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The Scoop on Suncreen

I started using sunscreen four years ago and I slather it all over my body without checking labels or thinking twice. If I knew then, what I knew now; if I knew that the chemicals used in many sunscreens are estrogen-like, that my skin was penetrable and that the active ingredients from the sunscreen would be found in my blood, urine and body cells. Thankfully, it didn’t appear to affect my overall estrogen levels. But what effect could it have on a child, a baby, an infant? I don’t know.

But I know that babies have three times the relative surface area of an adult. If a baby were to be covered in sunscreen, and the skin were equally absorbent, you would expect three times the concentration of chemicals in the blood. And actually, the skin of a baby is far more absorptive than adults throughout the first couple years. The actual levels of these chemicals in babies are far more higher.

Don’t get me wrong. Sun protection is good for babies, all the more so because of green house effect/ozone layer. But here at Safe Home Happy Mom, I urge you to take a different route this summer. Guard your child against direct exposure in the first six month of life, dress baby in sun-protective clothing when outdoors. And for the bigger kids, find natural mineral sunscreen that physically blocks harmful UV rays with active ingredients such as zinc oxide or titanium dioxide – in microparticles, not nanoparticle sizes.

In conclusion, the most immediate issue is protecting pregnant mothers, newborns and infants. Because what goes on the skin and in the body cells do matter.