Skin Care Tips to Protect Your Children This Summer

The summer season is finally here. With that comes more outdoor activities, afternoons spent at the home pool, and vacations to the beach. During these summer months, however, your children’s skin needs extra care and protection.

Here are five tips for keeping your children’s skin safe this summer.

Moisturize Dry Skin

During the hot summer months, your child’s skin can easily dry out. This is apparent because about one out of every 10 kids will develop eczema. To help keep your kids’ skin moisturized and healthy, apply lotion to their skin daily after they get out of the shower. This will help to lock in moisture. Try to avoid applying lotion on their hands so that the lotion doesn’t end up in their mouth. You should apply lotion more frequently if your child’s skin appears dry or scaly.

Childhood rashes are common but cause major concern if they’re not taken care of. In the summer months, heat rash is especially a common occurrence for children. It looks like tiny bumps surrounded by red skin and is typically not painful. It can develop on the neck, armpits, elbow creases, and in the groin. As a child gets older, it can also begin to develop on their chest and back. Heat rash will usually go away on its own. However, you can help it by dressing your child in lightweight clothing, putting them in a cool bath or shower, or using an ice pack on the rash.

Apply Sunscreen Consistently

During the summer months, we are more exposed to the sun than at other times of the year. With that exposure comes potential sunburns and sun damage that can affect our children for the rest of their life. That is why applying sunscreen often and correctly should be a key part of your children’s skincare routine during the warm summer months.

For the best protection, apply sunscreen at least 30 minutes before going outside. Be sure to reapply sunscreen every two hours and after your children get out of the water, even if you are using a water-resistant product. You can take further steps to protect your child from the sun by having him or her wear a broad-brimmed hat, sunglasses, and lip balm that contains SPF.

If you have a baby, you take them out into the sunlight at six months old. You will need to apply sunscreen with a minimum of SPF 30 all over your exposed skin. Also, keep in mind that because of their underdeveloped sweat glands, babies are very susceptible to heat rash.

Follow a Shower Schedule for Proper Washing

Over the last year, it has been reinforced to children how important it is to keep our hands clean. But do your children know how important it is to keep skin clean?

According to the American Academy of Dermatology Association, children ages six to 11 should bathe at least once or twice a week, whenever they get dirty after they’ve been in a pool, lake, ocean, or other body of water, and when they get sweaty. Tweens and teens should shower or bathe daily and wash their faces twice a day to remove oil and help prevent breakouts.

Talk About Potential Dangers to Skin

In the summer months, children are exposed to many dangers to their skin. First, there is the sun. And second, there are plants such as poison ivy that children can run into while playing. About 85% of people are allergic to poison ivy, and it can be found in every state except Alaska and Hawaii.

It helps to make your child aware of these potential dangers by talking to them about them. During these conversations, make sure your child is aware of how to protect their skin from these dangers.

The summer months can do a lot of damage to your child’s skin, but by following these precautions, they’re sure to come out unscathed.