Sunburn Guilt - your experience appreciated

[Hah20]

My little boy is 2. I am always so careful about applying suncream and this has never happened before. Yesterday we sent a couple of hours at the beach, where I applied suncream numerous times. On the evening DS has a patch of sunburn on one arm and under his eyes on his face, it is still visible this morning. I feel absolutely terrible and have cancelled our outdoor activities for today.
It's not crazy bad, just pink. He hasn't seemed to have noticed at all but I feel really terrible about it. Any experience in this would be much appreciated.

I know that things have changed, and we all understand the dangers a lot better these days and the climate has changed, but honestly I was sunburned head to toe every year as a child. Huge sheets of skin that peeled off my back. My mum would chuck a bit of Nivea on it and that was that.
I’m now 50, and obviously may be more likely to get skin cancer as I age, so I’m not saying it’s fine to get sunburned. But it’s only a couple of tiny patches and you sound like a very conscientious parent and I’m sure you won’t let it happen again so maybe give yourself a break. Maybe find some lightweight long sleeved summer tops and a good hat to give better protection if you do miss a bit with the sunscreen.
I think cancelling your day might be a bit of an overreaction. Just be more careful in future.

Put some aftersun on it. Carry on as normal today wearing a loose long sleeved top and hat to cover up the pink bits. No need to cancel your plans or anything.

In the grand scheme of things this is not a big deal. It sounds like you did what any responsible parent would do and were just unlucky. I think you should uncancel your plans for today, reapply suncream and move on and enjoy yourselves.

Most of him isn't burnt which is testament to the fact that you were very responsible and on the while applied enough lotion and often enough, don't be hard on yourself he will be fine. It can be hard to check that every inch is covered, the coloured ones help but they're also often a bit of a chemical shit show.

Ahh OP this happened to me once with my youngest and the guilt was unreal. That was a few years ago now and looking back I can see it was just one of those things, he had cream on etc, it wasn’t a case of me not bothering.

Go to your activities today, just cover up.

Aloe Vera gel on Amazon is great for sunburn.

It happens and you will feel shit. It is very hard to not miss bits on a squirmy toddler though and they love splashing about.

Long sleeved swim shirts and hats are a godsend. The kind that have a drawstring under the chin. He'll hate it but will get used to it. Start now and you can keep a hat on him for most of his childhood.

Skin cancer on the scalp and tops of ears is a big thing for men as their hair thins so good habits early will pay dividends.

It so easily happens, but hats on the beach are an absolute necessity. Im not sure any amount of cream can save you if you're near water especially.

Literally did this yesterday too - I must have missed a patch on my DDs shoulder as it's red but the rest of her isn't!

This is not a big deal. Put some after sun on it and carry on with normal activities.

I remember this happening with dd2 about 7/8 at the time when we were at the beach on holiday (uk in june). We regularly applied suncream etc and somehow one of her shoulders caught the sun. I felt very guilty. I think we mustn't have re applied properly after coming out of the water and towel drying.

Rest of the holiday we made sure it was covered. Had to move the car seat to the other side of the car so the seat belt didn't irritate it. But we didn't cancel plans. Carry on with your day today but keep covered and plenty of after sun.

When DS was about 6mo old, we were out for the day and he fell asleep in his pram. I purposefully moved him a few feet away from us to the shade of a building. Except that, if I'd thought about it, I would have realised that the shade was not coming from the building but from a van parked next to it which drove off a few minutes later. I went to check that the noisy van hadn't woken DS up but didn't think to move him. He was fine!

Moisture it then carry on with your day. He can still go outside.