Sunburnt children could be a sign of neglect: new guidance
Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor The Telegraph
Sunburn: Children with sunburn could be a sign their parent are neglecting them, new guidance has said. Repeated infestations of headline and a lack of treatment for tooth decay should also trigger doctors and nurses to consider whether the child is being maltreated, under new guidance form the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence. Sunburn could be a sign of neglect if the child has not been appropriately supervised, the guidance said. One in ten children will suffer some form of maltreatment during their childhood with neglect and emotional abuse being the most common, Danya Glaser, chairman of the guideline group said. The new guidance is for health care professionals who do not work primarily in child protection fields to help them spot the early signs of abuse or neglect but could increase the numbers of children referred children’s services. Doctors should ’suspect’ neglect, and therefore inform children’s services, if a child is persistently smelly or dirty, the document said. It went on: “Children often become smelly or dirty during the course of the day. However the nature of the child’s smell may be so overwhelming that the possibility of persistent lack of provision or care should be taken into account. Bedwetting where there is no known stressful situation or a medical explanation, should prompt doctors to consider maltreatment, the document said. Punishing a child for bedwetting despite being advice that wetting is involuntary should also prompt professionals to consider maltreatment. The document said: “Achieving a balance between an awareness of risk and allowing children freedom to learn by experience can be difficult. However, if parents or carers persistently fail to anticipate dangers and to take precautions to protect their child from harm it may constitute neglect.” Maltreatment should be considered when there is any serious or unusual injury where there is no suitable explanation, the guidance said. The guidance is separated into sections on physical abuse; sexual abuse; neglect; emotional, behavioural, interpersonal and social functioning; fabricated or induced illness and clinical presentations and parent-child interactions, giving early signs. The guidance, which was under way before the Baby Peter abuse case came to light, was welcomed by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Margaret Morrissey, of campaign group Parents Outloud, said most of the guidance was good common sense and pointed to factors which do in most cases indicate maltreatment. But she warned: “With headline and sunburn I am not sure they are right. I know good parents who have done their utmost to get rid of them and still have a problem. “We need to make sure that we are not putting parents in a position where they are terrified of approaching their doctors in case they are accused of abuse. A lot of these factors are signs of abuse or neglect but we need to be careful we do not go too far.”
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More of the Nanny state gone mad!
All this nonsense needs to stop…. parents will now be in fear of taking their kids for any Doctor check ups if their child has a bit of a tan etc
as all this over the top nanny state nonsense puts the fear of God into many parents due to a fear of the state taking their kids away from them.
What next, taking your kids off you, if you let them out in the sun at all just in case sun rays are one centigrade over a certain temperature which then amounts to abuse!!!!!????
This is what we get when we let liberal minded far left wing loony’s take over our country.
It makes me cringe that such proffessionals are making these rules. I am black and have never understood the concept of sunburn till my friend who is very white had to leave the beach after fifteen minutes and got sick and couldn’t sleep because of the pain, so if I didn’t have this experience and I got it accidentally wrong with my child who is fairer than I’ll get reported to social services? Also sun cream is very dear for some and you apparently have to check the sale by date so those who cannot afford it and buy the cheaper stuff than they could be putting themselves at risk? And then I hope the Government will have guidelines to which brand of suncream to use and which they shouldn’t. So then I could turn round and say maybe if the world is not so polluted then the ozone layer would today be in a better state and my child would have been better protected so if they sue anyone than the Governents should be sued to in that case..Do they want children shrouded in clothes? A hat is always necessary but sometimes it’s hot and than it’s not so you need to carry a hat around you at all times or else? Also there are mothers out there who genuinely don’t get it right. So then if you miss a bit on a child or a child removes the cream then we’d need to worry. I hope they know that you can’t spend a day out with your child at the school if the school knows the social services have been in contact with you even if they were happy that things are okay the school might know about it. The other thing is it took me about eight months from the moment I took my child to the dentist for a rotten tooth to the surgery to take it out because of bad hospital paperwork and going from pillar to post because the details where in different places so really I could have sued the hospital for neglect and hurt feelings on behalf of my child because his mouth smelled foul, if I wanted to, if they are happy to make strict rules for others… As with smell some children smell naturally, it is true that it could be a sign of neglect too but I hope the mother can be spoken to and helped financially etc. before the services are contacted. Maybe she can’t afford the water bills. I do understand that there are also well off families who do not wash their children for some reason or other but I hope people would see what the underlying problem is and carry the help through with the parents rather than running to social services.
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