To wonder about sunburnt children before suncream was popularised?

Spent many times burnt - I was always the one with a tshirt on.

I never tanned, didn’t help my Mum & both sisters do. in her mind I needed to get a base then I would tan…..nope just like my Dad white red (peel) white. Eventually she would buy me sun cream for holidays, but I think only because hawian tropic brought out an oil - she would cover herself in it.

I have extremely fair, freckled skin. When we went to the beach, my mother always applied sun cream, but it wasn’t very effective in the sixties and seventies. We wore T shirts when we had our picnics. Even so, a beach visit was almost always followed by agonising sunburn, soothed as best as possible by calamine lotion. A few days later, the affected skin would begin to peel, leaving freckles behind. I have never had any hint of a tan. Once sun cream with different factors was invented, it was a miracle. These days, l use factor 50.

When we went on holidays with IL in around 2000. I brought my suncream - factor 50. My IOL had brought their suncream. From the price I would guess it was bought in early 1980s at best - and factor 2.

I suggested they used the suncream I'd bought. They were amazed. "This suncream actually does stop sub burn" was the comment I got. 🤦‍♀️

Peeling skin was part of the holiday - so satisfying when you got a big bit!

Another one who got burnt as a kid (born in 1976). It was cover up (with clothes) or get burnt until sun lotion became more available. But I do remember having sun lotion on holidays abroad in the mid-80s (Hawaian Tropic! The smell of it takes me back now)

I know the answer to this- 3/4 of my kids grandparents have had bits cut or frozen off.
It’s not just about stopping children getting burnt it’s about preventing melanomas in later life.

The problem is that you don’t have to be getting sun burns to get skin cancer.
The damage that causes cancer can be from intense bursts (sunburn) OR long term constant exposure that didn’t cause sunburn.

I fell into the latter category.

Lucky I wasn’t in Australia though. The same generation there had the hole in the ozone exposing them to alot of UV-C. UV-C can penetrate the deepest of all UV and is highly carcinogenic.

Which is why suncream and sun protection first took off down there.

I think they just got burned? Or maybe stayed out of the sun more? I got sunburn as a baby in 1983, still have a palpable and sometimes visible scar to this day.

Im mid 40s, baby oil was a thing, and sun beds. I dread to think.

A huge amount of my family are being diagnosed with BCC in the generation above me.

70s childhood, every summer in Greece.
My Dad believed suncream was toxic and would not buy it or use it.
My mum would rub this Avon oil on us to protect against the sun and the mozzies. It did neither, but we also did not burn very often. We all wore sun hats.

We followed local custom in Greece. Beach from 8am-10am. Back to villa for a long lazy lunch. Then naps until 4pm- required to be indoors and quiet. Then play outside or swim in the pool from 5pm until 7pm when we would get dressed and go out to eat in a local taverna. That usually included a bit of night life, even for children, and we would usually come home around 10pm

I have had skin cancer 5x so far. First was at age 26. Most recent was last year.

That is utter bollocks. I never ever "built up a gradual tan" - I am very fair-skinned! Even now I really only go a deeper shade of pale!

I'm very fair, vintage 1950s, and every picture of me as a toddler on holiday has me wearing long sleeves, trousers and a very wide brimmed sombrero hat. Don't recall sun protection cream until the 70s, and even then, you were basting the skin rather than protecting it.
As an adult, I've always been careful not to burn, but when you're as fair as I am it's not easy. I could burn one arm and half of my face having the window down in the car, until I used sun beds in the early 80s. God only knows what they did to my skin, but I do not burn so ridiculously easily since, though I am still very careful and never rely on sunblock. Whilst I will snooze in the sun after a swim on holiday until my swimsuit is dry - 5 minutes each side tops - I have never sunbathed abroad. How people can lay out all day in tropical sun is beyond me. They anoint themselves with sun cream, so maybe they don't actually burn, but I wonder what else the sun and the chemicals in the screen are doing to them.

I was going to say that about the olive oil! I never did it. I got burned repeatedly team with sunstroke. I wore a hat and kept out of the sun as much as I could!

It was not a lipoma. The consultant wrote in the letter to my GP; 'This is clinically not a lipoma'. I had a number of MRIs and scans and a biopsy. And a letter of apology from my GP for misdiagnosis.

I was that child before suncream. We used to burn and then have fun peeling off whole sheets of burnt white skin. This was every single time we were on our local beach. I was sunburnt a lot.

Today's and indeed yesterday's children are so protected and rightly so.

Working at sea and a love of sunbeds

I've had melanoma twice. No one else in my family has. When I go to the clinic- I feel like one of the young ones there...

Fanatical about sunscreen - and always have been. Can only remember being burnt once.

Many atypical moles.

My kids have been lathered in factor 50 almost daily since young.

I shouldn’t have opened this thread, it’s terrifying.

I was 10 in 1976 the year of the endless summer, we'd never heard ofsuncream lol. I didn't go abroad til I was thirteen and burnt badly ' peeling' was like a rite of passage. I think it wasn't good but genes also play a part in cancer. I did have one friend who died of skin cancer and my dad had endless ' moles removed ( he worked outside all his working life) I think it's worth putting on suncream now but not to be obsessed we need sun for vit D 😁

I was talking to my mum about this recently. She said they used to put olive oil on!

Born in the mid 70s and wore sun cream but only on the beach or in swimsuits and remember friends burning. I am fair but not ultra fair and didn’t burn on my arms and legs as they were out all year round and weathered. Most burns I remember (mine and friends) were shoulders or backs in swimwear.

I was born 1964 and Mum always pit suncream on me, and herself, if we were at the beach. She got it from Avon or Boots. Only burnt once when Dad was in charge for the day and didn't bother.

My dad and brother were fishermen , dad had many surgeries for skin cancer before he passed away and my brother had massive surgery to his head for skin cancer last year even though he was darker skinned like my mam.

I was burned every holiday , I think it’s inevitable I will get skin cancer too

Same. And my parents didn’t seem overly concerned about it either. I spent many holidays abroad having Savlon plastered on my badly burnt shoulders and back. The thing that worries me is that medical bodies say that a lot of skin cancers in late life are as a result of being badly burned as children.

I grew up in the 70s, my parents were quite ahead of themselves as I was fair skinned and blonde.

I used to be covered in a product called Maws Sun and Wind Cream (what is windburn anyway and how can a cream protect me from it??)

Liberally rubbed in with a bit of sand for effect, I think it was very zinc oxide heavy but it worked a treat.