A schoolboy had his first holiday in three years ruined after his arms were left covered in painful blisters - despite generously applying factor 50 sun cream. Kainen Ellis, 11, had been enjoying the sun in Turkey with his family during his first holiday since 2019 - but it wasn't long before his fun was ruined.
Despite being smothered in children's factor 50 Nivea sun cream, poor Kainen was left covered in painful blisters - and had to spend the second week of his holiday hiding in the hotel room. Mum Jessica Ellis, 35, claims he had to visit a doctors' surgery every morning, where a nurse popped the blisters that had appeared all over his arms and shoulders, much to the little boy's agony.
His brother Preston, eight, had used different sun cream, but wore the Nivea cream on his nose, which quickly erupted in blisters as well, the mum alleges. Jessica says she has been left heartbroken by what happened to her little boy - and is now issuing a warning to parents over using the sun cream.
Nivea said it takes safety complaints "extremely seriously" and is in touch with the family to find out what happened.
But stay-at-home mum Jessica, who lives in Retford, Nottinghamshire, with her partner Lee Tatt, 39, and her three children, said: "I am disgusted with Nivea. This was our first holiday since 2019, and it cost £5,000 for us all to go, but my son's holiday was ruined after using their sun cream.
"He was covered in blisters, all over his arms and shoulders. He was in absolute agony. I was crying when I first saw the blisters, and now I'm heartbroken for my boys as it could scar. I won't ever use the sun cream again - it's a well-known brand and I'm just so disappointed."
Jessica had flown to Turkey to stay at the Eftalia Splash Resort in Alanya, Antalya, with Lee, their sons and daughter Primrose, three, on July 1. Joined by Jessica's friend Chloe, her boyfriend and their baby, the family couldn't wait for their first holiday since Covid hit after previously visiting Spain in 2019.
Jessica made sure to cover her kids in sun cream and generously applied Nivea Kids Sun Cream Trigger Spray SPF50 to Kainen's shoulders and arms. Towards the end of the first week, Jessica noticed that Kainen's upper body was becoming extremely red and sore, but thought that it was just a touch of sunburn.
It wasn't until the morning of July 8 when Kainen woke up with painful blisters covering his arms and shoulders that Jessica realised just how badly he was suffering.
Jessica said: "He didn't sleep that night, he was in agony, just rolling around in pain in his bed while we were all asleep. I left him in bed in the morning when we went downstairs for breakfast so he could catch up on sleep as he hadn't slept at all.
"When I came back upstairs, he was stood in the front of the mirror in a total panic as he could see the big blisters in his reflection. He had huge blisters all over his arms and shoulders, they looked so painful.
"I was crying and he was thinking about what could be the worse that could happen to him. I rang my partner and we rushed him down to the doctors at the hotel. We had to see the nurse every morning to pop the blisters, as they just kept coming back."
Kainen stayed in the hotel room for the entire second week of his holiday as his siblings, who had used different sun cream, got to carry on playing in the sun, Jessica said. Flying back to the UK on July 15, Jessica took him to A&E, where doctors redressed the blisters and told the mum to keep applying a cooling cream until the blisters have gone.
His skin has steadily improved, but Jessica fears her little boy could be left physically scarred by the ordeal and is urging parents not to buy the sun cream.
She said: "It says on the bottle that it protects you against getting burnt, but look what has happened to my boy. I didn't use that sun cream on Primrose at all and she was fine. I used a little of it on Preston's nose and that ended up blistered as well.
"Kainen didn't want to leave the hotel room until the day we were going home as he was too embarrassed of what people would think. He was getting a lot of stares and people asking questions when we took him to the doctors every morning."
A spokesperson for Nivea said: "As the World’s No.1 Sun Protection brand, we are dedicated to developing products that reliably and effectively protect against sun damage. We take any safety complaint extremely seriously as consumer trust in the safety of our products is our highest priority.
"We are currently in contact with the consumer to understand more about what happened in this instance and to get relevant product information that will help our urgent investigation. We rigorously test each of our NIVEA SUN formulations and their labelled SPFs according to internationally standardised test methods at independent test institutes, so we can always ensure the consistent, high-quality efficacy and consumer safety of all NIVEA SUN products.
"We would like to stress the importance of regularly reapplying sunscreen and where possible seeking shade and covering up when spending time in the sun, especially between 11am and 3pm when the sun is most intense."
