Toddler suncream allergy

[glowingtwig]

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice on suncreams that are less likely to cause allergy in a 2 year old. Last year all child-friendly off the shelf suncreams we tried gave her awful rashes, then prickly heat, followed by eczema... she spent the summer covered in long sleeves and trousers and in the shade :( the only thing she could tolerate on her face hands and feet was my fearfully expensive La Roche face one. Even Child's Farm was a no.

With the lovely Easter weather this weekend DD has been in the garden and again I put La Roche on her and her poor little face the next day - hot, red cheeks and forehead where the sun cream had been applied, now a spotty, blotchy rash. What am I to do?

I've ordered an organic one from the brand Jason but it's not arrived yet. GP just says keep out of the sun and use Aveeno cream until it's cleared up.

Any advice/recommendations much appreciated!

[stevalnamechanger]

Altruist ? I've seen people say it helped them when they've previously been allergic

[TheSnowyOwl]

Toddle is amazing.

[glowingtwig]

Thank you so much for these recommendations everyone. She's always in a UV suit on the beach but in the garden or at nursery outside I need to find one that works for her, even if it's just for her face and hands and she's in light long sleeves/trousers.

Good advice re organic and blocks as well and previous tolerance. But yes- so irritating for her. She's inherited my pale, sensitive skin, not DH's olive skin.

[SpeedofaSloth]

Unless you know a specific ingredient to avoid it's trial and error, unfortunately.
My DC don't get on great with sun screen and the least irritating one at the moment seems to be Nivea Baby sensitive.
For the beach they have shortie wetsuits and hats to try and minimise the amount of skin which needs sunscreen.
It is a right pain, I sympathise.

[Findahouse21]

Sounds like me - I don't react to the suncream but to the sunlight itself, but because ivve used suncream on sunny days I was mistaken about the cause for ages.

[Sweepingeyelashes]

Organic stuff is not hypoallergenic. It can be full of poweful allergens. Even physical blocks like titanium dioixde or zinc oxide have some carrier so you can rub it on and make the stuff stick and the carrier can cause the reaction.

My son went through so many sunblocks. I bought stacks of them. You can become allergic to a previously tolerated products as well - hence the reaction to the La Roche. My son's face would come out in welts and he couldn't be in the shade because he was riding horses. (He's not allergic to horses or stables.) The one that we found worked for him was neither organic nor a physical block - it was the Cetaphil sunblock.

[drinkwithanumbrellainit]

Ultrasun was the one we found, recommended by a sensitive skinned friend. Really pricey but lasts for ages and feels less greasy than normal sunscreen - we all use it now even though only my daughter needs it.

[Crocky]

La Roche is the only one I have found that I can tolerate.
There are a couple listed here that I haven’t tried though.

[Valhalla17]

I have this allergy and the only one that I'm ok with is Heliocare

[Prometheus]

My DS has the Eucerin sun allergy one. That seems to make his face much less sore than all the others we’ve tried.

[JohannSebastianBach]

I get prickly heat and I have eczema. I use Ladival sparingly and try to stay out of the sun/cover up as much as possible so I don't need much suncream.

I wear surfer style stuff to swim on holiday etc.

It's really crap but seems to help.

[LaughingLemur]

I second the Eucerin sun allergy cream. My youngest has reacted to every other sun cream we tried but can tolerate this. Very expensive unfortunately.

[LaTomatina]

A sensitive Neutrogena one? My stepmother is a dermatologist and she has always advised me to use sensitive sunscreen for the children rather than sunscreen marketed as children's sunscreen. She says children's skin is the same as sensitive adult skin and sunscreen marketed as being specifically for children is just a money spinner.

[ResentfulLemon]

P20, Simple Sun Sensitive and Boots Soltan Sensitive were fine for my daughter.

We spent an absolute fortune going through different types and the poor girl was tortured in the process but these were all reliably safe.

She's also sensitive to the sun too so whatever we did she would have a rash Apr-Oct until we found the right suncream.

[Duracellbunnywannabe]

Sun sense works for us.

[DragonMovie]

-Whatever you find that works, use it sparingly
-choose the lowest spf that’s effective. It’s the active ingredient that causes the reaction so the stronger the worse.

• overexposure to an allergen can cause the allergy to worsen which is why your DD is allergic to things this year that she wasn’t last year. So basically use clothes and shade as much as poss and sun cream as little as possible.
  

Sun cream allergy is a major pain. Not sure if it’s the kind of thing that can just affect people in childhood like other eczema type issues, so if I were you I’d spend childhood years minimising contact with the allergen in the hope that the allergy might not develop
Too much.

[Clymene]

@SuperSange

We had a bit of trial and error and going Childs Farm was great for my son.

The OP has already said that child's farm doesn't work for her child.

Piz Buin works here.

Also worth trying something like P20. Sometimes the thick pore blocking nature of sunscreen is what causes the issue.

At that age, a UV suit might be a better idea

[SuperSange]

We had a bit of trial and error and going Childs Farm was great for my son.

[SE13Mummy]

My DDs both react to most sunscreens. Over the years, we found the expensive Green Baby/People one was the only thing that didn't cause them to break out in hives. In 2020, a friend told me about Altruist sunscreen which was developed by the dermatologist friend of her parents (both medics). It's much more affordable, is fine for both DDs and even comes in a spray!

[90s2now]

Try a mineral suncream rather than a chemical. You can normally tell the difference because a chemical based suncream will sting your eyes. A quick Google will tell you a list of ingredients to look out for. La rouch-posay do mineral based children's creams but like you said, they are really expensive. There's a few other brands that you could try too.

[dumdumduuuummmmm]

Have you tried mineral as well as chemical formulations OP?

[CeeceeBloomingdale]

I was going to say child farm but you've tried that. Are you using too high a factor? There is negligible difference in protection between SPF30 and 50 for example but the SPF50 will be much thicker and greaser and more likely to cause a reaction.

[dumdumduuuummmmm]

Eucerin sun allergy spf50 is worth trying

[MolliciousIntent]

My friend who is allergic can only tolerate Piz Buin.

[firsttimekat]

In a similar situation we were recommended Delph suncream and we've used it successfully ever since. DS now 7 and each summer I try him with whatever we have in for us but always go back to it when he has some kind of reaction.