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Teach your children good sun care habits and you could save them from skin cancer and premature aging of the skin. As parents, you are careful to protect your children in every way possible, to teach them good habits of daily living. Through your example, they learn to look both ways before crossing the street, or to brush their teeth after meals and before going to bed. Starting such practices early in life allow youngsters to develop good habits which allow them to grow into healthier and safer adults.

Why is it important to start sun protection early? It’s because the sun damages the cells of the skin, beginning the very first time your skin is exposed to the sun. The damage from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation is cumulative - it actually adds up with each exposure. And because children usually are out in the sun more than adults, about 90 percent of the accumulation takes place by the age of 20.

Newborns, of course, should also be kept shaded because they don’t have very good abilities to regulate heat. Just as you swaddle them in clothes in the winter to keep them warm, you keep the sun off their skin to prevent their overheating. Parents can be good role models for their children by putting on sunscreen and wearing hats when going outside. And as children get older and are able to go outside on their own, sunscreen needs to be applied to them daily. Most kids love to have a routine to follow, and it’s easy to make the application of sunscreen part of that routine.

Here are some hints about good sun care tips:

• Sunscreen. Because it’s less likely kids will have a chance to reapply sunscreen every few hours, you should use a sunscreen that’s substantive, meaning it’s thicker and tends to stay on longer. There’s no measure for this on the label yet, though many dermatologists believe there should be, so you have to go by how the product feels. Use a product with an SPF of at least 15. Apply to all exposed skin surfaces — most people forget to cover the lips and the ears, places where one of the worst kinds of skin cancers can develop. (Squamous cell carcinoma is a skin cancer that tends to metastasize, or spread elsewhere, if contracted in those parts of the body.) Reapply the lotion every few hours.
• Hats. Baseball caps are better than nothing, but they shade only the forehead and the nose, failing to protect the cheeks, back of the neck, the neck itself, or the ears. You can give your children and yourself excellent protection by wearing hats with brims about three inches wide all the way around.
• Clothing. The average article of clothing has an SPF of about 6. It’s increasingly easy to find shirts and pants with built-in sun protection of SPF 30.
• Help from teachers. Ask teachers or day-care staff to let the youngsters apply sunscreen before going to recess. If necessary, get together with other parents at your day-care facility to furnish the product. Studies by the American Academy of Dermatology show that sometimes overburdened day-care workers do not consistently or uniformly apply the lotion. There’s no substitute for your own good example and training.
• Quit smoking. Nicotine also appears to cause skin damage. Setting a good example by not smoking will enhance your child’s chances of avoiding premature wrinkling and some other signs of aging.

Brown spots, fine wrinkling and other signs of damaged skin have started showing up earlier and earlier in life, now becoming apparent in some people by their late 20s. By their 30s or 40s, people start asking skin specialists for help. If they had developed good sun habits in childhood, they likely would not need such attention until late in life.

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