When it comes to sun damage, kids can be even more vulnerable than adults. Luckily, you don’t have to skip summer and spend your days indoors. There are some terrific ways that you can minimize your kid’s chances for sunburn and ensure that they are able to spend the day at the beach without spending the rest of the week with painful, sunburned skin. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that you can keep your kids protected from the sun this summer.
When you protect your kids from the sun, what you are actually protecting them from is a harmful ultraviolet – or UV – rays that come from the sun. Not only is sunburn extremely painful for your child, getting sunburns can actually increase your chance of skin cancer later on in life. UV rays are strongest during the middle of the day, so it is best to be outside around those hours and spend the midday hours doing something indoors.
But there are a few ways that you can protect your children from UV rays if you are outside. For example, make sure that you have shade. She’d is the best protection from the sun’s rays, especially during midday. You can sit in the shade of buildings, trees or other land features, or you can set up a beach umbrella or something else to block those harmful rays when you are outside.
You can also use hats or other clothing to cover up your child skin when they are outside. It can be tempting to wear as little as possible when the sun is beating down, but it can be worth it to wear a light cotton long sleeve shirt instead of a bathing suit when playing out in the yard during the day. Hats offer terrific protection from the sun and can be really stylish as well. You want to choose a hat that protects the face, scalp, ears and neck however.
You also want to go with sunglasses. Sunglasses protect your child’s eyes from UV rays which can lead to cataracts in adults. You want wraparound sunglasses that block as much UV-A and UV-B rays as possible – 100 percent if you can manage it. Sunglasses can also be really stylish, and your kids don’t mind wearing them because they look cool, plus they offer better vision when the sun is super bright.
Finally, make sure that you are applying sunscreen. You want at least SPF 15 sunscreen and you want to look for broad-spectrum protection because broad-spectrum sunscreen blocks both UV-A and UV-B rays. Make sure that you are applying sunscreen generously 25 to 35 minutes before going outdoors. You also need to keep up with your sunscreen during the day, especially after swimming. Some of the areas that you want to protect that some people forget about include your child’s ears, nose, lips and the tops of their feet.
The bottom line is that even though it can be somewhat dangerous to go out in the sun when it is at its hottest, the rest of the day should be fine as long as you take the proper precautions like the ones listed here.
