To hate the start of summer purely because of daily sun cream dramas?

[santsandpocks]

They hate having it put on, I hate putting it on them. It's all such a faff

What about the dangers of oestrogen mimicking chemicals in the sunscreen that gets absorbed into the skin and then disrupts the hormone balance and cortisol balance?
I'm afraid slathering sunscreen onto kids (and quite a few of them still have parabens in them if you look at the small tiny print of the ingredients list) is akin to spraying plants with pesticides.
You try and avoid pesticides and enumbers in food and drink and then plaster children in endocrine disruptors and wonder why cancer is on the rise.
Endocrine disruptors predispose the body to cancer. You need your body in balance and I don't mean hippy dippy karmic balance and energy pathways and crystal magic type balance I mean proper physiological balance involving all the hormones and endocrine systems and neural pathways and blood chemistry type balance that the body is finely tuned to work with via biofeedback systems that were never prepared for a chemical onslaught.
Too much sun is bad for the body.
There is no magic wand solution such as a potion you can put all over your skin and then there will be no consequences.
Stay out of the sun except for a sensible amount required for vitamin production.
Wear clothes that cover up and hats and walk in the shade and stay indoors when the sun is at its hottest.
Then you won't be at risk of skin cancer either from the sun nor from endocrine disrupters.

I had malignant melanoma on my shin (I was 34) that looked like a red mark, then grew. Even a consultant dermatologist didn't recognise it as cancer so it grew some more. By the time it was biopsied the melanoma was in my lymphatic system and I had to have some nodes removed. It was at stage 3c, so nearly dying there! Many disfiguring operations later and some nasty burns from radiation which stopped my periods and I have lymphodema badly affecting every day of my life - but I have my life, which I'm incredibly grateful to the NHS for. Yes there was some sunburn in my childhood, but rarely on my shins and no more than anywhere else.

My children are always in a hat and long sleeves/trousers where I can get away with it. I put sun cream on them 10-4pm May to September (we live in the NW) and I pray it's not hereditary.

Please folks, don't risk it. Go to the hassle of a spray of sun cream, wear a hat. Live.

I rarely use sun cream on the kids unless abroad.
I'm in Scotland.

aramynta it's very difficult to get vitamin D from food actually. It's almost solely produced through exposure to the sun.

I'm very sorry to you Laura for your experience. Question - why do melanomas often appear in places which haven't received so much sun? I really think there is more to it.

I do agree that there is a big question mark as to whether conventional sunscreen actually prevents skin cancer (even if it prevents burning)

Completely agree banana. I wouldn't dream of slathering myself in chemicals everyday never mind a child. It so happens my ds is allergic to the parabens in sunscreen so he can only use zinc oxide based barrier type suncreams which is a blessing really, despite the fact it is horrible to apply (think sudocrem). We're in Scotland too so not much need. Only really use it if we're going abroad. Much better to cover up. If he wasn't allergic then I'd use an organic brand with as few chemicals as possible.

Melanoma has killed:

My grandmother
Two of my uncles
My aunt
My cousin

My mother has had it (and it keeps coming back - three times in the same place since Christmas, but she is on 3 monthly checks so they pick it up early), as have I - mine also caught early too, and have had several "suspicious" moles removed too, which weren't - thankfully - malignant.

I've had genetic counselling, which came back fine - none of the known mutations.

I slather away - me and the kids.

My grandmother and my aunt hated the heat and never went in the sun.

My mother still won't use anything higher than factor 4, as it's more important to her to be "brown".

Folk in Scotland should still be wearing sunscreen...

Scottish here, I wouldn't think to put it on unless it's warm. Last year I had my central heating on in July it was so cold, would have seemed a bit mad to put suncream under my pool neck

Folk in Scotland should still be wearing sunscreen...

Under our jumpers?

Great minds pearly mum

I would keep mine out of the sun between 10 and 3 in preference to slathering with sunscreen because I would rather keep chemicals on young children's skin to a minimum. My daughter used to have an intolerance to chemical sunscreens and came out in a bad rash every time I applied it, regardless of sun exposure, which the first time it happened, required a trip to A& E. I never found out which component of the sunscreen it was that caused the rash but I know that even the ones advertised as hypoallergenic had the same effect. She could tolerate the Green Baby organic sun cream which is based on titanium oxide relective pigments, rather than the chemicals, so that is what we use, if we need it. I don't know if she still reacts to the chemical creams as I haven't retested them on her for several years. Luckily she has quite olive skin.
On a slightly different tack, it annoys me that women's face creams add UV protection. In the winter, I use the night versions of the creams during daytime as they don't have the UV protection, and I think that small bit of UK winter sun on my face does far more good than bad.

I always worry about the chemical nasties in sun cream but I have no choice but to apply suncream to my DS as he is bright ginger with blue eyes and burns very easily. I tend to let him have direct sunlight exposure for 10-15 minutes before I apply, which is normally fine for him.

Under our jumpers?

Obviously not - on areas that are exposed to the sun - face/neck/ tops of ears etc.

My father and I (both Scottish's) have both had cancers removed from our neck (4" scar for a 4mm mole). We probably got these from all the sun exposure and occasional burn we got hiking in the Scottish highlands.

Also, as has been pointed out several times on this thread - temperature is not and indicator if sun intensity. Have you never heard of people wearing sunscreen for snow sports!?

Far better to go by UV index which today, in Glasgow is 6. Anything over 2 and white skin, you need sun protection.

I had my worst burn in a jumper, as it goes - in the fjords!