to judge parents whose children have sunburn?

[StrandedBear]

Seriously there is no need for children (or adults for that matter) to get burnt. It is fairly easy actually, suncream, cover up, stay in the shade between 11 and 3! So when I see a small child with bright red shoulders I want to shake the parents. The sun is dangerous! Then again most of these parents resemble over done lobsters themselves.

Is it a lack of education? Or do they actually not care about the possible damage to themselves and their children?

UVA star rating is 4* on the tube i've got here

the tube also reads 'retains SPF after 40 mins of activity in the water or perspiring' - i take this to mean this is the longest amount of time they are allowed to say it remain effective for

Sudocrem is zinc oxide isn't it? Has anyone actually found a way to get it off that doesn't involve scraping? DS likes to pretend it's moisturiser just like mummy's and it does NOT wash off.

sudocrem is zinc oxide AKMD, and no you can't get it off unless you scrape it

but working it on skin reduces the whiteness - but since it comes off clothes in the normal wash (even with non-bio liquid) maybe pop DS in with the next quick load?

I used to prefer zinc oxide, but bloody hell it takes an age to rub on and you look slightly embalmed afterwards.

I have no idea why that Badger stuff is so expesnsive, like limited says the ingredients are cheap.

I suppose it is like anything, market it as organic and for babies and shove the price right up because you can.

Thanks UnChartered.

I did and do judge my best friend who thinks that it's ridiculous for me to wear factor 50 and a big floppy hat and insists that on holiday you should wear SPF 20 for the first day and then SPF 4 after that. SPF 4 She always burns, she has been in hospital with sunburn on occasion and yet she still does this and continues to insist that it doesn't matter because once it's peeled it turns brown anyway. She is an adult though so can fry herself to a crisp all she wants.

DD when she was a toddler covered the whole telly in sudocrem.

I was out of the room for less than 3 minutes I swear.

She is nuts AKMD.

I never sit in the sun, it gets annoying when people look at me like because I don't want to sunbathe and always sit in the shade.

A few points that come to mind reading this thread (as a daughter of someone who has had 12 skin cancers and has volunteered for cancer charities)

*sunblock should not be applied once you're in the sun. It should be applied inside, preferably before you put your clothes on to ensure good coverage i.e. not stopping short of the clothing lines, and given 20 minutes to soak in

*higher factor suncreams are not necessarily better, they just have more chemicals. For this reason I only use factor 25 on my DD with sensitive skin (the lowest I could find for children). Higher factor suncreams are largely a marketing exercise, especially as people think factor 50 is double protection of 25

*My DM was vitamin D deficient. Dr told her to spend 15 mins per day at 6 in the evening with her sleeves rolled up, i.e. face still covered with a hat as it is sensitive skin. Nobody needs to spend an hour in the sun at lunchtime to get their fill of Vitamin D.

*suncream will never outdo the need to stay out of the sun in the middle of the day during summer, it does not block all the rays and it can be rubbed off. Also waterproof suncream is a bit of a joke, it will still come off and when you're in the water with the reflection of the sun, you're much more likely to get burnt. Best to use zinc cream and sunsuits for children

*the majority of skin damage is done before you are 18 so yes it is right to have concern over children getting burnt. One bad sunburn as a toddler or teen could result in a skin cancer in middle age.

*there is no such thing as a healthy tan. Tan is a sign of sun damage just as sunburn is.

OK time to get off my soapbox now.

Hahaha! I bet that was an insurance job!

DS would love to go in the washing machine. Sadly I think my lazy-tabs have irritant warning labels on them.

For my second point, I should have said Factor 15 is the lowest I would go for me and my family. This is from advice from a cancer charity

What Ems said!

My mum was allowed to burn once as a child and has since had several malinant melinomers removed. So maybe I am over sensitive. Agree that a tan is not healthy, it is damaged skin.

Waterproof suncreams don't work? That's annoying.

