do your kids still wear sunhats? - Page 2

[Ceili]

We all fair skinned with a family history of skin cancer, so we all wear hats when we're out in the sun. Ds has a tie-dye bucket hat that he loves.

[Alyantavid]

Definitely. My 6 year old usually wears a hat at least to cover his face along with sunscreen. My 22 month old definitely does.

[Changed]

Yes, at that age. My son wears one if we'll be out more than 15 minutes but he's the color of mayonnaise and we live at a high elevation.

[Nikki Christina]

nope. we dont wear them. never have

my oldest is olive skinned & tans very very easily, 2nd appears pale .. i use more sunscrean on her.. but she still tans .
neither have ever had a hint of sunburn

[pigpokey]

Mine are 3 and 4, and did not tolerate sun hats much after 1. Anyway we do not typically go out in the midday sun like mad dogs and Englishmen, but we will go out before and after the burn zone and get a nice tan at times so I don't have to worry about proper vitamin D levels. If we were going to be out at the beach I would insist on it or sunglasses and sunscreen where the hat would have protected.

I do think sun protection is overused where I live. I cannot get a tan line to show up after 4pm, and still there are mothers putting sunscreen on their kids. How do they get vitamin D? I don't mean the measley amount in fortified milk.

[kblackstone444]

Originally Posted by angelpie545

I guess I'm the minority here-I could never get my kids to keep them on their heads, and finally gave up, slathered them with sunscreen and hoped for the best. They are now five and seven, but their aren't very fair-skinned; they both have olive undertones and tend to tan whether they have sunscreen on or not.

Pretty much the same here. My son would never keep a hat on his head and my stepdaughter never had one. My son is very fair skinned, so I probably would have until he older, but my stepdaughter is olive skinned. She walks from the house to the car and get a tan.

[TiredX2]

Yes, we generally have sunhats on (kids are 6.5 & 9).

I am really not into sunscreen, so we save that for situations I feel they really need it and use sunhats otherwise (I am definately not sun-phobic) and we slowly expose arms & legs to the sun starting in the spring.

[One_Girl]

My dd has never really liked hats on her head but we use sunscreen and reapply every two hours.

[ColwynsMommy]

We're quite fair-skinned (thanks to our Icelandic and Welsh ancestry), and I had many bad burns when I was a kid. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

However, I hate sunscreen. Really, really hate it. And the only kind I've found that doesn't burn my kids eyes is Neutrogena, which I'd prefer not to use anyway. So it's big bucket hats for us (and I do mean big.. my boys have huge heads) and we try to stay in the shade as much as possible. I don't worry about it too much if we're in just in the yard in the early morning or late afternoon, though.. but if we're out at midday I'm really conscious of making sure they're either in the shade or wearing a hat. I don't worry too much about their arms unless they're doing something that exposes their arms more.. like playing in the sand or something (where their arms are out in front of them, rather than by their sides like if they were walking).

I see lots of kids at the playground wearing at least baseball caps, so I think it's reasonable to expect them to wear a hat for at least the next few years.

[Ceili]

Originally Posted by pigpokey

I do think sun protection is overused where I live. I cannot get a tan line to show up after 4pm, and still there are mothers putting sunscreen on their kids. How do they get vitamin D? I don't mean the measley amount in fortified milk.

10 to 15 minutes of sun exposure, twice a week is usually sufficent. That's pretty easy to get around here just walking back and forth to the car.

[mollywobbles]

Originally Posted by Ceili

10 to 15 minutes of sun exposure, twice a week is usually sufficent. That's pretty easy to get around here just walking back and forth to the car.

I dunno if I agree. Our family homeopath who has two PHD's and whom I totally trust has said that "almost noone gets enough vitamin D these days" We use sunblock and hats (if they will leave them on) on dd's 4 and 2 if it is peak sun time or we will be out more than an hour or two. I have seasonal depression issues and believe that vitamin D is really important. Like all things, I think you have to strike a balance.

[BlueSkyJennifer]

We wear sunscreen and sun hats when needed. My kids like to wear their hats. Like a pp said, if I reach for sunscreen I automatically grab the hats too. I keep the sunscreens and baskets of their hats on a shelf by the door.

[pigpokey]

Originally Posted by Ceili

10 to 15 minutes of sun exposure, twice a week is usually sufficent. That's pretty easy to get around here just walking back and forth to the car.

That's enough to avoid obvious rickets but some of us are concerned that it is not enough for optimum development and cancer avoidance. Much is still unknown.

[Elastagirl]

Very fair-skinned here, and YES, DEFINITELY the kids wear sunhats. Lots of adorable hats for little girls, and even my 5 yo son has a few "cool" safari-style hats and a baseball cap.

[myrmom]

hats a must in our house...both sons 3.5 and 2 will be wearing hats this summer or will not be going outside to play...this is a big time rule at our house.

I am more concerned about the hat then I am about the sunscreen as my boys are both very very fair and therefore are suseptible to heat/sun stroke....sunscreen can't really protect you from that.