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Summer Tips Part One

© Stacy Hinkle

Summer time is here and for me and my boys that means camping, swimming, park, and much more fun thing. A very important tip is when your packing you bag, remember the sunscreen. This little bottle should not only be included in every packing section, but as daily as brushing your teeth. Why do you say? Did you know that 80% of the suns damage to the skin happens to your skin before you are 18 years old? Most of this damage to your skin causes skin cancer. Exposing your children to the sun brings on harmful changes to your child's genes or DNA permanently. In turn, this causes their skin cells not to work like the should. Repeating this can further harm your children's skins cells. As your child gets older, their chances for getting basal cell, squamous cell, and melanoma cancers increases. Melanoma is the deadliest, but is also the most rarest skin cancer. The sun's harm doesn't end here through. The sun rays can damage the cornea in your eyes or your children's eyes. This damage leads to cataracts or macular degeneration. How do you protect your children from this things happening? The first obvious choice is sunscreen. Sunscreen should be applied a half an hour before going outside every day. Between the hours of 10 and 4pm, the suns rays are the worst. Sunscreen should be reapplied every 2 to 4 hours for safety all day. A family of fours should go through a 9 oz. Bottle after it has be reapplied 2 times. Don't forget to put it one after you have been wet and toweled off. Putting sunscreen on includes feet, ears, and lips. For people with fair and freckle skin, these people have an increased risk, along with people that tan easily. One myth about tanning is that even though it is a cool thing, tanning is harmful to your skin. Sunscreen should be set at SPF of 15 or higher. It also needs to be broad spectrum in order to cover UVA and UVB sun rays. UVA doesn't cause a person to have a sunburn, instead it leads to decreased immune systems. When this happens, it leads to skin damage, wrinkles, and cancer. UVA is blocked in sunscreen by Parsol 1789, titanium dioxide, and zinc oxide. Blue Lizard Baby Australian sunscreen is a good choice. This is a SPF 30 sunscreen that comes in a bottle that turns from white to pink when the sun rays are do much for your skin. This give parents a chance to see if even on a cloudy day the sun still might be do much for your child. You can by this at $11.50 per bottle. Another is Banana Boat for Kids. This is set at a SPF 45, hypo allergenic, and broad spectrum. It can also be found in a fun spray bottle. The last is Hawaiian Tropic Baby Face. This is a broad spectrum and safe set at SPF 50.

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