Healthy and Safe Ways to Protect Your Children from Sunburn
Our family loves family adventures and we spend lots of time outside whether in our own backyard, at the pool, a nature preserve or on an adventure across the United States. I am continually on a journey to find the best ways to protect my family from sunburn without putting lots of chemicals on our skin. We love the sun and love getting the Vitamin D from it, but sometimes we need to protect our skin so that we do not get sunburned.
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The first time we came to Florida we went on a walk in the morning on the beach the first day without sunscreen. We stayed out too long as the sun rose higher and higher, and then by the time we got back to our camp the children were already covered in sand making it so hard to put on the sunscreen. We all got so burned the first day of our trip that year.
This year we were trying out three different kinds of natural sunscreen that get a #1 rating on the EWG website. They were good and I would use them again, but we still did get burned a little. I only re-applied the sunscreen though on their faces, as it is just too hard to re-apply it on their bodies after all the water and the sand. We do try and cover them with their bathing suits and rashguard shirts as much as we can.
BATHING SUITS AND GEAR:
Our favorite place to get bathing suits is Lands End. We have been impressed with their quality and like their guarantee for their products.
We have always gotten our daughter's bathing suits there as well, but realized that we needed to find some legging type bathing suit for her as well as the sand rubs on her thighs when you wear your bathing suit all day long. We found some great bathing suits bottoms for girls at UV Skinz.
For the baby:
This is the bathing suit we got for our baby as we wanted her completely covered when we were out in the sun most of the day. Then we got her some water shoes/aqua socks so that her feet were covered as well. They worked really for her to walk in on the beach and she did not get sunburned.
Hats are also really important for us to have for our children. These are the BEST HATS - Sunday Afternoon Kids Play Hat!!! Our girls have matching hats and our boys have matching hats so that we can look out and spot them quickly. They wear them pretty much the entire time we are outside in the sun in Florida and when we are hiking and outside for a long time in the sun. We use these constantly in the summer and especially when we are on camping trips.
HERE ARE THE NATURAL SUNSCREENS WE HAVE TRIED AND LIKE:
Raw Elements Eco Formula 30 was my favorite for this trip. I feel like it did the best with only one application and it rubbed in fairly well without being too white. I will continue to use this one as it is my favorite brand right now.
Raw Elements Eco Formula 30 in the tin was great for application to the face and for re-applying it to the face. I felt like it covered well without being too white and would rub into the skin.
Raw Elements Tinted Facial Moisturizer 30 - I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one for especially me! It is tinted and looks pretty dark when you open it but it goes on fairly clear and is wonderful! My children and husband can even use it because it does not leave any color. It does look a little greasy on your face, but I prefer that than the ones that leave a little white tint. I just ordered the Raw Elements Sunscreen Eco Tint Stick 30 for this summer so we will see how that goes on as well. The Facial Moisturizer comes in a nice little tin that is easy to take with you everywhere. I plan to use this on my family's faces this summer as we do a lot of hiking on our big road trip/camping trip this summer.
Raw Elements Eco Form Sunscreen Stick SPF 30 - We used this one to re-apply sunscreen on faces. It worked okay, but was really hard to apply as it didn't glide well. I prefer the tin, but do like how small this one is as it fits so well into a pocket.
Badger Balm Kids Face Stick - 35 - Tangerine and Vanilla - I liked using this one for applying to the children's faces. They loved it because it smelled good, like an orangesicle. This helped espcially for the re-application under their eyes and their nose and cheeks.
Badger SPF 30 Baby Sunscreen Cream was good. I think it is one of the better natural sunscreens and I would get it again but I did prefer the Raw Elements sunscreen over it. Although both of them are fine for babies, I did use this one on my baby more than the Raw Elements. She did not burn at all, although I kept her mostly covered up.
Blue Lizard Australian Baby Sunscreen SPF 30 - This is the one that I used last year and some this year. I love how this sunscreen rubs in. However I would use this one after I have a base tan. We used this one after we had been in Florida for a few days. It does not provide as much coverage as the Raw Elements and my children have burned on this one if I use it the first day we are out in the intense sun all day in Florida. It is a nice alternative to have. I like how the bottle becomes a different color when it is out in the sun and there is a chance that you could get sunburned.
Blue Lizard, Lizard Lips SPF 22 Lip Balm - We really like this sunscreen lipbalm.
As parents we want to protect our children the best that we can from the sun and from the chemicals in traditional sunscreen as well.
Please leave us a comment if you have a healthy sunscreen that you have tried and love or feel like it works well. We are always on the lookout for an even better working healthy sunscreen.
I’d rather give my children a life of adventure than a house full of stuff.
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