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

Our first foreign holidays were in the 70s and the factors back then (from my family's point of view) were factor 4 for the first week and then factor 2 for the second week so you could get a nice colour. Insane now thinking about it.

Was just away last week and wore factor 50 on my face all week and 30 the rest of my body and I am quite sallow so no real burning involved.

Also, on holidays around Ireland in the 70s both of my brothers got sunstroke but still carried on as normal.

I grew up in a European country with very hot summers in the 90s. I HATED getting burnt so I used to put factor 15 as a teenager when we went for a day at the (hit Mediterranean) beach. I still tanned and even burned, but not as badly.

My mom, dad, aunties, friends' etc shouting at me still rings in my ears. They were adamant that sun and burning is healthy. Literally none of them admit to this now. They shrug and say I was a kid and making things up. I was 16 and definitely not making it up! I had to buy sunscreen with my allowance as my mum only bought factor 5 oil!

Most of my relatives now look like an old leather sofa.

Late 70s born, never wore suncream in the uk, regularly burnt, would only wear sun protection abroad and only then a very low factor. Got terrible sunstroke abroad as a child as well. I also remember as a teenager slapping on baby oil to get a tan and my best friend slapping on butter!

Who do you have this check with? Would be interested to do this

We burnt.

But also there still a bit of ozone layer left at that point.

We did get burnt. It was just seen as a totally normal thing! People would say "You've caught the sun" and really bad sunburns were seen as something to laugh at

We did wear sun cream when I was a child (which we called "sun tan lotion" even though it was SPF) but as a child I didn't have the mentality to avoid ever getting sunburnt at all. We would basically put sun cream on if we were going to be out for a long time in the middle of the day but I don't remember ever reapplying it, and we wouldn't wear it for school and stuff, like I do for my DC. One bottle used to last us literally years, to the point the SPF had probably totally expired by the end of it. I think we probably only ever had 3 bottles throughout my entire childhood

We had after sun/aloe vera gel to put on sunburn to soothe it, and used this regularly. I am absolutely horrified and really cross at myself if I get sunburnt now and would be upset if the DC got burnt (I think unfortunately DS1 probably did get burnt a couple of times because I was more lax when he was younger).

And this was the 90s. I wasn't born in the 70s.

How do you not remember this? Are you v young, or do you have a skin type which doesn't burn as easily? (I am very pale with ginger genes and have never tanned in my life).

I understood that the reason we are much more hot on sun protection now is because in the past, sunburn was seen as a temporary discomfort (so we'd only bother to try and prevent very bad sunburn) whereas now we recognise that even a "mild" sunburn contributes towards a raised chance of skin cancer in the future. I don't remember thinking about skin cancer in terms of sun protection as a child. Whether that's because it wasn't explained to me or whether it was that the general public weren't really aware of this link I don't know. I knew about the link between smoking and cancer, so I wasn't totally oblivious to cancer risks.

There is some logic to getting a slow tan as protection. Evolutionary changes have designed us that way. A tan gives you about factor 2/4 protection, similar to those early creams.

I spent a lot of time in Italy as a child from the 60's. I would say DM was careful to keep me in the shade at the hottest times of day, always with a hat, factor 6 cream, and we slept all afternoon, so I don't remember burning as a small child. I also used to get terrible prickly heat, made worse by the cream, so avoided the sun and heat due to that too.

As a teen however, after getting that lovely "base tan", I would lie out with factor 2 body oil. Lovely coconut stuff it was, it was also coloured dark brown, so looked lovely on. I am a blue eyed blond, although not a creamy celt, and now tan really easily. Bit crinkly wrinkly though! I do get my moles checked annually.

I was born in the early 1960's and remember getting sunburnt many times. Don't really remember using sun screen as a child but do remember using coconut oil as a teenager!
I don't know when the use of sunscreen changed but my DCs born mid 1990's were definitely slathered in it every time the sun made an appearance.

Also we never wore sun hats and for years I thought sun hats just make you more hot so why would you wear one

Absolute revelation when I figured out how the hat actually works I still struggle with summer heat but it is slightly more bearable when I know how to manage it.

