Nursery put Henna on my child.

[Pencilcase123]

When my DH picked up our DD (4) from nursery one of the staff said she had drawn DDs initials in Henna on Dds hand because Dd insisted. DH did not complain.

I am baffled as to why the nursery would have Henna out in the first place. It is brown Henna and I don’t think it is particularly dangerous but I am quite miffed that nursery staff thought it was ok to give my 4 year old a temporary tattoo. Would you complain about this?

Definitely shouldn’t have done this for two reasons, the potential for a reaction and the religious connections with it being Eid. Not sure many people would be happy if a kid returned from nursery with an ash cross on their forhead at the start of lent

No but they do learn ‘British values’ and my son’s nursery celebrate loads of different religious festivals including of course Christianity before anyone makes assumptions.
I am not making assumptions really, for me all religions are similar.
Why I am asking - I was asked last year whether I can prepare something for the "diversity day" relevant to what they thought my and my child's religion should be (a branch of Christianity quite exotic in the UK). I explained that I am an atheist and whether I can prepare something about critical thinking instead - can do a teapot exhibit or something like this. The nursery manager was horrified at the idea and said - "well, the parents will really complain about this, we'll still do a short show and tell anout Christianity X then if you don't mind". I let it go then but now, thinking of it, I am more and more uneasy and think I should have done something.

Meh

@PaulHollywoodsSexGut The nursery is one of those chains. I have looked back at the May newsletter and can’t find any reference. Was it in the June Newsletter which I seem to be missing?

What did the police say?

Perhaps some instances of people being put in hospital as.a result of henna use could be supplied? There’s a hell of a lot of catastrophising on this thread.

Have you signed a general form for face paints etc? I'm pretty sure we had one for nursery rather than a specific form each time.

probably to do with Eid. it's a brown henna wich will come off after a couple if days.

I am sometimes really puzzled what peoe get worked up about.

people

I'm not aware of any hospitalisations due to Henna. Can you list the ingredients? Can you be sure that no child in that class has an Ana allergy to any of those ingredients.
It was not the nursery's decision to make. They should've gotten consent.

cross on their forhead at the start of lent

eh? henna tattoo wasn't on the face though, was it?

Consent should have been asked for so an email to the owners would be appropriate. They need to be aware of the potential risks if they aren't already and adjust their policy. But if your DD has suffered no ill effects I wouldn't get stroppy about it.

I would just note that you would want to consent in future - that your dd can’t insist, because she is not the parent.

I always asked my dds to refuse henna, was concerned about black henna.

Totally off topic but why do people keep commenting with the phrase "I'd find it hard to get worked up about this" etc. It's annoying me, nobody ever says this in real life, bloody mumsnet

I’d have refused permission as my child’s skin reacts to certain products, and I’d object to them having something applied that didn’t immediately wash off.

I’d start with a query to the nursery about consent/implied consent and take it from there. There’s plenty of ways to approach this in between ignoring it completely and all guns blazing!

It usually wouldn't bother me but if there was a good reason I wanted his hands clear - e.g. we have a family professional photo session booked the next day I'd be annoyed that they hadn't asked.

Agree they should have gotten consent. I wouldn’t be happy either but we’ve lots of allergies so are always careful. They could have used brown pen which would have washed off, no need to be using Henna. We’ve allergies to plasters and glue (no face paint glitter for us when DD was small, no false eye lashes now!) so we have to be careful. People can be allergic to anything.

Sounds like natural henna was used and reactions are very rare to this.

You can get henna off with toothpaste, olive oil and if that doesn't work then a gentle salt rub.
Black henna can cause skin irritation because of the PPD, which is also found in hair dyes by the way. I think black henna is illegal anyway because of the PPD. It's ok in hair dye because its give clear instructions on how to use it.
I found all this out after I had a black henna tattoo on my foot whilst on holiday abroad and of course I reacted badly to it. I didn't react to the proper henna though so I use that as i love mehndi.

Reactions may be rare but as the lovely man at the specialist face paint/stage make up company pointed out to me, anyone can be allergic top anything which is why patch testing should be done. When I ran kids drama classes I wrote to all parents if we were plannng on using face paint and (with consent) did patch testing at least a week in advance.

Yuck. Imagine if the shoe was on the other foot.

Pick your battles

pick your battles

What a strange phrase to attach to children's safety.
Nobody is saying to go in screaming like a banshee. But they should definitely be notified that they need better due diligence.

People on about the "religious aspect" of it are beyond ridiculous.
Kids make diwali candles, Christmas cards, Easter bonnets and learn about all sorts of religions throughout the year.
They learn about ALL religions but of course as soon as anything to do with Islam is mentioned then it's a problem
Getting wound up over henna being applied without consent is understandable.
The fact it's to do with a religious occasion (Which by the way henna is used in ALL different cultures) is total rubbish, unless you take your child out of all the other ones throughout the year.

@Aquilla, what does that even mean? What shoe on what other foot?