Keeping your Kids Protected in the Sun
By: Keith
Here we are in southern California, 80 degrees, sunny and beautiful. You’d be crazy not to want to be outdoors on days like this. Yesterday we went to the Queen Mary and spent the day walking around in the sun. Now, most people don’t think twice about soaking up some rays on a nice day. My family is different; we do think twice. Ethnically I’m Scottish, Polish and German. I have fair skin. Thus, I shouldn’t have been surprised that after an entire youth of sitting unprotected in the sun, I wound up with several squamous cell carcinomas and a basal cell, not to mention all the actinic keratosis I started getting on my face 4 years ago. That’s when I began taking sun protection seriously. These days you’ll never catch me outside without a hat.
The Facts (as pinched from Skincancer.org)
- Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. More than 3.5 million cases in two million people are diagnosed annually.
- Each year there are more new cases of skin cancer than the combined incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and colon.
- One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime.
- Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common form of skin cancer; an estimated 2.8 million BCCs are diagnosed annually in the US. BCCs are rarely fatal, but can be highly disfiguring if allowed to grow.
- Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the second most common form of skin cancer. An estimated 700,000 cases are diagnosed each year in the US, resulting in approximately 2,500 deaths.
- Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma are the two major forms of non-melanoma skin cancer. Between 40 and 50 percent of Americans who live to age 65 will have either skin cancer at least once.
- In 2004, the total direct cost associated with the treatment for non-melanoma skin cancers was more than $1 billion.
- About 90 percent of non-melanoma skin cancers are associated with exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.
- Up to 90 percent of the visible changes commonly attributed to aging are caused by the sun.
- Contrary to popular belief, 80 percent of a person’s lifetime sun exposure is not acquired before age 18; only about 23 percent of lifetime exposure occurs by age 18.
Your Kids:
Most kids don’t have a problem being in the sun for a while every day. But, if you know anything about latitude, altitude and seasons then you have enough information to make smart choices. Most people only get 23% of their lifetime solar exposure by the time they’re 18 (against popular myth). But, depending on where you live and how often you’re outside that number can change. I wouldn’t take it as a license to get burned or to let your kids get burned. Perhaps an even more compelling argument for people would be that the sun makes you look old quickly. If you’re a fair white person, it’s probably better not to try to change your skin color through sun exposure.
For Some People It Takes a Disaster:
What’s really baffling to me are the people who are told the facts about UV radiation and still refuse to wear hats or otherwise protect their skin. But when they get older it’ll be these same people who will be first in line for anti-wrinkle medication. Wrinkles could be the least of their problems; but, unfortunately, appearance is the only thing that gets people’s attention; health be damned. Wrinkles and age spots come from the sun. Tanning booths are just as bad as sitting out on the beach. I personally find girls who tan unattractive. And I’m not alone:
Researchers photographed 170 women’s faces, aged from 10 to 70, applied their skin to an idealized computer model and asked 430 people to score them for attractiveness. The only changing factor was the skin quality of the modal…
… ‘The highest scores went to the models with the most even skin tone. It seems to be more important than almost any other factor,’ said Dr Matts.
In a separate test, they took images of women aged 50-plus. Those with wrinkles were perceived as older, while those with uneven skin tone were seen as showing age and poor health.
Read more here
White people are sensitive to sun exposure; our skin wrinkles easily and becomes spotty easily. If skin tone, regardless of race, is the most important factor in the perception of beauty, why would a white woman do the one thing that’s going to wreck that natural beauty? If parents are concerned about the health and well being of their kids then why would they allow them outside without a hat, one which would protect them and make their chances of being perceived as beautiful greater as they get older? Is it just because hats can look goofy? I guess looking old before your time doesn’t look even goofier.
Sun Protection
Hats, sun screen, long sleeves and moisturizer are all things people should be using to help protect their skin. At higher elevations, like in Boulder where I live, moisturizer and hats are even more important. Southern California is sunny almost all the time. Don’t come here without a hat. You’ll pay for it when you’re older; just don’t say you weren’t warned.
Related posts:
Long sleeves in our high-humidity isn’t an option for us. Sadly, it seems that Tyler has some type of very mild allergy to sunscreen…. even the allergy-safe one. We found this out last year, and were hoping he’d “grow out of it” this year. I put sunscreen on him yesterday and found out that wasn’t the case.
Back to the drawing board.
.-= IrrationalDad´s last blog ..Wordless Wednesday v. Cousins =-.
My son is blonde haired and fair skinned (Irish/German), so you know we slather him up before he goes outside to play. We keep the bottle of sunscreen right by the back door to ensure we always use it. He’ll come up to me and say “Papa, ‘side?” Then, when I’ll tell him that we need to put sunscreen on first, he runs into the mud room, points to the bottle and says “Papa, face”. Cracks me up everytime.
.-= PJ Mullen´s last blog ..May the 4th be with you =-.
Thank you very much for sharing this. I live in a tropical climate and yet I don’t think twice about going out of the house exposed to the sun without hat, umbrella and sunblocks. Now I know I need to invest in a good sunblock that is safe for me and my daughter as well as buy my daughter a hat. Again, many thanks.