I won't apologize, because I am not sorry--I was investing some time into my girls, my family and friends (close and far), and making a little anniversary magic...it was on the 1st of May. This year was themed the traditional flowers and/or fruit, and boy have these fingers been full of creative power! So excuse me for disappearing for so long!!
So while the sun is shining, I am constantly thinking about little babes and sunburns, so I thought I would share my sun"screen" regimen with you. I get asked about it A LOT, and I feel it's important...but I MUST start off with a disclaimer: My recommendations are in no way the substitute for medical advice, and I cannot guarantee that my method works with all skin types or conditions, please consult your physician if you have any concerns. This is just what works for my family.
We start in March, when the weather hits about 55 degrees around here, we pull on our boots and head outside where the shirts come off! The first initiative of Progressive Sun Exposure is to do exactly that, EXPOSE your skin to the sun when it is weakest. In the earliest parts of warm spring I allow my children to run around topless between the hours of 10 and 12 for the entire duration of TWO hours. In the evening, when the girls are up from their naps, and the day has warmed considerably, I stick their little booties in shorts and short-sleeved shirts (if it seems a little too cold yet, I leave their top halves in long sleeves), then we head back outside for another hour or so. This is the perfect point to gauge their skin! If they look a little "warm" when your child is usually pasty, hold off on the evening sunbathing! Then continue in this fashion through April, which will only end up being a couple times a week because of all the April showers! Just be diligent, as if you were a farmer who HAS to go outside daily to tend crops. Sometimes it can be a challenge to get out there unless the sunshine is irresistible, but there is nothing more beautiful than a body in sync with nature, skin tone obviously kissed by the sun!
I understand that the noon hour can be concerning, because between 11 and 2 the sun's rays are strongest, and normally I would recommend avoiding those hours, but since you're starting in the earliest parts of spring, I have never known the rays to be quite strong enough to burn, unless you're prolonging your exposure past noon...then you're just not following directions, and you are on your own! Still, for the fairer skin types, there are two ways to go about it.
The first way, which is easiest for me:
10-12 shirtless...
4-6 shorts and short sleeves
On any day the sun doth shine! Until May 1st. Then move the hour back to 9-11.
If you're in the water, halve your duration of exposure.
The second way, for babes under 2 and fair-skinned folk: (also helpful for late starters)
Avoiding the sun's witching hours from 11-2, expose as much skin as possible for 20 minutes.
Every 3 days of exposure add 10 minutes.
If that tell-tale pink glow appears, rest, out of the sun, for at least 2 days before resuming, and consider giving your skin a longer adjustment period, such as 4 or 5 days of the same length of exposure, especially when you hit lengths of an hour or more.
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| River Evelyn 1 and a few months old! |
Now, why wouldn't you just use sunscreen and save yourself the trouble? I've been asked a thousand times. Because the ingredients in most sunscreens are carcinogenic, cancer-CAUSING...your great-great grandma didn't have access to sunscreen, and neither do peasants and farmers in present-day countries, such as China, and wouldn't you know it?! Their SKIN cancer levels are markedly LOW!! (Don't bring up Australia, our poor friends down under don't count!) So what about using natural sunscreen? That's decidedly better, but still,
"Vitamin D: it protects against many types of cancer, including skin cancer. Supplementation is in order for people who live in areas with long winters and/or people who do not take sunbaths."(Drake)
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| River, and Kaylee age 2.5. My babes NEVER burned last year!! They got close once, and we used sunscreen one time when we were in a pool that did not open until 11. |
Low levels of Vitamin D are linked to many types of cancer; colorectal, breast cancer, renal, endometrial, colon...etc. Getting your levels above 30 is recommended, and above 60 diminishes your cancer risks by 3/4!! Even Canada has started prescribing Vitamin D to prevent cancer.(Nikoley) The following graphs relating Vitamin D levels to various cancer risks are taken from Free The Animal:
Notice how the USA is markedly above the projected incidence rate of Renal Cancer relative to it's average global latitude position...WE ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG HERE FOLKS!!!
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| My girls, in early April! |
Progressive Sun Exposure not only exposes the skin to the sun, but also incorporates diet into the method, keeping skin healthy, vibrant and producing Vitamin D instead of constantly repairing skin damage.
Sure, increasing sun exposure steadily will help your skin adapt to the sun, but your body will have a much easier time if you give it a break from fighting toxins in fast food, and help it along with natural dietary changes to boost skin protection and rejuvenation!
First, and I can't stress this enough, WATER!!! The more hydrated your skin, the more the sun can evaporate before hitting dry tissue. Dry tissue is damaged tissue.
Secondly, look around you! What's in season?? BERRIES!!! Especially BLUEBERRIES!! In the PEAK of summer, berries are abundant, and they just so happen to contain hundreds of antioxidants and other nutrients and vitamins that aid your skin among other things! There are also plenty of tomatoes, watermelon and dark leafy greens!
In addition to tomatoes and watermelon, some other specific fruits, to pick the best out of the abundance: Pomegranate, Broccoli, Spirulina, Red Bell Pepper, Mango, Carrots, Papaya, Cherries, Chocolate. All of these for Vitamin C, Carotenoids, Astaxanthin, Lycopene, Histidines, Anthocyanines, Tocotrienals, Sulphoraphane...all that jargon says HEALTHY SKIN!!!
