Your mom and I tried that spray-on stuff during our last trip to Cali, kiddo. Works great, very convenient, but the can runs out in a day and a half, and costs the same as a big tube of strong sunblock lotion that lasts a month. And it was definitely more fun putting the lotion on your mom’s [sub]um[/sub] back. 
Anyone besides me hear Captain Haddock read the title of this thread?
“Billions of blistering boils on butts!”
I seriously doubt that it is your fault. My son had three different bottles of sunscreen at his school as well as 7 (SEVEN!!) cans of (specifically requested) mosquito repellan – all unopened.
I remind the teachers every day to please put on his sunscreen before going outside. I put it on every morning right after his bath. His grandma is still recovering from MELANOMA.
And as the weeks go on, more and more people say that he looks like a “little Mexican.” The kid is darker than his teddy bears some weeks. Thank god he doesn’t burn. I don’t think I could worry about that as well as all the moles that are starting to pop up on my two-year-old. :mad:
Dammit. I meant to say that, as my above post shows, all the effort in the world can’t make someone else care as much as you do.
I doubt that there was much to do on your part that would change the situation without upsetting your child.
Let yourself feel good that you can be patient while you are caring for your child, even if your child is obviously uncomfortable. Revel in your ability to nurture you child. The unfortunately life lesson is learned, so instead of feeling bad for what happened … look at yourself at the moment and see what a good job you are doing as a loving mom and caretaker.
I just wanted to chime in for a moment and add to Elenfair’s anecdote. At the school where I work, we have a strict “no application by staff” policy on anything from hand lotion to sunscreen. The school nurse is permitted to use Bactine, but that’s about it. Strangely enough, our policy is not due to the prevalence of OMG! It’s a pedophile!-phobia, but rather an experience several years ago wherein a staff member did apply sunscreen to a child who was allergic. A swollen windpipe, a 911 call, an ambulance, and one livid parent later, staff members are never permitted to apply anything to children’s skin - per administration’s orders.
For everyone expecting camp counselors to continuously gauge your individual child’s sun exposure status during outdoor activities, I think you’re being wildly unrealistic. Beyond the quite prudent “bad touch” hesitation modern camp staff would have, it really isn’t their place to do this. If your child is too young to understand the need to continuously apply and re-apply sunscreen after swimming or extensive activity, he or she is really is not old enough to be in outdoor group activities unless being supervised one on one, and you the parent, are being irresponsible putting them in that situation.
It reminds me of the parent complaining that she had given her child 20 for a school trip to a museum, and had instructed one of the chaperoning teachers to only let the kid spend 10.00 of that, and was quite upset that the teacher told her he couldn’t be watching after how her kid spent his money as he had 20 other kids to attend to.
If your child doesn’t know how, or can’t remember to apply sunscreen during outdoor activities you’re the one putting them in harm’s way, not the counselors.
[QUOTE=astro]
If your child is too young to understand the need to continuously apply and re-apply sunscreen after swimming or extensive activity, he or she is really is not old enough to be in outdoor group activities unless being supervised one on one, and you the parent, are being irresponsible putting them in that situation.
[QUOTE]
Interesting. Where do you stand regarding toddlers in daycare/preschool? In my state, the ratio is 6 kids to a teacher. Are all of the parents of kids at my son’s school irresponsible because we let our kids participate in “water days” during the summer?
Are you speaking of summer camps and not daycares and preschools? Your post doesn’t make a distinction, and I think, if no distinction is deemed necessary, that it is offensive to imply that a mother is being irresponsible when she allows her child to participate in group activities while being watched by temporary caregivers.
[QUOTE=Dracona]
[QUOTE=astro]
If your child is too young to understand the need to continuously apply and re-apply sunscreen after swimming or extensive activity, he or she is really is not old enough to be in outdoor group activities unless being supervised one on one, and you the parent, are being irresponsible putting them in that situation.
I’m obviously not talking about toddlers and pre-school kids where special precautions need to be taken to limit exposure period, suncreens or not. I’m talking about scenarios where kids have some degree of autonomy as to what they wear, and how long they stay in the sun. Counselors are normally quite busy wrangling an entire herd of kids and cannot keep an ongoing track of each kid’s sun expoure. To expect that they should do in situations where kids have some degree of control and choice as to what they wear, and how long they stay in the sun is absurd.
When I’ve have had bad sunburns, the best stuff was to apply alcohol. Internally. So I would not feel the pain and pass out.
So some sedation may help.
NO, we’re waiting with baited breath to hear why 8 year-olds are the same as preschoolers. But, hey, go ahead and treat your third-grade children like you did when they were four. I’m sure they appreciate your inability to tell the difference.
I wanted to thank everyone again for the good suggestions and “cooling” thoughts being sent to my son.
Aloe Vera is wonderful! We’ve been using the one with Lidocaine since last Friday, and although he is still blistered and hot to the touch the pain is mostly gone.
Thanks also for the suggestions about things to think about before confronting the camp. You’re right - the counselors have strict orders not to touch any child. I just wondered why they couldn’t stop the fun every 2 hours, gather the kids and tell them to either reapply sunscreen or put on their shirts.
The head of the camp has been “unavailable” since yesterday - hmmm. Hopefully she’ll see me tomorrow, and I’ll (calmly and respectfully) tell her my concerns.
Then I’ll rip her a new one! 
And :smack: , my son did have the spray on sunscreen as well as the tubes - it was left in camp that day (but he still wouldn’t have used it if nobody reminded him).
I get ‘sunpoisoning’ - a light case will result in red speckling, much like measles, and raised bumps that itch like crazy. A heavier case will result in me turning bright red, with speckling of darker red, and the bumps will be so dense that they look like one raised mass. The itching is usually nigh near unbearable, and I’m generally quite sick with it - fever, vomiting, etc.
Downright unpleasant all the way around.
Wallet, hope your little one is doing better.
That and sunburns sometimes feel “hot” the first night or so. The aloe would make your skin FEEL cool.
(The last bad sunburn I had, I had to take cold showers for a week-anything else was agony.)
Our local pool does an “everybody out of the water” break every hour. It seems to me the camp counselors could do the same thing, and tell the kids to re-apply sunscreen. Maybe they will next time if you suggest it now. I did wonder, though, why you didn’t send him off in a shirt to swim in, with strict instructions to keep it on. It’s a whole lot easier for him and for you. He’d still need sun protection on the exposed parts, but those would be a lot less of him. Of course, the time I remembered to keep my (then) little guy covered covered and sun-protected I forgot to re-do my own sunscreen. I ended up with a burn as bad as your son’s.
Well they have all kinds of spray-on mist sunscreens now that you don’t need to rub in. That should solve the “touching” problem.
Well I really hope he learns his lesson! He is old enough to handle the responsibility of taking care of himself, and old enough to endure the consequences. Let’s just hope this makes a lasting impression on him.
You don’t have kids, do you?
My boyfriend has 3 kids: 6, 8 and 10, and you better believe the 8 and 10 year old are old enough to handle a simple instruction such as “apply sunscreen or else you’ll get burnt.” If they didn’t, then they would not be allowed to go on trips like this. A kid of that age who can’t handle that needs to learn about responsibility and acting their age. This bad sunburn hopefully will be a lesson this kid carries with him for the rest of his life, and hopefully will be the last one he ever has.