Last Saturday it was warm but cloudy. I had on factor 50 and sat out with a friend having a glass of wine. I didn't actually burn but 'caught the sun' - I was red the next day.

I have burned through clothes (close weave T shirt not something flimsy), through car windows and through all levels of sunscreen.

You can judge my mother who forced me to stand in the sun watching some parade when I could feel myself burning and she did nothing. Well, told me to shut up. That was out of order.

But some people do burn incredibly easily. And some of us go bright red in the heat.

It's not always an allergy to sunscreen but a sensitivity to sunlight.

I have polymorphic light eruption which is nasty little red bumps that itch like mad. It's very common in pale-skinned people.

It used to happen after about a week on holiday so I bought expensive hypo-allergenic stuff instead and it still happened.

Eventually a pharmacist told me to cover up in direct sun and take half an anti-histamine tablet every other day along with regular lotion on the bits that stuck out of my clothes.

They know their stuff them medical professionals.

Agree emsma.

I could have strangled dd when she came back from bloody Weymouth last year burnt. She is slack re putting on suncream. She just thinks I am one great big nag, yet I don't want to terrify her with the whole 'I had a melanoma' thing (she doesn't know) so just puts it down to normal annoying motherly nagging.

Strandedbear - are you suggesting that we all walk around with factor 50 on all day? Seriously, there is an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency caused by covering up too much. Sunburn is not good but neither is a vitamin D deficiency which seems to be what you suggest.

Re your mother - she has been particularly unlucky. However, my sister who worked on a cancer ward has frequently told me that the critical number of times is 3. If you were correct that every case of sunburn led to cancer I would most surely be dead by now.

I got sunburned on Saturday (personally I blame my father ok so he lives abroad and I was in my garden in the UK, but I am still his child and I got burnt )
My kids didn't get burned though, DD insisted on sunblock before leaving the house (I blame me for training her well- as usually I am OTT with sunblock). We all sunblocked up then headed out. Problem being I can't reach my back at all, and I was wearing a v backed dress. So I stayed in the shade.
I now have a large v of red, which stings like a biatch!
Mistakes happen though, DD has come home from school a little pink once. When we dropped her off it was foggy and cold, so we didn't sunblock. By 10:30 it was glorious sunshine and very hot. We had left suncream for her in the class cupboard, so thought the staff would sunblock (as we had all signed consent forms for them to sunblock, and they normally did do it).
Come pick up time most of the children were pink, the teachers forgot to sunblock them at lunchtime.
Now we use an 8 hour sunblock before DD sets off for school in the summer incase school forget again / or child protection provents it.

I generally try not to judge parenting ...

I'm older and wiser now and know I've made a few mistakes myself (including the odd blush of sun-burn on noses, shoulders, and backs of legs) ...

But sometimes you can't help thinking "I might do that differently"

"And to those on here that say "my child goes red but they aren't burnt" you are just kidding yourself, red skin is burnt."

Oh deary deary me. What a lorry load of old shite. I have, on the odd occasion, had sunburn. I recognise sunburn. I also have skin which goes red after 20 mins in the sun with factor 50 suncream on. It is not the same thing. You obviously need to retake whatever dermatology qualification it is you think you have.

Have sympathy for those of us whose child can not wear sun cream without erupting out in sore bleeding eczema.

I spend a week every summer speaking with my child's nursery explaining this. It took his room leader actually applying sun cream without my consent and my child developing the rash for them to take me seriously.

I am not a lazy parent who just can't be bothered, but my child has NEVER sunburned.

YANBU

Ouch Justme What do you do?

AKMD, thank you for the Badger link. you owe me 70 pounds....

I judge.

We live overseas. It is very hot. I especially judge when I see English families at the pool on their hols. The parents are scarlet, the kids are peeling and there is nothing but a tube of factor 8 between them.

sara, I agree. It is 48c here today and the only people by the pool are expats and, more than that, their relatives on holiday. Is it ever ok to lie in the lunchtime 48c sun just to go home with a tan?