I was born in the 2000s, I've always heard older folks saying they played out all day every day as children and finding out sun cream only became commonly used in the seventies I was curious as to what exactly happened before that

Born in the 50s, my own mother (very fair skinned and never tanned, only went 'red then white' as she used to say) suffered bad sunburn as a child (maybe because her mother was olive-skinned and didn't really think anything about it). As a result, she was very, very careful with me and did her best to make sure I didn't get sunburnt, or only mildly (quite hard for me to avoid entirely as this was in Australia and I was even fairer than mum.) I remember having suncream on me from an early age, told to come in out of the sun, had to wear a hat and/or T-shirt and was very conscious of the whole sunburn thing!

Fortunately my mother never developed skin cancer (nor have I) but I can only imagine how many people did as a result of over-exposure to the sun. Awareness of this came earlier in Australia, though.

We did burn, I was in agony often on holiday.

But generally, in UK, if you're outside all the time, you build up enough tan gradually that burning isn't a problem.

70/80s childhood and I remember getting sunburnt and peeling regularly, and I lived in a part of the UK famed for its lack of sun!

We got burnt. And freckles and turned brown, some of us but no adult ever looked at you askance for being so - that’s the difference! Now if I saw a child outside with red shoulders, back, face in the sun I’d wonder why the hell the parent weren’t using suncream and making them wear a shirt and hat

My mum DID use suncream - but she went for Factor 2 or 4 ‘oil’ and so seem to remember the one we used was only 8 or similar

I've never burnt to blisters, child of the 70's and 80's. Had some red burns and peeling skin, thankfully nothing worse.

Mum made us wear suncream from an early age but it couldn't have been waterproof as I used to burn after a day in the sea.

I have memories of my parents etc applying oil so that we tan faster … when we burnt would put on yogurt at night or just complain from the pain and not be able to sleep for nights and peel

A dermatologist. An annual skin check is standard and covered by insurance in the US where I live. I don't know how it works on the NHS. I assume your GP would do it?

We used low spf creams and oils in the 70s in the UK, still managed to burn if we stayed out too long. I remember coming back off a holiday to France, and a colleague saying, " it can't have been a good holiday, you're not very brown!" My daughter was born in '83 and the highest spf you could but was factor 12- it was the consistency of toothpaste!

Always got burned, 70s and 80s my mum would also use oil and factor 2 on herself if really pushed but no protection for us kids. Apparently once you've been burned as a child its too late to try to do anything that will prevent anything from that burning so that worries me.

I was born in the late 1950's, when we went to the hot countries for holiday my mum always put sun cream on. I remember her calling me out of the sea to top up my sun cream. I never got burnt.
My children were born in the 80's, I always put sun cream on them, much to their annoyance!

I’m an 80s child. We never wore suncream in the U.K. and I never remember burning in the U.K. either, despite those hot dry drought years. We wore suncream in the south of France during the summer holidays. Factor 15 the first week, factor 6 the second week. We always burned and I remember pulling threads of skin off my shoulders. But we were in and out of the water, so the suncream probably wasn’t much use. When not swimming we always wore hats. They probably helped.

I was a teenager in the 70s. My go to concoction for sunbathing was factor 2 ambre solaire oil mixed with either lemon juice or sea water. I used to have an amazing tan! I did burn but only a little, I am much more sensitive now.

My kids born in the 90s wore factor 50 and never burnt, except my blond lad once who went out for the day with his friend and came back red and peeling. His friends mum was a nurse and had forgotten to put cream on him.

I know in Oz it's standard. I may be wrong but simply cannot imagine a UK GP would do it as standard.

I'm about to start an annual cancer screening through our nearest private hospital as I'm over 50 now and have little faith in my GP service. They misdiagnosed a neck lump as a lipoma for a start and told me it was cosmetic only. I went private to get it removed and the consultant found out pretty quickly it was not a lipoma but was a tumour. Thankfully benign and easily dealt with. The base amount I was quoted for a cancer screening (blood tests and skin check) was £500 so I'm going for it.

Just been looking up old suntan lotion ads..... Coppertone, with a dog pulling down a young girls bikini bottoms, to reveal a white bottom! Haven't times changed, in so many ways!!

You can pay for private skin checks if you want them done in the UK - or you can go to your GP if you have a suspicious mole you want looking at. Boots even do a skin check service but not at every store, so you may have to travel and you need to book.