Baby injured at childminders - advice needed please

[EmilyD2012]

My DS (10mo) returned from the childminders on Tuesday evening suffering from sunburn. Overnight his face swelled up badly, by Wednesday morning his face was horrific - bright red and he couldn't open his left eye because it was so swollen. We took him to A&E and were told he was most likely suffering an allergic reaction to something or severe sunburn.

After giving him antihistemines and pain relief we were discharged and his face slowly started to deflate. Yesterday afternoon his skin started to blister and, by the evening, was weeping constantly. I took him to the doctors who said that he was suffering from serious sunburn to the face. I asked the childminder how long he had been out in the sun for and she said it had been 30 minutes at most. The doctor disputed this and said that it was very unlikely to have such a dramatic reaction to just 30 minutes in the sun. It is only April, after all.

The childminder is a friend of mine and has always been brilliant with my DS (she has a baby the same age). No part of me thinks that she would have deliberately let him come to any harm. That said, the last 48 hours have been horrendous. Every time I look at my baby my heart breaks. His face is a mass of blisters and open wounds. His left eye looks like it could bruise. I've been given hydrocortisone cream to treat the skin but every time I touch him he screams in pain. Last night I put him to bed and wept.

Today, the childminder came round and saw for herself what a terrible state he is in. I didn't want to make her feel worse than she no doubt already is, but equally felt it was important for her to see that I wasn't exaggerating when I contacted her from the doctors yesterday.

I just don't know what to do. Some of my friends say that such a careless act is unforgivable and I should never leave my DS with her again. Others are more forgiving and say that, after seeing him, she has surely learnt her lesson.

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated. What would you do?

Thank you x

I think a lot of people were caught out on Tuesday. It wasn't that hot...but was certainly sunny. I'm not surprised an inexperienced (if she is, I don't know) childminder didn't realise how much damage could be done in that weather. If your DC is 10 months old, their skin probably hasn't ever been exposed to any sun before.

Did it occur to you to send your DC to the childminder with sun hat and cream that day, EmilyD2012?

Oh, and I wouldn't use a childminder who refused to apply sun cream.

In general most children and adults for that matter in the uk are not getting enough exposure to sunlight without sun block to absorb enough vit d, so littlebit is right. NHS information here, which says to cover up before you get burnt, not before you go out in the sun. Most of our Vitamin D comes from the sun.

Well that is ok littlebit, your choice. It is true we are chronically short of vit D. But personally I would rather take a supplement and NOT risk malignant melanoma..... or looking like a wrinkly old handbag vain

And most sunscreen contains aluminium, implicated in various nasty diseases. It does indeed contain many nasty chemicals. The least noxious way of protecting from the sun is clothing, but you can't cover a face and a tan is the body's natural way of protecting itself from sunlight, not the signs of some hideous reaction to the great homicidal orb in the sky. Dear sweet god, we evolved for millions of years under the sun- why has it become the enemy? Chances are the OP's baby did not get a ray of sunshine in the whole of last year so his body is learning how to deal with it. In all honesty though, that does sound quite an extreme reaction.

You can't take a vit d supplement

it was hot in kent tuesday, i sat in my garden and caught the sun on my face/shoulders while reading for about 30mins - and my skin loves the sun and is used to it, yet i still went a tad red when out of the shower

sounds to me your dc got burnt, 30mins in sun is a lot for a 10mth old :( and even more so if didnt have cream on

by 10 am or so it was obvious it was going to be a nice day so why didnt your cm put suncream on - im assuming she didnt as op didnt say the cm said

as a nanny im prob over zealous with suncream on my charges but better that then burnt

what are her policys for suncream/will she apply /use her brand if you/others didnt supply any

only you can decide op if you can trust cm again - it sounds like an accident, but one that shouldnt have happened -

i know of nannies who have had burnt charges - their fault :(, i have gone into work on a monday and had burnt charges as parents hadnt creamed :(

both as just as bad as each other

I ask all my parents to apply longlasting suncream before the children come to me (though in practice some of them don't). It's about time, not child protection. Most of them have one child to do - I would have typically five or six over the course of an eleven hour day, plus my own two. Of course I'm happy to top it up if they get wet or have to be washed, but I also ask parents to put the same cream in their changing bags, just in case a different brand might cause an adverse reaction (and I suppose covering myself from getting blamed if my chosen brand caused a problem). I wouldn't find it feasible to keep indoors or in shade all the time - I have to wait in line outside to pick up from nursery for example.

Can take a supplement.... (fat fingers!)

But it's more chemicals

OP, what about your baby's hands? Any reaction there?

