a day ago
Mum shares agonising photos of her baby's blistered face after making chilling SPF discovery all parents should know
IT was an overcast day when Lauren Leishman and partner Kai took their little girl Rhegan on a family day out to a farm show. The weather was 'chilly' and both parents wore jumpers, but they applied factor 50 sun cream to their daughter 'just to be safe'.
They were only outside for three hours, but later that day, 12-month-old Rhegan was 'literally bright glowing red'. By the next morning, she was covered in huge fluid-filled blisters.
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The youngster was rushed to the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh, where a nurse warned that her face would peel back to raw skin.
Lauren, 22, now wants to warn other parents.
The carer, from Dalkeith, Midlothian, tells Sun Health: 'I just want to make people aware.
'I thought, 'It's Scotland, how can she burn that badly with sun cream?' It's crazy.
'She's in agony. It's such a wee shame.'
The family visited the farm show in Haddington, East Lothian, on June 28.
It was an overcast day, with highs of just 18C.
'Kai and I both had jumpers on,' Lauren says.
'It was chilly and I actually remember thinking to myself, 'Do I bother with sun cream or not?', but I thought, 'I'll put it on just to be safe'.'
She applied Malibu Kids Factor 50 sun cream, which is labelled as 'high protection' and 'clinically proven to be kind to skin'.
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'We were out from 10.30am to 1.30pm then went straight home,' Lauren says.
'Rhegan was sleeping in her car seat and when she woke up, she was literally bright glowing red.
'The highest recorded temperature that day was 18C and that would have been later in the afternoon, so we would have been home by then.'
Lauren initially applied aloe vera and aftersun, but Rhegan's condition worsened overnight.
'She woke up in the morning and she was just so blistered - huge big filled blisters,' Lauren says.
'As soon as we saw we took her right to hospital.
'I just felt panic straight away and just the guilt was awful.'
Doctors were 'shocked' by the injuries and treated Rhegan with ointment. They advised that she stay indoors for a minimum of two weeks.
Lauren says: 'She's in agony. Every time I have to put the cream on her I literally have to pin her down.
'It's so sore for her. It's open skin I'm having to touch with the cream.'
Lauren says she trusted the sun cream because it was labelled as a kids' factor 50 product, but she's vowed never to use it again.
'It's so, so sad and you feel so guilty, but you just look at a bottle and think, 'Factor 50 for kids, perfect, what can go wrong?',' she adds.
'You just think that if they've got sun cream on then they can go and play in the sun.
'We weren't even abroad, we were literally on our doorstep in Scotland - you wouldn't think that it could ever happen.
'We've never used that sun cream before, that was the first time. God I would never ever again use it.'
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Lauren is now urging other parents to check UVA star ratings on products before using them on children.
The index ranges from 0 to 5 stars, indicating the percentage of UVA radiation absorbed by the sunscreen in comparison to UVB.
The higher number, the more balanced the protection is.
The NHS recommends using lotions with a UVA star rating of at least four. The product Lauren used was only rated three.
It doesn't mean it doesn't work, but a higher rating means better protection against burns and skin cancer.
'I would say just absolutely research the sun cream you're using on your child beforehand,' she says.
'Check the ratings. Ratings on sun creams go by stars. Five-star is the best and that one was only a three-star.
'Had I known that, I would never have bought that product.'
Rhegan is still in pain, and Lauren says her daughter's face 'only seems to be getting worse'.
What does the UVA star rating mean?
THE star rating for sun cream bottles was developed to illustrate the balanced protection that a product offers against both UVA and UVB rays.
The index ranges from 0 to 5 stars. These indicate the percentage of UVA radiation absorbed by the sunscreen in comparison to UVB.
The higher number of stars means the more balanced that protection is.
You may also see the letters 'UVA' in a circle, which means the product has been approved by the EU.
It is another way of saying that the product provides good balanced protection against UVA and UVB.
Why should people care about choosing a sunscreen with high SPF and high UV protection?
Extended exposure to the sun can lead to skin damage, experts say.
There are four types of skin damage: skin ageing, hyperpigmentation, sunburns, and skin cancer.
"By protecting yourself from the sun, you reduce the likelihood of damaging your skin," the British Association of Dermatologists says.
"Make use of the shade during the hours of high intensity (11am and 3pm in the UK typically), wear clothing that will shade your skin, and use sunscreen with at least SPF30 and either the UVA logo or 4 to 5 stars, making sure you're applying it well and re-applying it regularly."
Source: British Association of Dermatologists
'She is still so sore,' she adds.
'The nurse in the hospital said that pretty much her whole face will just peel back to just raw skin.
'But she still is herself I suppose, just a bit less so.
'I am worried about scarring.
'Obviously because it's her face and with her being a wee girl, I just hope that it doesn't leave her marked.'
SUMMER FEARS
Lauren says she now fears taking her daughter out in the sun.
'I'm worried, so we definitely won't take her out again this summer,' she says.
'She will have to stay indoors for two weeks but the rest of the summer she won't be out in the sun.
'It was just her birthday and she got loads of garden toys, including a sand pit, but that will definitely not be used this year.'
A spokesperson for Malibu Sun said it has sent the company's complaints information pack to Lauren and is waiting to hear back to investigate further.
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