Also, an in-depth look at how our country's diet has changed over the past few decades--Skin cancer rates have risen annually 4.2% after an initial increase of 77% from 1992-2006, at the same time we are spending less hours in the sun and more of that time in sunscreen. So firstly, we aren't absorbing the sunshine and making Vitamin D, as I mentioned before. Also, we don't eat saturated and monounsaturated fats. We fill our fats with canola oil, veggie and soybean oils, due to the sentiment that these kinds of leaner fats are healthier for you, when in fact it's the saturated fats that help produce healthy skin cells and the other oils that are being used in substitute during cell production can cause skin cancer instead. These oils are also high in linoleic acid which is not only linked to causing skin cancer, but also inhibits the body from effectively fighting cancers too! Other dietary habits to be noted are the higher intake of grains, which cause inflammation in most humans, and the use of chemicals in food (yes, even the lovely artificial sweetener that is 0 calories) and applying chemicals to the skin via cosmetics, hygene products and sunscreen. These products are just acting on the pseudo-skin cells your body created out of fake fats, which are more likely to mutate, so then the constant exposure to the chemicals causes them to do exactly that--MUTATE! Consuming antioxidants, such as the aformentioned berries will get rid of free radicals in the body, but if you don't participate in the dietary behaviors that cause those free radicals to form, you will be MUCH better off! (Katie)
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| Kaylee Autumn |
Study after study will show you that food is the foundation of natural sunscreen: 2007 Cornell study of Red Delicious apples showed the skin of the apple to contain triterpenoids which block or kill cancer cells; Korean study gave 30 women 30mg of beta-carotene (6 carrots worth/ 1.5 cups, or 1 cup of sweet potatoes) which showed to prevent and reverse photoaging of currently damaged cells. (Goyanes) A University of Michigan study found the Lycopene in tomatoes and watermelon also protect the skin from sunburn after 3 months of daily doses. UC San Diego also found in a study of Green Tea that consuming or applying it directly to your skin will prevent sunburn as well. (Barrymore) Yet another study, this time on chocolate, found that 3 ounces every day for three months not only helped prevent sunburn, but also left skin smoother, moister, and healthier. Even at 6 weeks, the skin reddening was 15% less, and 12 weeks 25% less! (Raloff) You should eat healthily all the time, but if you don't there are supplements that can help you too. Some German scientists studied Beta-Carotene in supplement form and found that taking supplements for at least 10 weeks improved the skin's natural spf. (Although I must stress that supplements can have ill effects compared to their natural form! For example the beta-carotene/Vit A supplement will increase risk of lung cancer in smokers and previous smokers, but not naturally occurring Vitamin A) (European Food Information Council)
To clarify though, I do NOT recommend staying in the sun at noon, I do not recommend sunbathing for infants, because we have thinned our o-zone layer, which is just asking for a sunburn. If you HAVE to be out during those hours, or have a little one who's skin is not developed enough to adapt to sun exposure, please naturally lotion up. There are plenty of natural lotions, so you can avoid the chemicals, but even in the most extreme situations it's better to lather on the chemical crap than to burn. So use common sense!
Works Cited:
Barrymore, John. "Foods That Prevent Sunburn." HowStuffWorks. 10 Aug 2009.
<http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/beauty/sun-care/how-to-prevent-sunburn2.htm>
BBC News. "Sun Lotions Are Not Effective." 29 Sept 2003.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3142386.stm>
Drake, Karen Sinclair. "Natural Sun Protection." Dr. Frank Lipman. 22 Jul 2011. <http://www.drfranklipman.com/natural-sun-protection/>
European Food Information Council. "Beta-Carotene Supplements May Help Prevent Sunburns." EUFIC. 5 May 2014.
<http://www.eufic.org/page/en/page/LS/fftid/Beta-carotene-supplements-may-help-prevent-sunburns/>
Goyanes, Cristina. "Eat These Sun-Fighting Super Foods." Women's Health. 2014.
<http://www.womenshealthmag.com/beauty/food-for-skin-0>
Harris, Kimi. "Help Prevent Sunburn With These Beautiful Foods." Mother Nature Network. 5 Jul 2012.
<http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/blogs/help-prevent-sunburn-with-these-beautiful-foods#>
Katie. "Avoid Sunburn and Tan Better by Eating Real Food?" Wellness Mama. 21 Jun 2011.
<http://wellnessmama.com/2619/avoid-sunburn-and-tan-better-by-eating-real-food/>
Nikoley, Richard. "Vitamin D Deficiency and All Cancer." Free The Animal. 30 Dec 2008.
<http://freetheanimal.com/2008/12/vitamin-d-deficiency-and-all-cancer.html>
Raloff, Janet. "Chocolate As Sunscreen." Food For Thought. Science News. 14 Jun 2006.
<https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/food-thought/chocolate-sunscreen-0>
The Seasonal Family. "10 Foods that are Natural Sunscreens." 26 May 2011. <http://www.seasonalfamily.com/2011/05/10-foods-that-are-natural-sunscreens.html>
"Top 10 Foods Highest in Beta-Carotene." Health-Alicious-Ness. 6 Apr 2013.
<http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/natural-food-sources-of-beta-carotene.php>
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