Nursery don’t apply sun cream

[swer1534]

Nursery have announced they won’t be applying sun cream this summer and requested all children come in with long sleeve tops and trousers and a proper sun hat. Said this is due to the time it takes to apply and change gloves ? Never heard of this before?

My daughter's nursery is the same. We use 8 hour soltan in the morning, put on a really good amount and she will always wear leggings and t-shirt so just Arms nd face exposed then she has a proper sun hat with sun protection. If it's a particular hot day, nursery will reapply though. They wouldn't let her get burned.

No wonder we have a vitamin d deficiency problem in this country! Ridiculous!

I have the gingerest of ginger kids. They never got burnt at school or nursery with one application of waterproof factor 50, before they left home.

Skin cancer is extremely common in the UK. No harm in starting good habits.
You can always take a vitamin D supplement.

@Crystalvas are you suggesting the rest of the toddlers wait patiently whilst their peers have sun cream applied by all staff?

As a nursery teacher (who does apply suncream) it takes longer than a couple of minutes and when there are 8hr or 12 hour creams, why shouldn't parents apply before nursery?

My kids nursery has the same policy. I just putNivea factor 50 all day lotion on them and sent them in short sleeves

I think they should be able to reapply it at nursery.. ok takes them time but do they not have time? I’d rather ten mins less play than burnt child. If they haven’t got time imo the ratio of staff isn’t right. Ok at school but if my nursery said “we haven’t got time” I’d consider them not looking after my son very well. They only need arms neck face, that doesn’t take long.

I’m a childminder and have 4 dc most days. It doesn’t take that long to suncream everyone. I have one bottle and use it on everyone. I’ve never timed myself, but there’s no way it takes me 5 minutes to do each child, I’m pretty quick and I must be doing it throughly enough as no one as ever been burnt in 16 years. There’s no way I’d ask for children to be dressed in long legs and sleeves in the height of summer, they’d boil!

That’s weird our nursery has sun screen there and puts it on the children (you have to just give permission that you are fine with it) 🤷‍♀️

The children also sometimes do outdoor water play and have paddling pools so even though I send my child in with sun cream on it will likely need to be reapplied later after the pools and stuff !!

Sunscreen needs to be reapplied, especially with all the handwashing. Doing it once isn't sufficient.

Our nursery has a staff member go out to the garden once child 1 is creamed, the other 3 staff are in the room with 11 kids playing. Once a kid is creamed, they send them out to staff member in the garden. Once kid 4 is creamed, staff member 2 goes in to the garden and the other 2 are in the room. Once kid 9 is creamed you have 3 staff and 9 kids in the garden. Staff 4 has 3 kids in the room with her, creams them and takes them out. Yes kid 12 gets 5 mins less outdoor play but put them in a different order each time and it evens out. Everyone playing, no kids say around patiently waiting. They do it this way with hats etc, coats, splashsuits etc.

We ask parents to apply before they come and to provide sun hats. We then reapply after lunch which last year took me over 30 minutes while colleagues attempted to round up children to get it reapplied.

Our nursery used to redo sun cream at lunchtime. Kids just accepted it. My DC has extremely pale skin so I'd want it reapplied at least once (on exposed areas like face, tips of ears and back of the neck as a minimum). I'd be very unimpressed with a nursery that let a child get burnt.

What if a child is at nursery 8-6 plus sun cream gets applied about half seven? That’s more than 8 hours ?

I teach nursery and our ratios are 1:13. We don’t put sun cream on the children. Firstly because of the time it would take, and yes we do have other things to do, and secondly because if we missed a bit and a child got burned then we would be to blame.
We do have a full class set of sun hats which we insist children wear, a large shelter to play under, and if it’s too hot we limit time outside.
I would hate it if we suddenly had to start putting sun cream on children.

In fairness if you are talking school nursery where the children are only there 6 hours and adult rations are much higher then fair enough, I absolutely would put sun cream and not expect more ( although my dd still did ) but every private nursery I know of provides suncrean and applies it. The ratio’s are much lower.

If you're only applying sun cream for a couple of seconds then you might as well not even bother as you're not applying suncream at all.

To the OP, just ensure your own child has 8 hour sun cream applied prior to nursery and stop finding stuff to complain and moan about.

Get used to it OP, preschool and school don't either.

I once forgot, called preschool to explain. They still said no so I had to cancel meeting and drive to them to apply it and back. I've not forgotten again!

Our nursery apply sun cream. Kids get messy and have their faces wipes often etc. They need regular application.

If applied at 8am, 8hr suncream would last until 4pm.

Generally, the UV index in the UK is low after 4pm, so you wouldn't need suncream then.

Guess I’m lucky, all the nurseries around here seem to do it.

Our nursery apply it and seem to manage fine. Surely it is a basic part of childcare, like feeding them or changing nappies.

My child has really fair skin so I'm glad they do - she burns really easily and, even with 8 hour suncream, I'd be worried about gaps after she has washed her hands, wiped her face etc.

Sending in cream was always fine for my dc and they've never been burned. I'd not have sent in long sleeves in the height of summer though as dd2 especially would have been way too hot. She's one who is regularly seen in winter with just a t shirt.

I am quite annoyed about it as last year this wasn’t the case we were told to send in sun cream. I don’t think it takes long and every nursery I’ve worked in myself we’ve had to apply it to the children. I don’t want to send my child in long sleeves and long trousers in 30 degree heat that must feel awful. They’ve now told us we can send in a sun stick for them to apply to there own faces 😵‍💫 it is a private nursery.

Not in the nursey my DC’s attend. Parents provide a summer bag, sun hat, summer clothes, glasses, sun block. Never heard of a nursery that required parents to put sun block on prior to attending. Thats just ridicolus.