To wonder about sunburnt children before suncream was popularised?

[Leah5678]

Apparently wasn't popularised until the 70s. With children playing outside practically every day back in the days before television was invented how did they not burn? Did they just get used to it?
Apologies if this is an extremely stupid question just something I've been wondering about with the last few days of decent weather

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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)

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

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. 🤦‍♀️

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.

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.

Child of 80s and 90s. Sun cream was deemed an expensive luxury that my parents didn’t prioritise.

In the 80s and 90s I remember kids getting sunburnt. Even now , some people think that suncream isn't necessary in the UK, and are surprised if they burn.

I once cared for a woman of 37 who came into the emergency department with a chesty cough- she thought she had pneumonia but it turned out she had metastatic lung cancer secondary to a malignant melanoma that the doctors discovered on her back...

So skin cancer scares me.

I did get burnt a few times as a child but never went abroad until my early 20s & wore factor 15 in the sun from late childhood, now wear spf30 - spf50 reapplied regularly so I'm hoping I've got away with it. I had a skin check recently that was alright.

We burnt.

My mum was unusual as in she bought suncream but it was used sparingly as it was bloody expensive. And would only be used on holidays if we were sunbathing, other than that we burned away......it was the norm. I still remember a lad sat in my English class quietly crying because of the amount of pain he was in. Poor sod was red raw, kids slapping each others sunburn was the norm too. 🙄

I'm as pale as they get and never burnt- maybe my parents were sensible but I don't remember any of my friends getting burnt to the point of blistering either. We all had brown arms, legs and faces and white bodies. The only kids I remember peeling were those that had been abroad.

I was a child of the 60s and spent most of my non school time outside with my siblings playing with other children. The only time we had sunscreen applied was when on holidays in southern Europe. According to my mother, I was as brown as a berry. I don’t remember ever getting sunburn.

@Leah5678 I grew up in Australia and sunscreen was a must, I try and wear it all year round, I also take a hat and sunglasses with me everywhere, it's just what I'm use to. At school they did a lot about sun safety and you weren't allowed to play outside unless you had sunscreen and a hat on (with the back flap at primary school and a broad brimmed sun hat at high school). There wasn't a teacher who couldn't show us scars from where they had skin cancer removed, I think that helped everyone keep reapplying.

I think it’s also important to remember that a “tan” is actually a sign of skin damage.

I am one of the people who goes pink then tans but over the last decade I’ve had a few bad sunburns and I do worry about what damage has been caused. I never thought about sunbeams unless abroad until the last few years. In my early 20’s I sat out for 8 hours and got a severe sunburn and had to stay off work as I actually couldn’t move my shoulders. I stupidly wore a strapless tube top..I was the tube lol.

My dad had black hair and dark eyes with olive skin, he could look out the window on a sunny day and be really dark. He was mistaken in Spain as a Spaniard, I remember he had to photocopy his passport once and back and white he was just very dark. We started calling him ‘Eduardo Suarez’ as a joke. My mother is the opppsite, she is very fair and blonde with ghostly skin, her mother was Ginger with skin that didn’t tan. Each holiday my dad would come home like polished wood my mum would look like a barbers pole. She’d say ‘it’ll be a tan once the redness goes…’ I have never seen her with a tan just peeling sunburn.

i remember one day seeing a small girl with red hair and very white skin wearing a vest too and shorts at the beach and at 11am she was already scarlet I would have hated to see the state of the wee mite by 3pm.

My parents grew up in the 60s in South Africa. They just burnt or learnt to stay in the shade. My mum also told me that apparently a hot bath was recommended after a sun burn to ‘get the sting out’. Hot bath not cold! She said it was agony but just part of life. They also used to peel each other’s sunburn off which was seen as funny!

My boss was born in SA in the 60s. Her mum never bothered with suncream. She's had countless skin cancers cut out over the years.

Got really burnt several times in the 1970s.. I have overwhelming memories of lying in bed unable to turn over, or move, because the feel of sheets was excruciating against my burnt skin.

More clothing coverage back then too

We needed to get the first burn of the year over, and then we tanned.

I grew up in a sunny place and have a very wrinkly face at 50.

Born in the early 70s and I remember severe sunburns all through childhood. My nose burnt and peeled so badly every year that I had a permanent scar across the bridge of my nose. My shoulders would blister and when the skin peeled off it would have a red, raw center and gradations of pink. My family took us to Florida and I got a severe sunburn and had heat stroke. My shaking was so bad that my cousin complained she couldn't share a bed with me. I don't know if anyone even offered me an aspirin. And that my friends was the benign neglect experienced by most of the kids at the time. I went to Cuba in the early 90s and the locals warned us to stay out of the sun from 10-2pm and that was probably the first time I realized other cultures practiced safe sun. Obviously very important in Cuba but they probably thought tourists were complete idiots lying on the beach all day and getting sunburnt. I have been obsessive about my kids' skin and they never got a sunburn as kids.