This document provides summer safety tips to help kids have fun in the sun while staying safe. It details hazards like sunburn, heat stroke, sea swimming rash, jellyfish stings, bee stings and more. For each hazard, it lists symptoms, prevention methods, and treatment recommendations. The goal is to arm parents and children with knowledge so they can enjoy summer activities without risking their health.

1. Summer Safety Guide
fridayschildmontessori.com

2. Summer officially begins on the 1st of
December but most of us have
probably been feeling the heat a bit
already, especially here on the Gold
Coast.

3. But the start of December really does
start a new season off – the big focus
on The Season To Be Jolly seems to
emphasis this.

4. School and preschool holidays are just
around the corner, along with
Christmas and New Year celebrations
(and yes, contrary to what your children
might secretly believe, the teachers
here at Friday’s Child Montessori don’t
spend the time when preschool isn’t
open in the cupboards waiting for the
next session!).

5. We hope everyone has a great summer
and we hope so see all our friends back
again next year, if they’re not heading
off to the next stage at primary school.

6. To help make sure that everyone has a
great summer, we’ve compiled a list of
safety tips to make sure everyone
makes it through the hot holiday
season in one piece.

7. Hazard: Sunburn
Symptoms: Hot reddish-pink skins,
especially on skins that were paler to
start with (people with darker skins can
take on a redder tone but don’t burn
quite as readily as those with Scottish
and Irish ancestors). The skin feels
hot and tender and probably a bit
painful and swollen.

8. Prevention: Slip, slop, slap, wrap. In
other words, cover up with long, light
loose clothing; use sunscreen with a
high SPF (30+ is recommended); wear a
hat that protects the back of the neck
as well as the face and use
polarised sunglasses.

9. Treatment: Cool the skin with cold
water – a cold bath or shower often
goes a long way to help.

10. Aloe vera is a magnificent herbal
remedy for soothing burns of all sorts
as well as sunburn, so either use a
cream based on aloe vera or, if you
have an aloe vera plant, snap off a leaf
and scrape up the clear gel to apply to
the burnt site.

11. You can also try the remedy from the
Southern USA, where you make up a
very strong brew of black tea and add it
to a cool or cold bath, teabags and all.

12. The tannins in the tea seem to do
something helpful. If your child (or you)
experiences blistering, chills or fever
after a bad sunburn, see the doctor
immediately.

13. Hazard: Heat stroke (aka sunstroke)
Symptoms: Hot, flushed and dry skin,
headaches, blurry vision, higher than
normal body temperature, sometimes
seizures and unconsciousness.

14. Prevention: Avoid long periods in areas
with high temperatures – this can be
indoors if the windows are shut and the
air-conditioning doesn’t work or isn’t
provided.

15. Treatment: Call an ambulance even if
you only suspect heat stroke, as it can
kill. The human body has more
defences for dealing with extreme cold
than it does extreme heat.

16. Put the sufferer in the shade and keep
them as cool as possible with ice packs
and (gently!) spraying them
with cold water.

17. Hazard: Prickly heat (aka heat rash)
Symptoms: It doesn’t happen to every
child, but some children have a sort of
rash where their sweat glands form
little red bumps, usually in folds of the
skin (e.g. armpits, inside of the elbow,
back of the knee, in the butt crack).
Your child feels really itchy.

18. Prevention: Make sure that your child
wears cool, loose clothing and stays
cool if he/she is prone to heat rash.

19. Be careful that your attempts at
covering up your child with long
sleeves and long pants doesn’t produce
this problem – look to the traditional
garb of the Middle East and similar for
guidelines. Think cotton, loose and
flowing.

20. Treatment: Change into light clothing.
Apply a cold compress and maybe
some calamine lotion.

21. Severe cases may need topical steroid
cream and/or medical attention. The
rash should go away in a few days. If it
doesn’t, see your doctor.

22. Hazard: Sea swimming rash
Symptoms: Tingling and itching on the
bits of skin underneath a swimming
cossie after swimming in the sea. It can
show up a couple of hours after
swimming in the sea and can last for
weeks.

23. Prevention: This is difficult, as the itch is
caused by the stings of the juvenile
forms of certain sea anemones and tiny
jellyfish.

24. The only way to be certain to avoid it is
to stay out of the sea – and who wants
to do that when you live on the Gold
Coast?

25. Treatment: Get the cossie off and take a
shower. Wash the cossie very
thoroughly after soaking it in vinegar or
alcohol. Soothe the pain with icepacks
and/or calamine lotion.

26. If the reaction is severe, with symptoms
like headaches, chills, fever,
pain/burning on urination, itchy eyes or
vomiting, see the doctor.

27. Hazard: Jellyfish stings
Symptoms: Pain and stinging in mild
cases; nausea, vomiting, chills,
drowsiness and breathing difficulties.

28. Prevention: Never touch a jellyfish or
even part of a jellyfish. Avoid swimming
in the sea if jellyfish are common or
have been sighted. Learn to identify
box jellyfish so you can avoid them.

29. Treatment: If you even suspect a box
jellyfish, wash the area thoroughly in
vinegar to neutralise the toxins. Keep
the vinegar on the skin for half an hour
before trying to scrape the stingers off
with a blunt edge (side of a credit card,
blunt knife from the picnic set, the
edge of a ruler, a stout piece of
cardboard such as the cover of a new
paperback).

30. Reapply vinegar. Call an ambulance if
the reaction is severe and/or you
suspect box jellyfish. Also call the
ambulance if the sting is extensive. One
common folk first-aid treatment for
jellyfish stings is to urinate on it, but
this has been “mythbusted”.

31. Warm water and/or vinegar is just as
good, especially the vinegar, and
there’s nothing in pee that helps east
the sting. Use icepacks to soothe the
pain and take paracetamol.

32. Hazard: Bee and wasp stings
Symptoms: You can see a bee sting in
the site; wasps don’t leave their stings
behind and can be hanging around
trying to sting. In both cases, pain and
swelling are clear symptoms.

33. Prevention: Wear shoes when outdoors,
especially around areas with lots of
flowers (clover attracts bees, so
discourage these pretty flowers from
growing in your lawn). Stay away from
bee hives and wasp nests.

34. Treatment: Scrape out the bee sting
without squeezing it, which injects
more venom. Use the side of a credit
card, the edge of a piece of paper, a
blunt knife, etc.

35. Swat the wasp if it’s still hanging about.
Apply a paste of Baking soda for Bees
(B and B) and apply Vinegar for “Vasps”.

36. Soothe pain with an ice pack. If the
person stung has an allergy, call an
ambulance. Also call an ambulance for
extensive stinging (if someone’s
jumped onto a wasp nest, for example)
or if your child is stung on the face,
throat or private parts.

37. This is brought to you by:
Fridays Child Montessori
fridayschildmontessori.com