that poor little baby - WTF was the mother thinking???

[toccatanfudge]

20% burns (sun) to his body and only 5 moths old here

Fuckwit 'mother'. Probably drunk or focusing on her own bloody tan to think about it.

Dear god - you should have to pass an exam before you are allowed to have a child.

And of course, we don't know the 'full story' but tbh we know she is an idiot don't we.

IMO there is plenty of sun safety advice - yes we see adults getting burnt but I don't see anywhere near as many children burning as they did back in the 70s.

According to people who approached the mother prior to the PCSOs coming along, it sounded as if English wasn't her first language. Perhaps she thought England wasn't sunny enough to worry or something. I read this in the Mail though (sorry).

They;ve been talking about this on the radio just now and a chap phoned in to say his daughter was on the beach and saw this woman. Apparently many people went up to her and were talking to her and offering her things to cover the baby up with but she took no notice of anyone. There were raised voices a few times but she carried on walking. So ignorance isn't an excuse (not that it was anyway). Even had she not been aware, plenty of people made sure that she was and she chose to ignore them.

The other thing he said was that the woman was naked as well as the baby and so it looks like it might have been the nudist beach, hence the complete lack of clothes on the baby.

I can't switch on the tv today in case this story is on again. I also can't read any newspapers online as I usually do - and can only just about type this out because this story is making me weep every time I think of it. Awful. awful, awful. Same with that piece about the nasty nursery worker and the poor little boy who wasn't quite potty-trained. How can people be so cruel? Not sure if it's because I am tired, emotional and have a 15 week old baby snoozing next to me here that all this stabs my heart so much. Or just because it really is truly horrific and would mortify any decent human being. The latter surely.

Poor, poor babies

Not that i'm suggesting that nudists all have mental health issues, but could the woman have been having some kind of breakdown? Apparently (the Mail again, sorry) she appeared to be drunk - perhaps she was having MH issues that made her appear that way?

Eyewitness on the radio now saying that the mother was drunk and people were trying to get her to do something about it but she was ignoring them - sounds like a case for SS.

Am listening on the radio who have been saying that she was drinking. I'm not interested in her MH health status. She's a neglectful bitch. Can't believe that SS have allowed the baby home with her. This kid hasn't got a chance. And even if he does make it to adulthood his chances of skin cancer are greatly increased by this event.

I'm incredibly angry about this.

Surely in the 5 hours the baby was in the sun she had to pick him up to feed him??? Wouldn't she have noticed how warm his skin was getting???

There must be something wrong with her to just leave the baby in the sun.

Poor little mite.

As a 3yo I was left out in the sun all afternoon without any sun protection and I ended up with 3rd degree burns - was in complete agony!

So because of this, I've always made sure DS is smother in SPF 50 and wears a hat and is mainly covered up and in the shade for periods.
I wouldn't want him to go through what I went through. Being hospitalised is not great when you are so young, with little understanding of what is going on.

Poor 5mo though, glad she is making a recovery now. The mother should have known better - it's everywhere now about protecting your DC from the sun.

Apart from the obveous distress and the pain this baby is going to endure for many weeks.... Surly the message for sunscreen isnt just to protect from the affects of sunburn but from skin cancer as well?
Even if the parent did not think it was hot enough for him to get sunburnt, the constant message of "sun cream, helps prevent skin cancer" should have been enough to ensure he is protected... I hope it is not a mistake his mother is going to be reminded of for the rest of his life, in the form of scars. The thought makes me go cold... Poor little man!!!

I know its in the DM, but read this today.

Its totally shocking. Poor little mite

Stupid idiot of a woman. She should be prosecuted. There is NO excuse for not covering up a baby.

I fried to a crisp as a child - repeatedly burnt both in UK and tropics. I remember lay down cying on a bed in kenya with 50p size blisters all over my back.

Had a malignant melanoma a couple of years ago and there is a high chance that it will reoccure at some point in teh future.

It makes my blood boil when I see kids with sunburn. There is absolutely no excuse at all.

Haven't the parents heard of sun protection swimwear, I've had my three kids in sunsuits since they were babies, no cream, no mess, no tears, no burns!Try www.beachfactory.com

This makes me very sad and very angry. Poor poor baby must be in agony, and will be for days/ weeks, let alone every summer when it's now ultrasensitive skin burns etc.

Just bloody stupid, even if there is a back story to the mum.

I hope all this publicity makes people think this summer.

Tweed, had this baby been wearing a UV protection swimsuit he still would have burned. So yes, they're a good idea but you still need to protect their limbs, heads and faces.

Poor baby , i heard a man on the radio say its as bad as pouring boiling water over a child and i have to say i agree . Thank god some people noticed and cared enough to do something about it . I badly burned the bottem of my legs in cornwall 2 years ago and still have scars ,should probably have gone to hospital ,but didnt want to be called an idiot ,already knew that ! that was in less than an hour , kids were covered ,wearing hats ,had factor 50 on the other bits so they were fine and unfrazzled .

a little shocked at most of these posts laying the blame at mums door - dad was there too. have close contact with this case - not as straightforward of course as a lot of you think but of course it is still this very sad and tragic outcome - ssd are investigating - not a british couple.

So both parents were there? Well that makes it even worse! Two adults responsible for that poor baby's welfare - beyond belief. And the Mother was 29, had she been 16 I could understand it more. That baby must have been in agony for most of those 5 hours.This was totally avoidable and preventable.
Sorry for rant but have been upset about this since I saw it on local news yesterday lunch time.

Thank God for the passing officers, but what I don't understand is that there must have been a lot of people surrounding them, surely somebody must have been aware what was going on. Maybe we have just become a nation of citizens that look the other way, no matter what.

How sad.

"The child was with his 29-year-old mother" says the report, so of course people assumed it was his mother he was with. The report did not say he was with both parents, or of course people would have included both parents.

Not straightforward?

Baby burned to a crisp. It doesn't get much more straightforward than that. If the police noticed it - why did neither of the parents??

people did intervene
the mother kept saying the baby was ok. a lot of people tried to get her to cover the baby, and eventually went and called the police...

I agree with Hecate - I cant think of anything that would make what happened not straighforward and excuse the behaviour of the parents.

Agree that if both parents were there then it makes it worse. So what if they're not British either? You don't have to be a certain nationality to have common sense about the dangers of the sun.

Maybe she had read something like this.
I am certainly not advocating that viewpoint which is tinfoil-hat hippy bollocks, but it does give a possible explanation other than 'evil bitch'.
Mind you, if the baby's father was there too, why is all the reporting banging on about the mother rather than 'stupid parents let baby get sunburn'?