2-year-old son has suncream allergy

[Avonbabies]

Hi, my 2 year old has a nasty allergry to suncream. I've tried 3 brands so far: nivea for kids, L'oreal for kids and now sudacrem which I thought was extra sensitive. His whole face goes very red and swollen and itchy. He's on anti-histamines. This happened last year too. I've seen that Roche-Posay is supposed to be good and also Sunsense, either the toddler milk or sensitive. Does anyone have any advice? My GP thinks it's either slapped cheek syndrome or sun sensitivity. He thinks you can't be allergic to hypoallergenic cream and hasn't offered any advice re. what to do next. I'm 100% sure it's not slapped cheek. This is the first time this year he's come out in such a rash and it's on the day I used the sudocrem. Thanks!

My dcs who react badly with eczema to lots of suncreams were all fine with Boots Soltan Sensitive last year.

My DD is, and we rarely put any on except if its really hot. School are aware of that, she has to wear a hat and spend a bit more time in the shade, at the same time building up a little tan to protect her from burning.

Agree, Boots Soltan was the one which was best and didn't trigger too much reaction but I still avoided the face.

Eucerin is great.

Neither I nor my kids can use Soltan, we get itchy red rashes.

My ds1 and I both react to sunscreen. We can only used mineral sunscreen, which is expensive. I am naughty and rarely wear sunscreen, but I cover up and don't got out in the sun much. For ds1 I buy Lavera Kids sunscreen here although I haven't bought off this website before.

It is expensive, but as it's all we've found that suits ds1 I buy it. Have been too scared to try other brands as they are so expensive, but know lots of people say Green People are good and you can get that in Waitrose.

Both myself and DS are allergic to a variety of creams. Last summer he got on well with the Lloyds Pharamacy own brand, whilst I used Puiz Brun spray (very sparyingly though). I find we can use one for a while but over time (sometimes just weeks) we become sensitive to them.
I am interested in the mineral type sun scrrens as we haven't tried those yet - any more recommendations?

Maybe he's allergic to zinc?

I am and i know that it's in Sudacrem and Nivea for kids. Check the ingredients list on the other bottles you have.

I now use Clinique as does my 11yo DD as she had a reaction to the kids Nivea recently. It's expensive but it works for us.

My DTs react to suncream and we spent a fortune trying out many different brands.

We ended up using cheap Tesco own brand cream (was in a green spray bottle last year) and it was the only one they didnt react to and was cheap too!

I used to get quite embarrassed by their reaction because it used to look like they were badly sunburnt and I thought people would be judging me for it

The green people do a nice one

Forgot to say it's probably listed as zinc oxide.

Wow! Thanks everyone for your responses! I'll give Green People and some of the other creams you mention a go. Spot tests this time! He looks really poorly with it. I'll check to see what common ingredients are in the Nivea and sudocrem - would be interesting if it was zinc.

If it is zinc then watch out for old fashioned fabric plasters too!

Is there a suncream that isn't water resistant? i always wonder if that's why I get a rash, because my skin can't breath. I'm always allergic to suncream but not moisturiser with SPF.

Mine was like this with everything except Sunsense toddler milk.

Piz Buin allergy suncream, factor 30 is the only one I am not allergic to.

Any waterproof suncream can give you heatrash/prickly heat as it blocks the pores.

Thanks, All! I've checked sudocrem and it doesn't contain zinc, so it must be something else. I've ordered some Roche-Posay and Green People. Failing that I'm going to try Sunsense and continue from there. Spoken to my doc and he now agrees it's likely to be the suncream. (I have an allergy to some sun creams and my skin is photosensitive.)

I thought DS1 was for years, but it turned out to be solar urticaria.

Suncream makes it worse though.

Never found one that doesn't.

It's trial and error with things like suncream unfortunately. We find Sunsense Sensitive factor 50 ok so far but sometimes DS is fine with a particular suncream for a while then suddenly starts reacting to it.

My son has reacted to every cream we have tried but we found Green peoples suncream (we use the adult on on him) and he doesnt get a rash or any redness. So happy we have finally found one that doesnt cause prickly heat rash thought I would share.

Aveeno do a sun cream, although agree with Crunchyfrong that it's sometimes difficult to work out what is the problem ie whether its the cream or the sun itself.
I get polymorphic light eruption in spring and its difficult to work out if the suncreams make it worse or not.

The solution for us was The Sun Mousse. It solved all apparent sun/skin allergy problems. So nice we still use it now, years later.

we tried ROC sensitive, for our son when he was young and it worked quite well.

once he was about 7ish he could have kids soltan sensitive.

My 2 year old is allergic to octocrylene. It's found I practically every kids sunscreen as it also acts as a water proofing agent. Two that I have found to be ok are liz Earle and green people. Fortunately we live in Scotland where it is currently snowing!

If you are sure it's th sunscreen push for a dermatology referral. Ds had his done at the beginning of the year and was no bother at all, apart from the 3 appointment sin 5 days. And we now know exactly what to avoid.

Thanks everyone. I think I will push for a dermotologist appointment. Our GP has said he can't prescribe a suncream because of budget cuts.

Do you think it's OK to do 2 patch tests at once i.e. one product on one wrist and one on the other? Once I've established which product is ok on the wrist I'll try his face. I imagine it might be a slow process and that we'll have to try a few!