Your Baby’s Sunscreen May Be Giving You a False Sense of Security

In another life, before I was a mom, I was a zipline guide in Kauai. This is when I started to learn that sunscreens can give you cancer! Now I am a mother, and I’m crazy over my baby girl’s beautiful skin. Daddy has already had to have pre-cancerous cells frozen off of his face. So between the combo of wanting my baby to always have beautiful skin, and her daddy to have healthy skin, I’ve looked into sunscreens deeper.

The sun radiates two different rays that are cancer causing, UVA and UVB. The UVA ray is longer and it affects the skin much deeper than a UVB ray. The UVB ray is the one that gives you sunburn. Both can cause skin damage and skin cancer.
When you buy a sunscreen and you look for a sun proof factor (spf), you are looking for protection from the UVB ray. The thing is, most sun blocks are only keeping out the UVB. So, you can have sunscreen on, thinking you are safe, but still get skin cancer from the UVA rays.

Harmful Toxins in Sunscreens

What is in your baby’s sunscreen? Well, there isn’t any safety standards set by the FDA for sunscreens. So it is important for parents to know what they are truly rubbing into their baby’s bodies. A good example of the standards set for our sunscreens is the use of PABA (“a skin damaging chemical”, EWG) that was more widely used in the past. It still is, however, since there was an outcry from consumers with allergic reactions, companies use it less.

The bottom line is that we parents need to be aware that some sunscreens may be potentially more harmful than good. “Studies show that some traditional sunscreens like oxybenzone and octinoxate definitely absorb into healthy skin – in large amounts according to some studies – and act like estrogens in the body, raising risks for breast cancer, and showing effects like hormone-driven uterine damage in other studies”. 1

Take a look at your current sunscreen and you will probably find one of these ingredients, if not both. There is also some controversial concern with the micro sized (nanosize) titanium and zinc. Are these particles so small that they can absorb through the skin and into our blood stream? For now it is considered safe (as long as the particles aren’t too small) on healthy skin. A good way to test is this, if the sunscreen rubs clear onto your baby’s skin, it is nanosized. If it rubs on with some white, the particles are not too small.

We are an adventurous family that loves the outdoors. So I needed to know, what is the safest sunscreen for my baby?

Environmental Working Groups Safest Sunscreen Picks

1. Keys Soap Solar Rx Therapeutic Sunblock
2. Trukid Sunny Days Facestick Mineral Sunscreen UVA/UVB Broad Spectrum
3. California Baby Sunblock Stick No Fragrance
4. Badger Sunscreen
5. Marie Veronique Skin Therapy Sun Serum

If you choose to use sunscreen on your baby, you may want to consider what is in the bottle.

Keep that little one’s skin silky protected and healthy by using one of these safe sunscreens for baby and child.

Recommended reading:
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/sunscreens/nanotech.php
http://www.mercola.com/2003/jul/2/sunblock_cancer.htm

1Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database, n.d., (Aug. 26, 2007) 

Tags: Safe Sun Protection, safe sunscreen, skin care

Category: Skin Care, Sun Protection