My son is burnt, I am fuming, is the school in the wrong?

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

Ds is 4 and in reception today was his sport day. We weren't permitted to watch due to numbers.

He had suncream applied this am (factor 50), but we have been asked not to sendccream into school.

He has come home today with severe sunburn large angry red raised patches all the way up his legs and forearms.

His hat was lost so he prob wasn't wearing that either.

I am very with the school especially as if we had been there I could have applied more suncream!

Am I overeacting?

Plus I have to say I am alittle suprised at how many of the posters do not seem to understand the damage burning in the sun, especially when little, can do long term.

bloss - how do they stop chilren taking their hats off once outside?

My dd is 12 and had sports day this week. She can apply suncream herself and used the one I gave factor 30 during the day. She still came home with sunburn!

This makes for interesting reading www.sofiaecho.com/2009/06/30/746649_dont-burn-baby-burn

? Use sunscreens products protecting against both UVB and UVA radiation.

? UV-B radiation is the cause of "sun-burn", UV-A radiation causes premature skin ageing and interferences with the human immune system.

? It also says use lots of suncream and the most people tend to use only half the recommended amount on each application. The *recommended amount is about 36 grams (6 full tea spoons) of sun cream for one adult body .

*Recommended by who? Not sure.

Agree school has failed in its duty of care.

Memoo, it's ridiculous that you are not allowed to pick up and comfort a child who has fallen over. We are going to breed a generation with real issues if that kind of attitude is widespread. Must be horrid for you.

in response to mrz.......I've worked in schools and its our LEA's policy that staff in schools aren't allowed to apply suncream to children, even though I personally don't agree with the policy it has to be stuck by, different LEA's might have different policies but ours doesnt allow it.
Schools I have worked in have been very responsible about it though and always make sure the children have suncream on before going out in the sun, to think a school would allow a child to compete in sports day without suncream is disgusting and as a parent if that was my child I would be demanding an explanation from the school governers.

I am not being awkward or an old fart but is it true that the sun has got more dangerous in the last 40 yrs? Genuine question. Is it much more likely to burn you than when I was a child. Because I remember getting burnt once when I was a child and that was when I had been in a pool all day. I rarely had suncream and I was very fair. It seems that now no child is supposed to go out in the sun without a hat and cream, even for a short time.

Disclaimer: I am not trying to wind anyone up, I really want to know.

Orm, I think we are now more aware of the dangers of skin cancer and there's been much more research. I remember ads in my mother's glossy mags showing two women by a swimming pool, one with a light tan and one turned mahogany, selling their cream on the grounds that the darker the better.

Maybe it's that then. I remember Piz Buin adds where the women were a colour never meant by nature for Caucasians!

that's the one!

I don't think the sun is more dangerous now than before. Perhaps ozone protection is a bit less in some areas.

People were frivolous about the sun in the past when it's actually pretty potent. I remember seeing people lying on foil type blankets in the south of France when I was a kid. I also remember one of those people being carted off by ambulance staff.

We know more about the dangers of the sun that were always there. It's just better to protect against it. And it's not hard to either.

If you get burned as a child, your risk of skin cancer is higher apparently. Info on sunburn

Absolutely YANBU OP. Unless you can drop in to school at lunch though to reapply the cream, who is going to make sure the kids are properly protected from the sun?

You're not on your own thinking like that Ormirian. I wonder the same thing. We rarely bother with suncream in our family tbh and are more likely to move out of the sun if it's getting too hot.
But then I'm over 40 too so maybe you have something there.

Pleased to report the school is taking my concerns seriously and have allayed my fears about the rest of the events outside this week.

Ds is much improved this am, a cool bath and lashings of aftersun lotion helped loads. Which is a massive relief!

So a lesson learned.

Thank you for all your replies they helped me to organise my thoughts, much appreciated.

I guess it is also because I don't think about it much as I am not a sun-worshipper. I hate being hot and I get headaches sitting in the sun so rarely worry about sun cream. The DCs get jolloped but that is mostly because I feel I should rather than any genuine concern. My DC have never been burned thank god.