Surely suncream applied at drop off isn't going to last until the end of the day? How odd, surely putting on suncream is the same as changing nappies, giving medicine etc?

duchesse 2,600 people a year die from skin cancer. How many die from aluminium poisoning from suncream?

Hi all,

I'm overwhelmed by the lovely messages of support on here - thank you so much.

Back from the hospital and have been told that that DS is suffering second degree burns to his face. I am devastated. He has been referred to the burns unit at 9am tomorrow where I'll hopefully be able to get some more info as to how this happened.

In the meantime I've had to wash his face with sterilised water and slather it in vaseline to lock in the moisture, which he didn't enjoy very much. I just feel so awful for him suffering in this way.

As far as I can tell there are two options - neither of which are particularly pleasant:

1. The CM has not been entirely truthful about how long DS was in the sun for; or
2. DS has a severe allergy to the sun which has only just manifested itself.

I will update again once I have seen the burns specialist - I'm hoping they'll be able to confirm which of the two options it is...or let me know of another mystery option that I'm missing!

Thank you again so much for the words of wisdom, it's been a really big help.

x

PS Tanith I haven't told any of my friends my childminder is lying - where did you get that from? What I said is that the doctor disputed her version of events, not me. I have told my friends exactly what I have written here; i.e. the truth as I know it. The CM has admitted that she left him in the sun with no lotion on, but maintains that it was only for 30 minutes.

Oh and our local primary school will not apply suncream. They do keep children in at playtime if they say they have not had suncream applied or do not have a sunhat. I don't have an issue with that as the teacher would be pushed to get any teaching done if she had thirty small children to suncream. There are plenty of good 10 and 12 hour formulas available which will should keep them protected all day, and in any case I think it is good to teach the children young both to be sensible about how much time they spend in full sun and how to reapply cream themselves.

I am a CM and have permission forms signed, so I can apply suncream. I do not put it on if they are out in the sun for 5 mins at 8am, but I definitely do if they are out for 30 mins at midday.

Oh, Emily You poor thing, hope you all manage to get some sleep tonight.

I do think it's a fair point about people not realising how warm it was going to get. I know I sent my DD to the CM without sunscreen, it didn't really cross my mind, and I suspect if I'd had DD at home I could easily have left her out in the sun a little too long by accident.

Have a good chat with your CM and see if it was genuinely an accident that she is willing to work through. But obviously the most important thing is your gut, and if it tells you that all is not right then change CM.

Let us know how your DS gets in tomorrow.

littlebitofthislittlebitofthat, no teacher has every applied sun cream to my child. Neither have they changed their nappy, applied nappy cream, or rocked them to sleep.

OP, how awful. Your poor DS. Hope the burns specialist can help. I think I'd be inclined to ditch the CM. Even if it was only 30mins, that is still way too long for a baby to be in the direct sun.

Pleasdonteatmyshoe please read my corrected post. I'm on a mini tablet and the buttons are tiny and I have auto suggest.

I said you can take a supplement but that's more chemicals.

Hope the ops childhas a good night and a good prognosis

What ever the cause, no baby should go through this.

Your poor boy, I hope he feels better soon. It must be very painful.

I know it doesn't make it ok but I noticed 3 or 4 people with quite bad sunburn today. One lady was very bright red all over her legs, arms and face. Even my very sensible friend had a bright red sunburnt nose. I think the weather caught a few people off guard. It was sunny but not that hot.

(This obviously does NOT excuse your child minder)

Our school don't apply suncream either. Being a primary school the very youngest child there will have just turned 4 years old. A 4 year old is clearly significantly more capable of applying suncream than a 10 month old. You cannot compare a childminding setting, where children will be from weeks old in some cases to a school where children start at 4 years old.

Our school also don't feed the children. If I collected my starving 6 month old from a childminder who wasn't able to feed them because they had too many other children 'and anyway the local primary school don't feed children' I'd be fuming.

Applying suncream is basic care, if you've too many children to do it you're looking after too many children.

Oh you poor love. I'm so sorry to hear this and glad you got a second opinion. Will keep everything crossed for you that things go as well as they can at the burns unit.

Re the childminder: you need to terminate the contract. Don't worry about notice if it is the case that the docs advise no allergy and she has left poor little DS out in the sun too long. In that instance you could argue that essentially her gross negligence breached the contract and you are no longer bound by the terms.

If the docs do say that DS does have some type of sun allergy then I think you need to think if you want her looking after him. If you do, then notice not an issue. If you don't then you would need to pay the notice but hopefully she may feel so bad she'll waive it.