what factor sun cream ?

[em83]

i have scs aged 7, 2 and 1,i have bought factpr 30 as we are going to ibiza in may and its not going to be red hot,
will this do ? or will i need a factor 50 ?

I would say it depends on whether the children are fair/have freckles/lots of moles. My instant reaction is to go for 50, because you may aswell get them as protected as possible.

I'd definitely go for 50, at least for the younger two and probably for the whole family. Mediterranean sun is going to be quite a shock to the system after the winter you've had in the UK.

i always put factor 50 on the kids

I would be fine with 30 even at height of summer - if it's really hot the kids will be wearing hats too. You may need to reapply at some point in the afternoon.

Factor 50 is misleading as it's impossible to give that amount of coverage. The sunscreen will wear off, be sweated, rubbed or swum off well before a level of "50" protection can be provided by the cream.

In many countries you will never find Factor 50 sun cream for this reason - it's a form of false advertising & misleads people into thinking they are getting a higher level of protection than they are.

I have friends with pale skinned redhead children who live at the beach in summer in NZ where the sun is much much harsher than in the Med (as there is a hole in the ozone layer down there) - 30 is fine for them.

Whatever factor you use you'll be wanting to keep the little ones under some kind of shade in heat of the day.

That seems a bit weird - why would they be allowed to call it 50 if it's not? Doesn't that therefore mean that 30 isn't 30 either and 10 is even less? I have always used 50, but I try, as much as possible, to stay out of the direct sun.

I'd go for Factor 50.

If they are fair skinned I would buy uv swim suits and buy some 50 and some 30. Start with a 50 and drop down to a 30 once they have a bit of colour. My children are both dark as they are half Turkish so I would get them a 30 but they still have their UV swim suits

I always go for 50+

while factor 50 may technically have a SPF of 50 (ie offers 50 time your natural skin protection), it can't stay on your skin long enough to offer that much protection - it's all about labelling.

Cancer Research UK argues there is little point in labelling sunscreen about SPF15 for this reason & are campaigning at EU level to change lables here - especially as you will pay more for higher SPR 'protection' whislt probably got getting more proteted:

info.cancerresearchuk.org/prod_consump/groups/cr_common/@nre/@pol/documents/gene ralcontent/crukmig_1000ast-3336.pdf

the highest a sunscreen can claim to be in Australia is 30+ (as labelling 50 is misleading to the consumer). It looks like the EU is going this way too .....

Factor 30 is fine as long as you use enough. I have been doing some work on skin cancer prevention as part of my job and there is very little difference in protection between 30 and 50. The percentage reduction in UVB for SPF 30 is 97% whereas you only gain one extra percent for SPF 50 at 98%. I personally find SPF 30 easier to apply on kids as it tends to be a bit less thick therefore I am planning to use it this year instead of 50.