water bottles etc

[katydid02]

Children are hot and thirsty with this lovely weather and yet parents are sending them to school with no water bottles, no sun hats and without suncream. 2/30 had a sunhat today and only about 10 had water bottles.

[JumpingJacks]

Excuse typos

[juule]

I agree with whois.

I can't remember having bottles of water when I was at school. It could be I've a bad memory but I don't think so.
With my older children there was never the fuss about water/hats/suncream at school that there seems to be now.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing to be aware and take bottled water or hats but I don't think it's the end of the world if they don't.

[HeySoulSister]

jumping we aren't just talking about cutesy little primary kids ya know! try getting a teen to keep a 'sunhat' on!

and water should be consumed all year round,not just when it gets a bit hotter

[HeySoulSister]

oh,and perspective required.....100's die during extra cold weather too....its scaremongering. you can twist statistics to fit your cause

[juule]

I would also like to know where the reports of 100s dead is.

[WipsGlitter]

phantom where have you read there are "100s dead"?? Seriously, we get enough fluid through other sources.

[BellaVita]

I agree with HSS. Teens will not wear sunhats.

[phantomnamechanger]

the 100s dead relates to todays news - the massive increase in deaths from heart attack and breathing problems - caused by the heat

babies and the elderly are especially vulnerable to heat exhaustion and heatstroke

too many people are playing down the risks and living it up.

[HeySoulSister]

living it up??

[ontheotherside]

"50p for 2 bottles of water in Wilkinsons so there is no excuse for that."

This is soooo wrong! Environmentalism, nanny state, poverty - it's all in that one sentence!

Bottles of water in schools get endlessly fussed with and spilt over other kids' work, etc. Wear a hat, play in the shade, wear sunscreen and drink from water fountain at breaks/lunch is perfectly adequate in even the hottest summer. Water bottles (refillable, non-plastic) are only necessary on trips and for sport, surely?

[IsabelleRinging]

It's nice for children to have some water on a hot day like today, but surely they had a drink before school and will have another at lunch time, only 3 hours. They may feel thirsty without a drink but are hardly going to drop dead in 3 hours!

100s dead???? Where????

[Nicknamegrief]

I make my lunch and fill a bottle of water for them. 2 out of the last 4 days one, or another of my children has not taken the bottle of water to school and discover that when I return home from the school run.

I am not irresponsible but I have children who daydream and little ones.

Thankfully their school gives them drinks throughout the day and hopefully are kind enough not to judge me.

My kids go to school with sun cream but I know my second child washes it off as soon as he can! It may well be waterproof resistant but it does come off at some point. What do you suggest I do about that?

[CorrieDale]

We have to send the children in ready creamed. I generally remember hats. They are sent in with water bottles but have very limited opportunities to fill them and if they forget to do it at playtime then they've had it!

[WipsGlitter]

Sorry. You are scaremongering.

[phantomnamechanger]

yes, of course 100s die in extreme cold spells too - but again, many are preventable - don't go out and get pissed and fall on the way home without a coat on, don't drive too fast in icy/blizzard conditions, don't go out unnecessarily in your car in deep snow and get stranded alone all night with no phone/hot drink/blanket. Don't ramp up the heating and neglect to get your boiler serviced and checked for carbon monoxide.

I am not unsympathetic to anyone who has suffered such a tragedy, just saying they may have lacked common sense and pooh poohed all the advice, same as some people on here seem to be doing about the dangers of hot weather. This is not "just summer" it is already the longest official heatwave for 7 years and not set to cool down for a while yet.

[HeySoulSister]

well aol are reporting it on their homepage....but reading it, it all seems a little flimsy....extra deaths by drowning....breathing difficulties and those with pre-existing illnesses....none mentioned dying of lack of 'stuff' lugged into school

[juule]

Have you got a link to the 100s dead?
And how many children at school, without suncream, hats or water bottles, are among them? (which was what this thread was about)

[juule]

x-posted

[mrsravelstein]

my dc don't wear sunhats, they get boiling hot in them. and yet somehow they've made it to 12, 5 and 3 without adverse effects. (in fact, i've made it to 40 despite never wearing a sun hat, ever)

[phantomnamechanger]

They may feel thirsty without a drink but are hardly going to drop dead in 3 hours! this is not just about feeling thirsty, it is about the cells in the body lacking the water they need, being unable to produce sweat to cool down, and being unable to control your internal temperature

actually, if you read the NHS symptoms for heatstroke and heat exhaustion, they can come on very quickly and be very very serious within a short time - children losing consciousness, organ failure etc

[HeySoulSister]

how did we survive the summers of the 70's when we had droughts and the water was TURNED OFF???

no suncream,hats,water bottles,air conditioning or bubble wrap back then!

[phantomnamechanger]

Obviously there are many on this thread happy to enjoy the sun and ignore some of the risks, and medical advice.

I personally feel that any school who refuse to allow children to take hats into school are in breach of their responsibility just as much as those who insist on them wearing blazers in hot weather or don't allow coats in winter.

And no, of course I was not refereeing to 100s of kids dying from lack of water at school - the convo had moved onto other areas since the OP

[phantomnamechanger]

Actually,we are still reaping the harvest of skin cancers developed in those who were children of the 60s & 70s. I am one. Fair skinned and frequently burned as a child - I consider myself to be at a high risk of developing skin cancer in later life. So I make damn sure I protect my kids now. We know more now than we did then. We also did not have car seats and seatbelts back then - and death rates were much greater.

[Heartbrokenmum73]

Yes, my kids school keep telling us to send in water bottles, which they can refill as necessary at the water fountains around school. Except, my son in Year 3 has not had a working water fountain (for Year 3 boys) the entire academic year, and they get shouted at if they use any other water fountain.

They get shouted at if their hats aren't the school hat and one boy had his non-school hat removed earlier this week (my friend's son) and left to play without one - he got sunstroke!

And DD is in Y6 and they spent two full afternoon's last week out on the playing field playing rounders - during the hottest part of the day. She was exhausted and extremely thirsty - they weren't allowed to take their water bottles out with them.

Good to see school are keeping up their side of H&S, eh?

[ReindeerBollocks]

We have the opposite problem in our nursery they wont allow suncream as the nursery staff can't apply it. Sunhats get taken off on arrival and they won't let the children take water bottles as they have a fountain.

Really annoys me as DD then plays out in the sun all
afternoon with litte protection.

DS has water all day but similar rules apply re suncream and hats in his school too.