Kids: Dealing with end of year blues

December is always a difficult month in my house. Christmas planning, birthday planning and of course the dreaded "End of year blues"

Hair trigger meltdowns are less than fun.

But Smurfling learned an important lesson this past weekend, one that's caused him to miss the last full week of school even though he really didn't want to.

Sometimes, just sometimes, Mum's know what they're talking about. Like when they tell their fair skinned son to wear a shirt when going outside to play in the middle of Summer in the middle of the day.

Sadly Smurfling isn't the only one suffering because he didn't listen and got sunburnt in the half an hour he was outside. Hyper sensitivity to the itching and the heat in the skin means noone's getting any sleep- except the cats who have taken to sleeping in the shed away from the screaming.

We've tried every single sunburn remedy that exists I think. So far only 2 have actually done anything. So. A list for those who may find themselves in a similar situation!

Remedy 1: Oatmeal bath. The idea is that oatmeal is a moisturising agent, so 1 cup of the stuff in a bath of tepid water and soak for no more than 15 minutes - otherwise the water will dry your skin out more than the oatmeal can moisturise.

Remedy 2: Bi Carb bath. Not sure what it's supposed to do other than make it hurt less. We used about half a cup in a bath of tepid water.

Remedy 3: Aloe Vera gel. Normally this helps most people, not so my son, but that could be because there had to be touching to get it onto him.

Remedy 4: Moisturiser. Again, this normally helps, if you can touch and all.

Remedy 5: After Sun Spray. Not sure if this one is Australia specific. We used Banana Boat's aloe spray. Helped a little the first day, after that not so much.

Remedy 6: Tepid shower. This is the one that worked most often. But only while he was actually under the water.

Remedy 7: Solarcaine spray. This one is a chemist recommended use. Anaesthetic spray. When combined with paracetamol worked wonders.

And that's the other thing that you should do. Give the child paracetamol of ibuprofen at the recommended dosages. We personally had to up the pain killer to a chemist only paracetamol and codeine mix, but that's because Smurfling was so hyper sensitised. The itching of the skin healing was bad enough to be painful.