Is it bad that my two year old is tan? She has tan lines and everything. Now let me explain. She has never been sun-burned. She has a completion very similar to mine. One that WILL burn but tans pretty easily and doesn’t burn at the mere thought of sunlight. I will admit that I don’t put sunscreen on her every time we go outside. If it’s a cloudy day (yes I know you can burn when there are clouds) and we are only going to be swimming for 30 min I don’t bother. If it’s sunny and we are going to be longer then of course I put the sunscreen on.
I’ve hear some ‘experts’ say any and ALL tan is horrible wrong and will lead to skin cancer.
This is of course based on the fact that UV light is a know mutagen (it can cause DNA to mutate), all things that can cause DNA to mutate are carcinogenic, they can and usually will result in cancer with repeat exposure. This much is proven. So to avoid skin cancer avoid the carcinogen of UV light.
However other ‘experts’ say that natural (no sunscreen) sun exposure is good. It is also proven that sunlight improves health. We have all experienced what happens during the long days of winter when you just don’t see the sun. It leads to depression among other things and UV light has also been proven to reverse these lack of light symptoms. Also un-protected sun exposure stimulates your body to make natural vitamin D. Vitamin D of course is a good thing, and most Americans don’t have enough. The Vitamin D that your body makes in response to sunlight and the form in OTC vitamins are slightly different, but many disagree whether the difference is important or not. So what’s a mom to do?
Well this Mom is going to continue to protect again a sunburn, but not be overly paranoid about it. If we are going to the Zoo all day, yea I’ll put sunscreen on (her and me) but if we are going for an hour I’m not going to bother. Now let me pause and again explain that if my daughter or myself had a different skin type (like a red-head) then I would do things a little different. I’ve always argued that a tan is a good think, it protects against future sunburns, as long as you don’t over do it. I like the feel of sun on my skin and I think her little tan lines are cute! So I’m going to continue to play in the sun and in the meantime enjoy the best tan I’ve had since high school
2 comments:
I am so excited to be listening to "beths stories"! The sedge wren and least tern... very cool and I agree that an unexpected bird is always more exciting.
About having tan skin... I TOTALLY agree! people are getting way over the top on this. I have darker skin and tan well. Yet if I come to work with tan skin I get strange comments from coworkers...
Yet, I have been hearing that the american public are becoming vitamin D deficient (I have not verified this)and that the amount of suggested Vitamin D has increased (this has been verified). It is also known that sunblock blocks vitamin D production and so does darker skin. Which suggests that those with darker skin should NOT wear sunblock for the first 20-30 min.
Also, lets not forget that the enzyme that repairs sun damaged DNA is sun driven.
why cant i comment on your posts?
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