Safety in the sun

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UV radiation is strongest between September and April, between 10 am and 3 pm. If you can, save trips to the playground, the park or the beach for early morning and late afternoon.

Sunscreen combined with clothing and shade is the most effective way to keep your child safe from the sun and its reflection from water, sand, snow and buildings.

Sun protection

• Shade: Shade provides some protection from UV radiation, but babies and small children can still be burned by reflected sunshine. Even if you’re sitting in the shade, cover your child with clothes to stop burning, and use sunscreen on any exposed skin. Cover the pram with a shade while allowing for ventilation.
• Clothing: Keeping your child’s skin covered with clothes made from tightly woven fabric such as t-shirt material will protect her from the sun. If you hold the fabric up to the light you can see how much sun will get through it. Cotton clothes with long sleeves and cotton leggings will keep her cooler than clothes made from acrylic fibres. You can also get baby clothes that are specially designed to block the sun and that indicate how protective they are. Look for them at Cancer Council shops.
• Hats: A hat is a great way to protect your child from the sun. Look for a soft hat so she can still lie down comfortably while she’s wearing it. A full crown hat with a full brim or a neck flap is better than a baseball cap because it provides more shade; a chin strap will help keep it on your baby's head.
• Sunscreen: Sunscreen combined with clothing and shade is the most effective way to keep your child safe from sun and reflection. Use a SPF 30+ sunscreen on the face, hands and any other parts of your child that aren’t covered by clothes. It will work better if you put it on 20 minutes before you go outside and reapply it every two hours. Sunscreens labelled ‘for babies’ or ‘for infants’ are less likely to cause skin irritation. A lotion is better than a heavy cream – you can also look for sunscreens that are free of PABA and non-alcoholic. Sunscreen with reflective particles like zinc or titanium dioxide provide the most protection and are less likely to irritate skin. Sunscreen stops working a couple of years after it is made, so look for a use-by date on any sunscreen you are buying.

Some myths

You might have heard that children will get Vitamin D deficiency if they don’t play in the sun often enough. In Australia – with our long days and high levels of UV radiation – most children get more than enough Vitamin D from reflected sunlight. (Although recent medical research tells us that people with dark pigmented skin require longer daily exposure to sunlight to absorb Vitamin D.)

Some people might tell you that the best cure for nappy rash is direct sunlight. Fresh air will definitely help nappy rash, but putting your baby in direct sunlight is likely to burn her.

Recently, researchers have been looking at whether sunscreens harm babies younger than a year (most authorities don’t recommend sunscreen under the age of 6 months). They have studied whether a baby's thin skin can absorb chemicals from sunscreen, which might damage the baby’s organs. They have concluded that if you use only small amounts of sunscreen on uncovered areas such as the face and hands (that is, rely on clothing to cover most of the body, rather than slathering your baby’s legs, arms and body in sunscreen) the tiny amount of sunscreen which may be absorbed shouldn’t be enough to harm your baby.

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