I am going to start a short series addressing this, as over the past week, I’ve been asked a lot of Qs about sun protection for children – should they be wearing sunscreen in a splash pool? How often should they be applying and how often?
Instinctively, my first answer is of course, young people should be slathered in sunscreen because the maximum amount of UV exposure occurs before the age of 18. If we want to prevent skin cancer, photodamage by overexposure to UV filters, then absolutely sunscreen should be applied. Also remember that overexposure to UV radiation causes immunosuppression and DNA damage
But with kids its not that simple for a few reasons:
- A sunscreen is basically a bunch of chemicals that you are applying to your skin. What type of chemicals are you comfortable for your kid to use?
- Kid’s are smaller than adults and therefore surface area is larger (that’s just maths) and couple with thinner skin barriers, will absorb more chemicals than you or I want
Sunscreen is NOT the only answer to SUN PROTECTION
The Australians ran a great campaign years ago of Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek + Slide and I have adjusted this for my own purposes
Read more at https://happyskindays.com/infant-and-kids-a-short-guide-to-sunscreen/
To provide your kid with complete protection, I strongly suggest that you follow this guidance below
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