The Biggest Mistakes You Are Making With Your Sunscreen

Protect Your Kids From Skin Cancer!

We are at the tail end of a terrible heatwave and we are only in May!  Thanks to the heat, we have let the kids start swimming in our pool and we know plenty of other families heading to the beach and local swimming clubs trying to cool off.

I have always been extremely careful with my kids and active in their prevention of sunburn.  We have many family members with skin cancer who were sun-worshippers using baby oil for sunscreen back in their younger years.  While we have come a long way, we still have to start using modern suncsreen properly.

There are many mistakes we do when using sunscreen, and as a mom and a consumer, I want to use it as effectively as possible.  Here are some tips for using that sunscreen and protecting your kids and yourself.

Hooray for summer!

1 - Apply sunscreen at least 15 minutes before getting into any water.  

This is really the most important tip, since I see it as the one most often made.

If you are going to the beach, apply it at home.  Hitting a water park?  Apply it home.  If you swim at home, get the kids ready, apply it and set the timer for 15 minutes.  Get the idea?  Wait, wait, wait!

Many times we go swimming or a water park and see moms calling and hog-typing their kids for the few minutes it takes to apply to the sunscreen, only to see the children rush and jump right into the water and witness the "oil slick" left behind.

If you have ever used a sunscreen and it "didn't work", it is most likely because you didn't wait before getting it wet.  TRUST ME.  Just do it before getting in the car and you kids can jump right in as soon as they get there!

2 - Sunscreen goes on anything that is exposed to the sun  

We have all forgotten those little areas that can get sunburned before. Some of the most common areas we forget to put sunscreen on include:  top of the ears, back of the neck, scalp where part in hair is, under arms and my favorite....the top of their feet.  

3 - Reapply it, even if you have to drag them out  

After two hours, most kids will have to take a break for a snack or at least the restroom. (unless they are pool/ocean as a casual restroom)  Get them out and dried off and before they eat their snack, reapply the sunscreen and let it set in while they eat their snack and get rehydrated.  Even the best sunscreen can't go more than two hours after being in the water.

4 - Use sunscreen that hasn't been compromised

You know that bottle of sunscreen that has been sitting in your car since last summer?  Yeah....that needs to be thrown out.  The chemicals in sunscreen degrade when exposed to high temperatures.  So your car, heating up over and over again, is a sunscreen killer.  Throw it out.

Hint: Keep your sunscreen cool when you go out.  If you go to the beach and you take a cooler, you can keep it in the cooler. Bonus!  It will feel delightfully chilly when you use it!   

You should also toss all of the sunscreens at home from last summer.  That time factor also degrades sunscreens and makes them less effective.  

5 - Use The Right Sunscreen

The SPF factor can be confusing.  The Skin Cancer Foundation recommends anything SPF30 or higher with both UVA and UVB protection for enjoying the water.  While I usually use a SPF45, anything above a SPF50 is not really going to make much difference.  So don't fork over more money for a SPF70 or SPF 75.
I was a fan of more natural zinc oxide based sunscreens for years, but they are very expensive and we can use a tube in two days in our family.  As a compromise, I use the more commercially available spray for the limbs and torso and the zinc oxide based sunscreens for the face and neck areas.   

If you can find Blue Lizard Sunscreen, I highly recommend it.  It is a family favorite!

Stay safe this summer!