To think that letting a child get bad sunburn is child abuse?

[laura032004]

Because if you let them burn themselves with say boiling water, eyebrows would be raised. I hate to see kids on the beach (abroad) with bright red shoulders and faces. It's easy enough to get sunsuits and suncream these days, so why don't people use them properly?

I agree with you laura. Even though our DS tans easily we have the old faithfull Factor 40 and 50 packed in our suitcase ready for Greece in June. We drive him mad with it. Wandering around behind him with the spray bottle

Carelessness definitely, child abuse, no.

OK then, child neglect? I'm talking under 7's or so. Young enough to need their suncream applying for them.

Neglect rather than abuse probably, but yes, it is so easy to get factor 50 sunblock, hats, sunsuits etc these days. Really annoys me when people look at me like I'm Mrs Paranoid when I smother DD (3) in sunblock and insist on a hat.

Neglect, maybe, particularly if it happens repeatedly. Abuse, no.

Wikipedia: Child abuse is the physical, emotional or sexual abuse or neglect of children.

So it's physical neglect?

I'm with Callisto - mine are on the beach early or late in the day, smothered in suncream with sunsuits and hats. Often they are the only kids on the beach (Cyprus usually) like this. Even on a hotel holiday in Turkey, (all Brits), there were only a handful of other kids similarly dressed.

My daughter got badly sunburnt once in America. I misjudged the strength of the sun. It was my fault, and I still feel guilty about it 6 years later, But it was not child abuse - that's just silly.

Yes YABU. You have no idea why kids on the beach have bright red shoulders and faces. Their parents may think they have put sunscreen on and haven't; they may think they put a high enough factor on and haven't; or they may have put it on and missed the bits that have got burned by accident. Or they may simply be very stupid.

Throwing around accusations of abuse willy nilly about people who you know nothing about is lazy imo and I'm getting a bit tired of seeing this sort of one-upmanship on Mumsnet. What purpose does it serve except to invite people to come and nod and say how awful other parents are and how good we all are?

Yes of course everyone should use the correct factor all the time and make their kids wear the hats and ensure that every single bit that can get burnt, gets covered in the Factor 50. But if they don't, it's unlikely to be because they are abusers and to categorise every mistake parents make as abuse, is really distasteful and unpleasant, imo.

We managed to let DD's face burn once when she was one. We were on a beach in Normandy on a windy day and she was asleep in her buggy with sunscreen on and we wrongly thought she was out of the sun and misjudged the effect of the sun because of the wind. It really didn't seem that sunny. Obviously we have been ultra careful ever since but the damage is done.

DD was also wearing a sun hat but because asleep her head was tilted back.

tbh I think it is neglect. I wouldn't go so far as to say abuse but it is neglect. Fair enough if you misjudge the strength of the sun and they get a bit burnt but those who don't even bother to apply suncream or protective clothing are neglecting their duties as a parent.

There is a big difference between saying that parents who don't bother with sun screen or protective clothing are neglectful and that parents whose children get sunburnt are abusive. The first judgement is balanced and probably correct. The second is hysterical and stupid.

I wouldn't call it 'abuse', but I do wonder why some people don't take sunburn seriously.

It's probably not abuse (which is intentional harm), it's negligence (accidental harm including lack of reasonable foresight).

This is a very judgy thread title.

Do you read the Daily Mail?

It isn't child abuse.
It is irresponsible to let them on the beach without any sun protection though.

My dd gets burnt really easily, When she was a baby I would smoother her with factor 50 but she needed it applying more frequently than was recommended as she was so fair, which meant that she did get burnt.

When she was at infants we were allowed to send sunscreen in, but as they didn't know her and her skins quirks she wasn't allowed to put it on every break and got burnt there.

I didn't see it as abuse, just that they didn't realise that she needed it on more regularly than some and it was a mistake that I had amde earlier in her life.

well then how would I fit in with 5 kiddies, all with sunscreen on (and me for that matter too).....all cream is sunfactor 35+, and yet I burn, DS1 burns, none of the others do!!!(they in fact go brown like DH)

I even put sunblock on me and DS1 at the beginning of the summer.......we still burn.

is that abuse??? I hope to god it isn't and that people are not judging me.

I think you are being rather presumptuous Laura46876546547.

Perhaps the children were red because they had been smacked.

dd1 is allergic to most suncreams. which is a PITA. fortunatly now she is older i can get her to cover up more and wear a hat, was a nightmare when she was younger, our GP's advice was to keep her out of the sun. which was pretty hard to do. i can find a suncream to work by trial and error, but after a short while of use she has allergic reactions to it and its like the cream is burning her. she will tear at her skin and come up in big welts.

there have been a couple of occasions when she has been a bit red, not burnt and peeling mind you, but a bit redder than i liked. but WTF could i do?

reminds me, need to order new sunsuit for her, not even sure they do her size now.

so yes YABU!

There are 2 schools of thought on this one, if you read Veronika Robinson in the Mother magazine she never puts sun block on her DDs-she firmly believes that sun is good for you and the sun screens cause skin cancer.