As school is letting out for the summer, many parents begin planning activities to keep their child busy over the summer. As a working mom, your child may go to daycare. If your daycare is similar to the one my kids attended, they go on field trips throughout the summer to keep the school aged children busy. If you don’t have a bottle of sunscreen in your house, you should make sure that you grab a bottle next time you are at the store. As you and your family are spending more and more time outdoors this summer, it is very important that you apply sunscreen every few hours to protect you and your children from the sun’s harmful rays and to prevent getting sunburned. Summertime is often filled with fun activities that often requires you and your children to spend several hours out in the sunshine, including, your baby.
Disclosure: This post is for informational purposes only. The opinions reflected in this post are my own and are based upon my own experiences.
How Can I Protect My Baby From The Sun’s Harmful Rays?
If you are planning on taking an infant that is younger than 6 months old out in the sun for long periods of time, you will need to protect their delicate skin. A baby that is 6 months old or younger, isn’t able to wear sunscreen and has to be protected differently from the rest of the family. Your baby’s skin is thinner and they can easily absorb the active ingredient in sunscreen, which in large doses can be harmful to your child. They also have a higher skin to weight ratio than older children so they are exposed to more chemicals that is found in sunscreen. If you take your child with you on your outings, it is import to dress them in a light weight long sleeve shirt and pants. Put a wide brim hat on their head to protect their face, neck, and shoulders from the sun’s harmful rays. Keep your baby in the shade as much as possible, you can use an umbrella or the stroller’s canopy. Be sure that you monitor your baby for overheating and dehydration.
22 comments
Great tips for preventing sunburns. I should be getting a sun hat too 🙂
I hope that you can find the perfect sun hat for this summer Dominique.
WOW! These are all great tips! Thanks for sharing. It is so important to protect our skin from the sun. Reminds me…must get a hat! 🙂 Thank you!
Alexandra I hope that you can find the perfect hat as well.
We are extra cautious here in AZ about sun and heat stroke. It is so easy to get into trouble, and there is always some horrible story of a child left in a car:(
I can understand it gets very hot in AZ. I always hate hearing about kids who are found hiding or left behind in the hot car. 🙁
My kids are water bugs–they live in the pool from the end of June until the last day of Aug–SUNBLOCK is like a second skin for them. =) Super tips!
Pamela I am glad that you don’t have to remind your kids to put on sunblock since they are out in the sun constantly. I used to have to urge my older kids to use sunscreen sometimes.
These are such great tips. My kids already have tan lines from how much swimming they’ve been doing. I know one thing they don’t realize on their own is that sunscreen doesn’t last all day and I have to remind them to reapply if they’re out for too long. Great article!
Yes, if you don’t reapply the sunscreen frequently they will burn their skin and increase their risks for sun related skin damage.
I use the Environmental Working Group’s database to choose sunscreens for myself and my family. It’s a great resource.
I have never heard of that database before, thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much for the tips! SPF 55 here in CA. We really need to pay special attention these summer days!
Yes, I need to work on following my own tips. I do always put sunscreen on my kids.
This is an excellent article and perfect timing for the summer months ahead. I had no idea that sunscreen should not be used on babies less than 6 months, thanks for this info Christy.
Carla glad I provided you with some helpful information for your grand babies.
Great advice for everyone–and not just for our kids. We adults are just as prone to sunburn and it carries as many risks as it does for our kids. Sunburn is the quickest way to ruin a fun summer.
Marie you are correct. Everyone should wear sunscreen and not just children.
Great post and just in time for summer. I know that I burn in about 30 minutes so I always make sure I have sunscreen.
Your welcome Katina.
Great tips except for one .. lathering sunscreen on children .. I do not like exposing them to all those chemicals. Skin cancer has been on the rise since sunscreens have been in use. Common sense exposure to sun needs to be applied. We need the vitamin D from the sun and sunscreen blocks the vitamin D. A light sun tan is healthy. Christy, you are doing a great job with your blog. Think about it.. selling sunscreen is big business.. this is my opinion from the things I have learned that I love to share.
Even with sunscreen applied me and my children manage to get a pretty good tan. I agree Vitamin D is important and the sunshine is known to help prevent other issues like depression.