Is this neglect?

[Marii97]

I was with my friend today and has a nearly 3 year old in nursery. The nursery rang and said they don’t have any sun cream in for her, can they use nursery sun cream? She told them no, she doesn’t need it. Please don’t apply any. She then told me afterwards she doesn’t like to use sun cream. I came with her to pick up her DD after we had done shopping and all her arms and under her eyes/cheeks were burnt and already peeling and looked swollen under her eyes.

If her skin is peeling then surely that’s not from today, that’s from a previous day? I would be contacting SS so fast.

From the NHS website:

www.nhs.uk/baby/first-aid-and-safety/safety/safety-in-the-sun/

• Babies under 6 months old should be kept out of direct sunlight. Older babies should also be kept out of the sun as much as possible, particularly in the summer and between 11am and 3pm, when the sun is at its strongest.
• If you go out when it's hot, attach a parasol or sunshade to your baby's pushchair to keep them out of direct sunlight.

So I would have no problem with the parent saying “she’s a toddler, no suncream, just do not let her out in the sun”.

Sunscreen isn’t magic unfortunately - I’ve been sunburnt wearing factor 50 many times (in the UK, just out and about at the wrong time of day). I try to stay out of the sun instead now. I’d be unhappy if I gave those instructions to nursery and they ignored me.

Not providing a sunhat to a small child is pretty negligent of the mother parents/carers

Could have been dad that dropped off 🤷‍♀️

It sounds like sunburn happened over the weekend if its peeling. So maybe not the nursery’s fault.

The nursery should as standard make them sign a form when they enroll that they are allowed to apply sunscreen

This is exactly what I was going to say. I have only ever peeled once and it was 4 days after the burn. So likely she's peeling from the weekend or last week. People are very quick to jump on the nursery though.

This is one of the most depressing threads I’ve read in a long time. Poor child. Your friend is so misguided. Our education system needs to get better at helping people assess health claims, better understand risk and think critically.

Proven by whom?

I burnt very badly when I was 10. Basically on down to bad parenting which I won’t go into here. It was awful, I was in pain for days, peeling skin. No pain relief offered.
Your friend is a crap parent and the nursery is crap. I would be reporting them both.

It’s no surprise there is a direct correlation with conspiracy theories being picked up by the algorithms, served to millions more people on SM, and the increase in ‘SC gives you cancer’ nonsense.

Do you have skin that burns very easily? I do and famously got burned on my shoulders under a parasol, wearing a cotton shirt and slathered in factor 50 suncream.

My mum didn't believe in suncream either in the 1960s/70s but I had to have a basal cell carcinoma removed from my face in my 50s.

I don’t know a single nursery who would allow a child outside without suncream on a sunny day.

There is not a single scrap of evidence that suncreams cause cancer.

There is an abundance of evidence that exposure to UV from the sun causes cancer.

My DS wouldn't wear suncream for a couple of years so he wore long sleeved tops, long trousers and a hat that covered the back of his neck. And UV suits for swimming/beach. It is neglect, yes, sunburn is painful and can be dangerous.

Proven?

State your references and facts else you are very much contributing TO cancer not solving it.

Scientific debate - I’m all for that. Regurgitating absolute BS people read on SM should be called out for what it is.

Have you heard the recent BBC podcast on cancer conspiracy where a young woman died from treatable lung cancer due to a nutcase mother whose conspiracies also started with sun cream.

What is the procedure at the nursery. At the one my kids attended (but we are going back 20+ years) parents were asked to apply it at home and they would reapply during the day. The nursery my kids attended had a big outdoors ethos and they would spend all their time outside in hot weather.

Could it be that the mum had no communicated her "no suncream" policy properly and the nursery were under the impression that it had been applied at home and it was only when they went to reapply it that they realised there wasn't any.

Our pre school don't allow children out unless have suncream on

Have you got a peer reviewed resource that shows this?

The nursery room is downstair and is free flow so they can go inside and out when they please. Also my friend DD is strawberry blonde and very fair.

She and the nursery have just doubled that poor child's chances of getting melanoma

Link

Toddlers can't be left to go in and out as they please, that's irresponsible and ridiculous.

Ah it’s the new think on social media
saw a video of someone putting SPF on her husbands back and all the comments were
”you’ll get the life insurance”
”how to get skin cancer 101”
”the spf will kill him”

It’s not just suncream.

A combination of factors has lead to an all time low level of public trust in science, conventional medicine and huge increase in conspiracy theories from social media. In part driven by algorithms as well as those messages just being amplified by the easy reach of those platforms.

It’s really concerning to me people getting their information from SM think it’s fact. That’s fine if you to question ‘big pharma’. You need to equally questioning the source, evidence and algorithm that served this fact up to you.

I’m all for scientific debate. That is 💯 not what this is.

I work in a nursery.. no child was allowed out today.. it was just so hot

The nursery should have just put suncream on her, so they are partly to blame here, but your friend is well and truly stupid. She is neglecting her child.
In the interest of being a good friend, say something!!