Outdoor Safety: Sunscreen

​​Sunscreen can help parents prevent their children from getting sunburned. Dr. Micah Ryan has tips on how often to apply sunscreen and what age young children can start wearing sunscreen.​

• Transcript

  Outdoor Safety: Sunscreen

  The most important benefit of applying sunscreen to our kids this summer is that this will help us prevent our kids from getting sunburned. We should apply sunscreen to our kids every 2 hours and after swimming and after excessive sweating. After applying sunscreen to our kids, we should keep them out of the water for about 30 minutes. This is the amount of time needed to fully allow the sunscreen to take full effect.
  

  The age we can start applying sunscreen to our kids' skin is six months old. Prior to this, the goal is really to keep them out of direct sunlight. If we had to apply sunscreen, if there is no other option, SPF 15 would be a good choice. I even will tell my parents to wait until one really before they start relying on sunscreen to help our kids.​​​
  

  It's important when applying sunscreen to our kids' face that we avoid the eyes and the mouth. But let's just say it actually happens. It is important, at that point, to irrigate out the eyes copiously with water. If concerned, get them in with their primary care physician. 
  

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