An outraged mum has demanded answers after her toddler came home from daycare four times suffering from sunburn in the space of a month.
Ashlee Jade detailed her three-year-old daughter’s painful ordeal and the ‘pathetic’ response from the unnamed daycare.
She tried to address the matter after the initial incident last month by requesting a daily log of when sunscreen was applied to her daughter.
Ashlee said she escalated the matter with the daycare’s head office when her daughter was sunburnt again earlier this month.
‘They pretty much deflected it and told me that their centre meets the sun safety requirements,’ she said.
A day later, the little girl was sunburnt a third time, and Ashlee shared a photo of her daughter’s face showing her red cheeks.
‘I’m not happy with the response at all,’ Ashlee said.
‘I said to them, “Something needs to change as it’s not working.”
Ashlee has taken her daughter out of daycare after she came home sunburnt four times within a month
‘At the end of the day, she’s three years old. Yes, she applies her own sunscreen, but she’s not covering her face and arms as they’re the areas getting burnt and I would prefer an adult applying it. It didn’t go down well.’
Ashlee revealed her daughter had been burnt a fourth time on her face and arms, which she described as ‘the worst I’ve ever seen’.
‘It’s heartbreaking, I genuinely cannot move past the fact that they allowed this to happen but haven’t had the audacity to call and tell me that this has happened,’ she fumed.
‘Four times within a month, three of them within a week. I genuinely can’t believe this has happened again.
‘The most heartbreaking thing is that my little girl has been crying all day, in pain. They just don’t care.’
She also claimed that she never saw the daily sunscreen logs promised by the centre director after the first incident.
Her ordeal attracted hundreds of comments from social media users, with many shocked by the daycare centre.
‘On what planet is it acceptable for a three-year-old to be applying their own sunscreen?! An adult absolutely should be doing it,’ one woman wrote.
Ashlee escalated the matter with the daycare’s head office when her daughter was sunburnt again earlier this month
Another added: ‘Absolutely outrageous! Guarantee that if they are applying sunscreen, it’s not being applied with appropriate time before they’re outside.’
Those who work in the childcare sector weighed in, calling it unacceptable.
‘As an educator myself this is wild! I don’t mess around when it comes to the sun every bit of skin showing will be slathered in sunscreen and constantly checked and reapplied,’ one commented.
Others asked whether the child had an allergic reaction to sunscreen or whether the brand was among those recently recalled.
Ashlee has since removed her daughter from the daycare.
She has lodged a formal complaint with the department after further calls to the daycare’s head office fell on deaf ears.
‘I can’t return to a place where my child isn’t safe, or where I don’t feel she is safe,’ she replied within the comments.’
She is also investigating the sunscreens used on her daughter.
All childcare services are required to have a sun protection policy under the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority’s National Quality Standard.
‘Infants and toddlers have more sensitive skin, making them especially vulnerable to UV damage,’ the Cancer Council NSW website states.
‘Research highlights that childhood is a critical period when sun exposure can significantly increase the risk of developing skin cancer later in life.’
