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

I was an 80's child. We're from the ME (so winters would be around 20 degrees and summers over 40 degrees) and were always told NOT to sit out in the midday sun (stay in shade/indoors, always wear hats/sunscreen, keep hydrated). So we'd be outside in the early and late part of the days. My parents were pretty strict on that. We were lucky and never got burned. I used to be shocked when I saw tourists sunbathing all day.

Anyone remember the sunscreen that was used in the 80's? I remember it was really thick and sticky! I also remember the really cool tubs of fluorescent coloured sunscreen. I remember spending my pocket money on a tub of the bright pink stuff once and it ended up bloody melting in the sun!!!

My Dad is very fair and burns very easily, and he has had several skin cancers removed from his face over the past fifteen years (he was a 50s child).

I was an 80s child and I burned a bit, but am much more olive -skinned like my mum, so never burned to blisters. Did burn to peeling occasionally, especially on my nose. I remember having a sunhat and my mum making us wear baggy t-shirts. I also was a huge bookworm and couldn't see my book in the bright sun, so I would usually sit in the shade. Very grateful for that now.

I remember my mum and dad burning in the 80s on an English beach holiday. They burnt so badly they had to stay in bed for the day as every time they moved their skin bled, ouch! Think it happened to people once then they learned their lesson and covered up next time. I’m in my 40s and have horribly sun damaged skin from sun bathing as a kid/teen in the early 90s

I was a kid in the 70s and don’t really remember getting badly burnt.

I do remember that factor 4 was really thick and seemed to protect you more than factor 50 today. Growing up, the thought that in the future I’d be putting on factor 50 would blow my mind.

I used to burn badly. Burn - peel - burn - peel - was just the norm. Huge blisters all over my back sometimes - fever and shivering. My mum used to treat the burns with natural yoghurt. I probably needed medical attention.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s. We burnt, peeled, burnt again, and eventually tanned enough to stop burning.

I had the weird mother who did put suncream on us in the 70s sadly we learned the hard way slapping it on once a day wasnt enogh I was a child who fried

I really don't get how seeing your child or others covered in painful burns and likely in absolute agony would not prompt parents to feel awful that their child was going through that be more careful and protective?!
I got severe sunburn in my early 20s due to forgetting to put suncream on, as it was hotter that day than expected, and it was worse pain than childbirth!
I just don't get alot of these practices of past generations....same as not feeding a baby when they cried in hunger, or comforting them when they cried out in the night.....surely people's brains were wired the same, with the same intelligence, ie; they must have known it was possible to burn if out in hot sun, so to keep their kids away from it, and to understand pain/emotional distress and show some empathy and care, for it to hurt them to see their child so upset.
But all these accounts in previous post of children being left or encouraged to burn sound so cruel and neglectful :(
Glad I was born in the late 80s to protective parents who always used suncream!

Like many others I burned, and I peeled.

It hurt - a lot.

However I was partially eased via the cooling properties of calamine lotion.

We were always made to limit time outdoors in hot sun to build up a base. 20 mins or so in sun then T shirts back on. Then we would get a factor 10 if we wanted to strip off later. The exposure time would be stretched gradually. There is some truth in it, I remember getting mild burns where you are hot and a bit pink but it's relieved by after sun cream and gone a few hours later. A few days of this burn 'management' and you don't really burn anymore, but if abroad we were always made avoid midday sun. My sister tanned well and rarely burned after the first few days of Summer, I never really fully climatised and never really got darker but just stopped burning. It was something I was always really jealous of actually.

My daughter is a red-head so obviously frekelly skin, I am brown-haired and the sun and I do not agree with each other. I too got told late 70s/early 80s to build up a tan. Luckily, I can't stand heat so always sat in shade

I was born in 78 and remember using sun cream as a little child

Ds was born in 95 and had a uv swim suit back when i don't remember anyone else having one, although we have family in Africa so probably got his first from out there when he was a toddler

Apparently wasn't popularised until the 70s.

