Using shea butter as sunscreen

[acannon]

I read somewhere that shea butter works well as sunscreen. Can it be used on babies younger than 6 mo.? Does it work as well as I've heard?

[Taedareth]

Unrefined shea butter has an SPF of 4-6 if it's less than 18 months old (counting from the time it was created in Africa, not from when you bought it off the shelf). Here is a good place to get it. Email the owner and she'll tell you the date when her current batch of shea butter was made.

It's a natural oil, so I don't know any reason why you couldn't use it on small babies. But keep in mind that anything with such a low SPF has to be reapplied frequently, depending on the amount of sun exposure you're getting.