Children’s sunscreen: how to choose and what to look for

In most of our coun­try, sum­mer and sun have to wait for six months. There­fore, on the very first sun­ny days, I want to rush out into the street and direct­ly swim in the sun. Yes, and in the sum­mer you don’t want to waste a minute, but warm up, sun­bathe and get vit­a­min D. Of course, every­one needs the sun as a source of vit­a­min D, includ­ing babies, but the risk that a child’s skin is exposed to in direct sun­light is too great to neglect safe­ty rules.

Direct sun­light caus­es sun­burn on del­i­cate chil­dren’s skin, great­ly increas­es the risk of chang­ing moles, leads to age spots and oth­er unpleas­ant con­se­quences.

Why is this hap­pen­ing? Ultra­vi­o­let is the source of the neg­a­tive effects of the sun, or rather UVA and UVB rays. They affect the skin in dif­fer­ent ways. UVA rays cause pre­ma­ture aging and neo­plasms on the skin, UVB is the main cause of burns.

The skin’s nat­ur­al defense against ultra­vi­o­let radi­a­tion is mela­tonin. It absorbs some of the rays and reduces skin dam­age. In chil­dren, such pro­tec­tion begins to func­tion well only by the age of 6. Chil­dren’s sun­screen is spe­cial­ly for­mu­lat­ed to pro­tect the del­i­cate skin of chil­dren. It pre­vents the harm­ful effects of UVA and UVB rays, but does not inter­fere with the syn­the­sis of vit­a­min D.

What to look for when choosing

In order not to make a mis­take with the choice of chil­dren’s sun­screen, you need to pay atten­tion to: the lev­el of SPF pro­tec­tion, the fil­ters used in the cream, age rec­om­men­da­tions and water resis­tance. Now more about each of the points.

SPF is an inter­na­tion­al­ly accept­ed sys­tem for mea­sur­ing the degree of pro­tec­tion of the skin from ultra­vi­o­let radi­a­tion. The high­er the SPF val­ue, the high­er the pro­tec­tion. For exam­ple, SPF 50 blocks 99% of harm­ful radi­a­tion, SPF 10 already blocks 90%.

What lev­el of SPF to choose for a child, we will describe below, while it is impor­tant to remem­ber the fol­low­ing:

• Even creams with an SPF 50 pro­tec­tion fac­tor need to be reg­u­lar­ly updat­ed — reap­plied. An increased SPF indi­cates stronger pro­tec­tion, but not a longer one. We renew the cream every two hours, if the child bathes or sweats a lot — more often.
• Sun­screen is not tooth­paste, one pea is not enough for the whole body. Apply the cream lib­er­al­ly, too thin a lay­er will not be able to pro­tect the skin.
• Any sun­screen must be applied to the skin at least 15 min­utes before sun expo­sure.

Fil­ters phys­i­cal and organ­ic. Fil­ters in sun­screens are divid­ed into phys­i­cal and organ­ic. Phys­i­cal fil­ters, they are also called min­er­al or inor­gan­ic, basi­cal­ly con­tain tita­ni­um diox­ide and work as a screen — they reflect solar radi­a­tion. Creams based on them are denser, leave a whitish mark and are more dif­fi­cult to dis­trib­ute over the skin. They are great for sen­si­tive and baby skin.

Chem­i­cal fil­ters, anoth­er name — organ­ic, absorb solar radi­a­tion. Their active ingre­di­ents are avoben­zene, octocry­lene and oth­ers. Chem­i­cal fil­ters leave no residue, are eas­i­er to apply and absorb faster.

The com­bi­na­tion of phys­i­cal and chem­i­cal fil­ters in sun­screen gives the max­i­mum effect. They enhance each oth­er’s actions, and hence the pro­tec­tive prop­er­ties of the cream.

There is an opin­ion that the com­po­nents of sun­screens can be absorbed into the skin of babies and adverse­ly affect it. How­ev­er, there are no stud­ies that would con­firm side effects. But sun­burn, skin aging and the risk of devel­op­ing dis­eases as a result of expo­sure to the sun on unpro­tect­ed skin are proven. Chil­dren’s sun­screen is not just a nec­es­sary thing, but a must.

Age. All chil­dren’s cos­met­ics, includ­ing sun­screen, are devel­oped tak­ing into account the char­ac­ter­is­tics of chil­dren’s skin. That’s why:

• Up to 3 months no sun­screen.
• Use sun­screen accord­ing to the age label. Some creams are rec­om­mend­ed to be used from three months, some — from a year. Pay atten­tion to it.
• Chil­dren should not use adult sun­screen.

Water resis­tance. The most under­stand­able, but at the same time a very nec­es­sary point. Sun­screen for chil­dren should be water­proof. Play­ing in the water, con­stant move­ment and exces­sive sweat­ing reduce and even negate the pro­tec­tion of non-water­proof creams. Make sure the pack­ag­ing is labeled accord­ing­ly.

Sun­screen “My sun” meets all of the above para­me­ters:

• The whole series is designed tak­ing into account the char­ac­ter­is­tics of chil­dren’s skin.
• Pro­vides long last­ing pro­tec­tion against UVA and UVB rays thanks to a com­bi­na­tion of phys­i­cal and organ­ic fil­ters.
• Rec­om­mend­ed for use from 3 months: “My sun” SPF 20 and “My sun” SPF 30; and from the year: “My sun” SPF 50.
• Water­proof: baby can swim and play in the water.

Which SPF level to choose

When choos­ing a chil­dren’s sun­screen, or rather, the SPF lev­el, it is nec­es­sary to take into account the pho­to­type of the child.

If you have a small blonde with fair skin and blue eyes, then the risk of sun­burn is extreme­ly high. The child is not rec­om­mend­ed to be in the open sun, and for stay­ing in the shade it is nec­es­sary to use the max­i­mum degree of pro­tec­tion. Your choice is chil­dren’s sun­screen SPF 50. Only it com­plete­ly blocks solar radi­a­tion.

If the own­er of light brown hair and gray eyes is grow­ing up in you, then the risk of sun­burn is espe­cial­ly high in the first days of expo­sure to the sun. There­fore, at the begin­ning of the rest, use a cream with max­i­mum pro­tec­tion, and after a cou­ple of days it can be low­ered. Your choice is chil­dren’s sun­screen SPF 50 for the first days and SPF 30 for the next. Such a com­bi­na­tion will not let you burn in the first days and will well pro­tect chil­dren’s skin already accus­tomed to the sun.

It is more dif­fi­cult for swarthy brown-eyed brunettes to burn, but their skin also needs to be well tak­en care of. In the first days of rest, use a cream with an aver­age lev­el of pro­tec­tion, and after the appear­ance of a tan — even with a low one (by chil­dren’s stan­dards). Your choice of chil­dren’s sun­screen SPF30 for the first days of rest and SPF 20 for the next. This com­bi­na­tion per­fect­ly pro­tects chil­dren’s skin and is suit­able for nat­u­ral­ly tanned and dark-skinned babies.

Take a clos­er look at the chil­dren’s sun­screen line “My sun”. It con­tains creams of three lev­els of pro­tec­tion, it meets all safe­ty require­ments and is suit­able for babies from three months.

We deter­mine the pho­to­type of the child, do not for­get about our own, select creams with the right lev­el of SPF pro­tec­tion and wish our­selves a safe hol­i­day in the sun!