mom of redheads - sunscreen question?

[happypamama]

I'm not redheaded, but my DH is, and we're both very fair (I'm actually fairer than he is and more prone to burning, partly because he spent years working on construction crews outside). Our poor kids have no hope of being olive-skinned! So far, we've got one with dark hair like me, two blond boys, and a baby who looks like he'll either be dark-haired or maybe (finally) redheaded. My oldest son doesn't burn terribly easily, but DD, DS2, and I do. I insist on hats as much as I can, but I generally just keep them out of the sun between about 10 and 3. I also try to build up their immunity by having them out for short periods in the spring, working up to longer periods by summer. If I can't avoid sun during those hours, we do use California Baby sunblock and put it on liberally (though not for the baby; I keep him out of the sun).

[gardenmom5]

My daughter won't wear sunscreen - she went out and ordered a whole slew of items to cover herself with. from hats, shirts, to individual sleeves with a hole for the thumb. (and then she was surprised when her dr told her her vit D levels were catastrophically low.)

 

I always used SF 45+ - (and had people tell me that you only need 25 - uh, no.) I used coppertone and prefer the sensitive for babies.

 

We also stayed out of the sun during the mid-day when the sun is highest.

[Sun]

I notice most of the replies have to do with beaches or pools where it is feasible to have your child wear a rash guard/board shorts. My are all very, very fair and I slather sunscreen on them, but have no luck keeping hats on them. We live in San Antonio right now and it is hot, hot, hot so I wonder how warm they would get with a long-sleeve rash guard and board shorts if I made them wear them on our park day (usually from noon to 4pm).

 

How do you enforce the "you wear a hat or else" policy when no one else is wearing a hat (for older kids)?

 

My son is 9, so older than your kids. If he doesn't wear his hat, he doesn't get to play outside. Period. It's enforced the same way I would enforce any other rule that is different from another family's.

 

La Roche Posay Anthelios XL (must contain Mexoryl XL...specifically XL). Most sunscreens that claim great UVA coverage, don't really have it. This one does. It is also safe compared to some toxic popular brands. It is pricey but actually does what it says, so it is what we use. I don't want my redheads (or me) to have skin cancer because we falsley thought we were getting great coverage, when all along the UVA was doing damage. I also get sick from sunlight, long story (autoimmune), and this sunscreen is one of the few that helps me.

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree: This is the ONLY sunscreen I have found to really work and really prevent tanning and burning. I can still burn when wearing it, but it takes much, much longer. (As a point of reference, I live in the Pacific Northwest, and I can burn in about three minutes in the sun in March if I'm not wearing sunscreen.) I stock up on it from Amazon every year.

[KungFuPanda]

My ds2 is a redhead with very pale skin. We took him to the beach for 3 hours yesterday. I put SPF 50 sunscreen on him every 1/2 hour and he still burned, and not just a little. He refuses to wear a hat, so I rubbed the sunscreen right onto his hair and scalp (he has a VERY short buzz cut), and it still burned too. :sad: My dds are both very pale also, but neither of them or I burned like my little guy.

What brand of sunscreen have you found that protects their skin? Short of completely covering them head to toe, how do you let them play in the sun all summer?

 

We just don't regularly go out in the heat of the day. I have the red hair and the fairest skin, but my kids are blond and don't need to be out in the sun either. If our group did a noon-4 park day I'd campaign to move it earlier or later, or just not go.

 

No-Ad makes an SPF 85 that actually works on me IF I remember to reapply halfway through the day. I wear a hat if I'm hiking and find that a long sleeve in a really light fabric is cooler than having the sun on my skin. We tend to go to our local pool around dinnertime and stay until it closes. This gives us a few hours of pool time AND a dinner plan without sitting in the brightest sun. We don't spend all summer indoors, we just keep to the woodsy areas when it's really hot and bright. Our yard is all shade, so it works for us.

 

Letting a little one fry at the beach because he refuses a hat should never be an option with a redheaded child. They burn to easily. It's dangerous and painful. Better to skip the beach. I had sun poisoning once as a child and you do NOT want him going through that. It's awful. Once, an aunt let my brother play in a sprinkler all day with no sunscreen. HER kids were FINE. They just tanned, but my brother ended up in the emergency room and was wrapped like a mummy for a week. Fair, freckled skin is a genetic mutation that is just not conducive to survival. :glare: