DS came home from nursery sunburnt to f**k. AIBU?

[MamaBear89]

Hi there. Long time lurker, first time poster.
Yesterday, my son went to nursery. I dropped him off around 8am and went to pick him up at 5:30 as usual.
When I went to pick him up I immediately noticed he was heavily sunburned.
I coat him in factor 50 when I dress him in the morning, and (as per the nursery's rules) I send my son in with a sun hat and a bottle of sun lotion.
The woman working at the time said "oh, I don't know how he got that burned as it's been really cloudy, and so we haven't bothered applying lotion".
Not only that, but for the final hour/90 minutes of the nursery day, during which my son was inside, the nursery worker admitted that they had "watched his burn get worse and worse". Obviously, as with any burn, sunburn will continue to burn and needs immediate cooling and treatment, but this was not given.
My son was so severely burned that he's had a raging fever for the last 24 hours, is in pain with his burns, and is suffering from sunstroke. He's miserable and cuddly and very grumpy, which is understandable.
I'm absolutely livid. My son loves nursery, though, and is due to stay there until he starts nursery at the local primary in September. It would break his heart if I just pulled him out until September, so I don't want to just pull him out and be done with them, but I'm absolutely livid at the sheer negligence they've shown.

My intention is to inform the nursery that I'll be making a complaint to the LEA and then following through with this.

AIBU by being so angry? Or would you agree it's justified?
And AIBU by taking the complaint to higher authorities, or should I just let the nursery deal with it?

Any input would be greatly appreciated

I'd go fucking nuts. Ignore the ridiculous comments about it being good for children to burn. What utter tripe.

I would be absolutely fucking apoplectic and heads would be rolling.

Pull him out and make sure you complain to everyone and anyone.

If be so upset if my LO came back like that. X

frank
Serious sunburn blisters like buggery, I know I've had it, I'm not dead and I don't have skin cancer and the spot that was badly burned very rarely now burns...

Riiiiight....so you got sunburnt and didn't get skin cancer, your empirical study of one participant(yourself) proves what exactly?

And maybe you won't know you've got skin cancer until many decades down the line. Hence why it is now so common among the sun seekers of the 70s who would have used little or no sunscreen - baby oil anyone?

Actually Frank you are talking bollocks (not wishing to further derail the thread, but)

Cancer (the most serious sort) is often attributable to sudden, harsh sun exposure and especially that received in early childhood.

There are certain people who are genetically predisposed to develop it, and others who will be more fortunate.

Gradual exposure, if exposure is to happen, is the ideal. A sudden and severe exposure such as this is very far from ideal.

Vitamin D is also thought to be important and there is a great deal of research being done on this.

You sound very uneducated.

That ought to say skin cancer, of course.

Proves that a lot of modern parents have hysterical, smothering, over protective neurotic responses when it comes to their children..
Why not send children to school in a fire suit and bathe them in a life jacket, that way you'll definitely know they'll be safe...

Complain by all means but it'll be gone by the end of next week...
And no it wasn't an empirical study of one, and yes the experience was very painful including hallucinations and severe blistering, nothing like a bit of redness on his arms, but be careful with the Calpol though he might have liver failure after a spoonful..

Frank - you're tone is so aggressive. I'd hazard a guess that it has had a permanent effect, on your attitude.

Oh frank come off it. I suppose famine isn't an issue because I just had my dinner, and global warming is a myth because I felt cold today?

Frank- not protecting children from the sun is neglect. End of.

Cancer is a man made first world disease

Possibly the stupidest comment I have seen this year.

I'm utterly shocked that a child could burn so badly if they have been coated in factor 50. Were the children out in the sun all day?

Have you spoken to other parents at the nursery - presumably your son isn't the only one affected?

I'd like to send Frank to meet the hundreds of albino skin cancer patients all over Africa. Sunscreen is far beyond their means but at least they know these days to wear long sleeves and trousers. It's very sad.

This has reminded me to double check that nursery is applying 15 mins before going out for my suncream refuser, and to make sure they are applying properly to my other DC who is not as white (but I think they will be as the families are very multi-ethnic)

This is utterly appalling, I'm glad to hear you're writing stern letters, they cannot be allowed to get away with this.

My DDs nursery puts suncream on at least twice a day (well recorded too) and they do not go out at the hottest points of the day.

I've got an empirical study of two for you. My sister and I both burnt badly as children (yes, blistering, hallucination, dehydration, subsequent UTIs, the whole sunstroke shebang, our skin was coming off in chunks). It was our first holiday in a very hot climate and my poor mum underestimated the SPF/coverup we needed, plus we kept running away from her attempts at reapplication back to the pool.

As a result we both have permanent skin damage and uneven pigmentation, as well as several dodgy moles apiece which are monitored. We are at high risk of developing skin cancer in future.

Ironically we've both recently been diagnosed with vitamin d deficiency, and resultant osteomalacia and are on high doses of supplements.

We both now have to balance safe sun exposure for ourselves and children, to maintain vitamin d levels, with extreme caution about sunburn, as children are fair skinned like us.

Those pictures are not the results of safe sun exposure, they're the result of sheer fucking negligence. Preventing pain and suffering and increased cancer risk isn't 'hysteria', it's sensible. If I collected my child from paid childcare in that state I would have to held down at all four corners to stop me tearing the nursery staff limb from limb.

It proves nothing Frank the OP and the majority of parents are not hysterical, smothering or over protective but simply wishing to protect our children from getting burned by the sun and ending up with such serious sun burn that they are in pain for days. You are being ridiculous.

YANBU.

This is serious neglect. I'd be furious and take it as high as it can go, Indeed my initial complaint (detailing both the lack of prevention, and the lack of first aid once it became apparent he was burning), accompanied by photos, would be copied to the appropriate monitoring group (Care Commission?).

This would never happen at our nursery. It's been 22deg here with clear skies, proper burning weather. My son has been out to play at the nursery, but he was been covered in so much suncream he has come home looking like a ghost and tells me he has been made to wear his hat all day.

i don't think it can be classed as proper neglect but it should be reported to the nursery and they can change their policies to reflect it.

can the kids not put it on themselves?

Jesus Christ, frank, where did you get your medical degree? Or do you take a dim view of such newfangled nonsense?

Christ, I would be fucking fuming.

These are very young children and the nursery is paid a lot of money for supposedly trained staff to look after them at a ratio of 3 to 1.

It is neglectful of them to not apply any suncream in 10 hours when they were mostly outside!!!

Op I would be livid your poor son. Hope he is feeling better, cool baths helped when I burnt my feet last year.