Mum issues sun cream warning after children are burnt despite wearing SPF 50

A mum has issued a sun cream warning to other parents after her daughters were sunburned despite wearing SPF 50 sunscreen.

Karen Trett covered her children with Asda Protect Kids Factor 50, reapplying the cream “every hour-and-a-half” while on a family holiday to Majorca, Spain, last month.

But the 41-year-old was shocked to notice her daughters were badly sunburnt, despite being covered in sun protection all day.

Karen, from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, explained that she’d bought the cream a week before going away. “I used the cream on the first day of the holiday and kept on topping it up every hour and a half and every time they came out of the water.”

Having had some family members suffer from skin cancer, Karen explained that she is very conscious about sun damage and making sure her children are covered at all times.

So she was surprised that by the end of the day her daughters were so sunburnt the were “screaming in pain whenever I tried to even put after-sun on them.”

“As it was only the first day of our 10-day stay it definitely put a dampener on our holiday – so I’m sharing my story so that other children don’t go through this.”

Karen says it took several days for her daughters’ sunburn to subside and is now concerned they might be left scarred.

“Since we have been home their sunburn appears to have scabbed over, and now I’m nervous that they’re going to have some scarring,” she said.

“It’s just not something that you expect when you’re putting your trust in a sun care product, it’s very upsetting.”

Asda has since confirmed the sun cream Karen used has “passed all of the required SPF tests” and that they are trying to contact the family.

A spokesperson for Asda said: “All Asda sun cream is independently tested to the highest industry standards and is labelled with clear usage guidelines, which are especially important to follow in this hot weather.

“We are confident in the quality of our sun cream and have run the necessary checks to confirm that it has passed all of the required SPF tests and all the ingredients have been made to their precise specification.

“After seeing Ms Trett’s post on Facebook we have tried to get in touch with her directly.”

This isn’t the only sun protection warning issued by a parent recently.

Back in May, a mum urged other parents to check the UV ratings on their children’s sunscreen and not just the factor.

Sharing an informative post to Facebook, the mum, posting under ‘The Bristol Parent’ explains that merely covering children in factor 50 might not be offering them the best sun protection.

The warning comes as a new report found that waterproof sun creams aren’t always as effective as they might seem.

Consumer group Which? tested two products – one own-brand and one well-known branded product – which both claim to be water-resistant, and found that they don’t work nearly as well after they have been worn in the sea.

After just 40 minutes in salt water the product testers found that the sun protection factor (SPF) dropped by up to 59%.

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