sunscreen do’s and don’ts. IT’S ALMOST SUMMMMMMMMMER!

Summertime! Woop! Woop! Woop!

California summer sun is rapidly approaching. This means sun protection for you and your kiddos. I will repeat some of the most common mistakes and advice with sunscreen.

• Apply 20 minutes BEFORE going into sun.  If you are already at the beach, it is too late.
• Reapply every two hours
• Reapply every 45 minutes if in the water
• Throw out sunscreen over a year old (You know what I mean. That sunscreen which looks like some kind of vintage throwback to the 80s…)

What kind of sunscreen?

• SPF 30.  Anything over SPF 30 (and likely over 15) is just them concentrating the product more because people tend to be stingy with how much they put on.
• I like the clear zinc products.  Think white nose on little kids in the past, but they now make it so it is clear.  Zinc is a mechanical blocker which blocks the UVA and UVB rays. Very effective, and safer for kids and pregnant mommies to be.  (I carry these by skinceuticals and obagi)

Other thoughts:

• Wear it daily.  Even if you are ”going to work and I’m going to be inside all day…” you get a lot of exposure walking to your car, outside at lunch,etc.  You live in Palo Alto.  California.  This is the land of sunshine.
• Clothes don’t always protect you.  The finer the weave, particularly when wet, lowers the protection.
• For kids, come on- let’s have a little confessional here- you are NOT getting it all over them, in every nook and cranny, and reapplying after they get out of the water.  So, RASH GUARD SPF swim SHIRT, and a hat if you can swing it.  We see lots of skin cancers in the scalp.
• And if you are protecting your kids, how can you wear a teeny bikini? What kind of example are you setting? So I strongly believe in swim shirts and hats for mommies and daddies too.
• Put a bottle everywhere.   At the front door.  In the car.  In your purse.  In your diaper bag. 

Now go out and smell the barbeque…. Feel the watermelon dripping off your fingers…

SUMMER!