OrmIrian I remember me and my friends not using anything. The one of them started using cooking oil (she was about 15). But TBH in the old "old" days, we didn't do abroad for family holidays to hot places like spain, we just used to hang out in parks and fry. I expect we are the generation that will suffer, not those who are more aware of the dangers today.

My MIL has cancer spots on her hands which she has had treated. From years of gardening I expect.

I'm not sure what the answer is, most schools do seem to have a even balance and I'm sure most teachers (even when not allowed), would help a child who looked like they needed more cream.

In our school each child has to take in suncream/sun hat. I am sure the teachers remind the children to do it. Maybe if parents insisted at the weekends "hat on or no going out" or "put your suncream on" and got the chikdren to do it themselves (as best they could) it would make the teachers lives easier in the week.

Good news bigmouth! Glad DS is feeling better,

Ohhh yes cooking oil Weird idea. Like cooking pork to make the skin crackle.

Message withdrawn

I am 35 and grew up in the north of England. I did wear suncream and a hat in the sun and as I recall many times getting sunburnt and also getting sun stroke after a day in Scarborough (not costa brava). I have always been aware of the damage sun can do.

The pain and discomfort of sunburn is a very prominent childhood memory for me. Though I also remember the competitions with my siblings to see who could peel the largest unbroken piece of skin from a sunburned limb! (bleurgh)

Dh on the other hand never wears suncream. If he wants to look like an old handbag in his sixties that is up to him!

I am not going to let my kids get burned like I did if I can avoid it.

DD is fairer than fair, transluscent skin, blonde hair, freckles. I cover her in Ultrasun 28 once a day (think it's now rebranded as SPF30 very high protection?) at 8.15am. Very expensive but worth it.

She reapplies some SPF40 (just Tesco stuff, with 5 star UVA rating) to her face & arms at lunchtime. So far she hasn't burned - they do play outside a lot too. They aren't allowed out without hats in this weather.

I agree that the sun seems stronger than 40 years ago - I reckon because the ozone is thinner over the UK. I spent 1 year in Oz then 6 months travelling round Asia in the 90s - didn't burn at all, but burned in half an hour when I got home & went to the Lake District!

I've also had malignant melanoma, so won't let my kids out without high quality sun screen.

bloss - I worked at an International School which had the same policy - no hat - no outside play.

But the number of children who took them off once outside was staggering. And because of the layout of the school grounds it was

a) very easy to take their hat off out of sight of the staff that were on duty

b) impossible to keep track on all of the children, all of the time.

I dont understand this we are not allowed to apply sunscreen ...

I mean they are allowed to do it in nursery... so why not primary school??? whats the difference

I understand its time consuming .. but I would have thought there was no need to reapply it every time they go outside for playtime.

Surely parents can appply it in the morning and surely teachers can rally around at lunchtime and do it up till age 7/8.. reminding the older ones to do it themselves .

I cant see why the risk is higher to apply at age 5 than it is at age 4..

I'm so shocked that a teacher or TA might not be allowed to hug a child! Is that for real? Where does it come from (I mean is it an LEA thing, or up to the individual school?)

DS1 (6) was a bit nervous of meeting his year 2 teacher yesterday, so when I took him in I told his year 1 teacher, and she gave him a hug and kissed the top of his head. The TA always gives the boys a little squeeze of the shoulders or a hug when she lets them go at pick-up time. It's one of the things I love about the school.

Anyway, back on the subject .... we use Boots Once a Day factor 40 for the dcs and P20 for us. No problems at all, and we're all very fair.

The problem I can see with the teachers applying cream on all the children is the time factor. I look at DS2's infant school.

60 children in Reception, 2 teachers, 2 teaching assistants ( often parent helpers - but depends on what day it is as to how many).

so we assume there's 4 people to do 60 children. 15 children each. Lets be generous and give then a whole 30 seconds to do each child - that's 7 minutes just to apply the sun scream - break time is usually only 15 minutes!

Message withdrawn

I'm very sorry your DS got burnt.

Buy some all day sunscreen, Ultrasun is a good make. Put it on before you leave the houe + 8 hours cover.

Am I alone in thinking that Teacher's and TAs have to fit enough into the schoolday without creaming up 30 children (or howevermany are in the class) when they leave the classroom?