|
The worst thing you can do to your skin is to head outside without a sunscreen on. Your skin ages most from the sun and in this day and age everyone should be protected from head to toe, children especially. It is not recommended that babies get any sun exposure or wear sunscreen if they are six months and under. It is best to consult a doctor if you plan on spending a significant amount of time at a pool or the beach with little ones.
The sunburn a child gets now can be the one to cause skin cancer when he/she becomes an adult. Take all measures to make sure your kids are properly protected and this means becoming a sunscreen ingredient hound. Every time you go to buy sunscreen read the ingredient list to insure the following ingredients show up in some form, titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, or avobenzone. These three ingredients can offer some protection from 80%-90% of UVA radiation.
The least irritating sunscreen ingredients will be titanium dioxide or zinc oxide. These will be harder to rub in because they have more white pigment but your kids won’t complain as much when the sunscreen gets in their eyes.
After you’ve determined that the sunscreen has the formulation you need and want, look for a brand you trust. Coppertone (Water Babies), Mustela, Origins, and some others all offer good protection. Always make sure the minimum SPF is 15.
Many of these brands have different packaging offerings. It’s not just the simple lotion bottle anymore. The kids' sunscreens come in colors, foams, pump sprays, sticks, and tubes. My favorites are the tubes because the flow is thicker and manageable and the pump sprays because the control is much better than the foams or the lotion bottles. The stick sunscreens are great for waterproof touchups to the cheeks, nose, under the eyes, ears, and shoulders.
|
| |
