Why Parents Should Consider Sunscreen for Safe Outdoor Play
Playing outdoors, whether at school, at home or at a fun park is helpful to your child’s development. However, spending too much time outdoors and in the sun can be damaging. While children are playing outdoors, they are exposed to direct sunlight. Even where there may be shading to protect the children from excess sunlight, there could be equipment on the playground that reflects sunlight. Therefore, you need to worry about excessive exposure to sunlight. In this regard, you need to provide proper sunscreen to protect your child from bothdirect and reflected sunlight.
Facts About Sun Exposure
Exposure to sunlight has good and harmful effects. While children require sunlight for optimal health, playing outdoors for extended period exposes them to harmful ultraviolet rays, which are invisible to the naked eye. Exposure to the UVB and UVA rays occurs even when the sky is overcast. Therefore, if the child’s skin is left unprotected, it is susceptible to unprotected exposure to the sun, increasing the chances of skin cancer.
Too much sun can produce a sunburn within a day. However, continued exposure to sun raises the lifetime risk of skin cancer. Therefore, by the time your child turns eighteen, they will have experienced a high amount of sun exposure.
Therefore, you will want to provide enough sun protection for children of all ages, especially kids who have delicate skin. Here are some sun safety tips for kids heading to the playground.
1. Use anideal sunscreen for all ages
Use a recommended sunscreen to provide adequate protection at all times when your child is going outside. While playing outdoors helps children’s bodies create adequate vitamin D, we have seen that unprotected exposure can be harmful overtime. For younger children, use water resistant sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher. This ensures your child is safe from harmful UVA and UVB rays.
To protect your child from the harmful sunrays, use sunscreen regularly and consistently. Sunscreen is important for children of all skin tones. Remember that kids with darker skin have the potential to burn and otherwise be affected by harmful UV rays. Ensure that you supply an adequate amount of sunscreen to all exposed areas of the skin and at least 30 minutes before the child goes out to play.
2. Use protective eyewear for kids
Apart from applying sunscreen regularly and consistently, it is important that any child wear protective eyewear. Remember that damage from sun exposure may cause a burned cornea and cause immediate visual problems. Parents can prevent this by buying the right sunglasses for their children. Look for sunglasses that offer protection from harmful UV rays.
3. Avoid the strongest rays of the day
One of the ways to protects kids against the harmful sun is to help them avoid going outdoors when the sun is the most direct and strongest. The local weather station will share updates of the days when the sun is expected to be strongest. Therefore, day care centre Mayfield will not allow the kids to play outside when the sunrays are stronger.
Conclusion
In addition to applying sunscreen, parents need to take extra precautions by ensuring that their kids dress appropriately for the strong sun. During the school holidays, parents can bring their kids tokindergarten Mayfield for professional daycare. If your child has a sunburn, talk to a dermatologist for proper treatment.