I dunno about crazy British & the midday sun.
In california we had suncream from 1920s at latest.
Which is not to say we never burnt, it's easy to get caught out.

Well - those ancient parents may have had different ideas of childcare, but they were well aware that nobody changes sex and would in no circumstances have allowed their children to think they could do so, allow them to have cross-sex hormones or encourage life-affecting non-reversible surgery.

Each age has its own idiocies, I suppose.

Edit for spelling

This scares me because I've always worn sunscreen, re-applied it every few hours, tried to stay in the shade- and I will still sometimes get a slight tan. I have olive skin and 10 minutes is all it takes.

I was hospitalised in the 70’s at the age of 3yrs with the most awful sunburn. I still remember being bandaged up (torso and shoulders) and being bathed in cold water.
Later, through the 70’s and 80’s , I had many incidents of terrible sunburn and had sunstroke at least 3 times that I can recall.
I don’t actually remember any real push on sun safety until the early 90’s

I was a child in the 70s and 80s. There was TV back then by the way!! I regularly got burnt stupid. No sun cream whatsoever. I went on holiday with friends and one of them told me that Brylecreem made you tan and not burn. Don't test the theory, it doesn't work and I ended up with very bad blisters and was barely able to walk. Vegetable oil was another favourite.

I loved peeling mine and my siblings skin off when we were kids. My school trip to France I remember being told to bring factor 6 sunscreen and factor 8 if you were fair skinned 😬 Im 100% factor 50 form my family. One of my DDs can’t wear sunscreen so she’s walking round like a mummy covered from head to toes

i will never forget a relative of mine, fairly intelligent woman taking her dc to the Drs as he was sick and complaining his skin was hurting. This was late 80s, the Dr said he has sun stroke and his skin was burnt. Her response, but he’s brown how can he get sun burn? His dad was Jamaican so she thought he didn’t need to wear sunscreen because he was naturally brown🤦‍♀️

I got terribly burnt when I was 12, early 60s. I was away in Devon with another family. Nothing was said, no treatment. Couldn’t sleep for nights. I went brown and peeled a lot. My friend still remembers it and has apologized on behalf of her parents but it wasn’t their fault, no one knew about skin cancer.
Although sun cream wasn’t sold in the 70s like it is now, I always had my DDs wearing T-shirts for protection, however they weren’t the ones that protect like now.

Australian kid kid in the 80's here. Surprisingly I didn't burn that much. Sunscreen messages were only just starting with the good ol' Slip Slop Slap ads.

I do see the results of no sunscreen in my parents & own generation though. Some people are constantly getting sun spots & skin cancers burnt off or cut out. I have pigment on my face & arms are spotty. Although, some people, like my DF, who was a farmer, and from a farming family, so grew up outside, has never had a single issue. It's odd.

I was born in the mid 60s and recall at least 2 holidays in Cornwall where we came home early because I was literally burnt to a crisp . However I burn even with sun cream and in 1986 I fell asleep in the garden and ended up with burns to my legs that required hospital treatment and burns dressings . I’m amazed that I’ve reached my mid / late 50s with no sign of skin cancer .

They burned. If they didn't, suncream would never have been invented.

I was born in 86 and I think was a child at the turning point of suncream; as in, it was applied once a day. Fine for me as I’m olive skinned like DM and have never burnt. Less fine for siblings who took after our DF/their DM (in the case of the half siblings), all of whom now monitor moles carefully.

I married an olive skinned man, so the DDs have our skin tone, but even with that in mind they are covered in factor 50 multiple times a day and aren’t allowed outside without a hat. I cannot even imagine letting them go red, let alone burn.

How times change.

Suncream was really expensive as well, it's cheaper now, in pounds. I remember it being 5 or 6 pounds in the early 90s I think, and possibly only from the chemist. So no one used enough, either. You might get a bit on your shoulders in the morning but wouldn't reapply it after swimming etc.

TBH, I think its overused.