Reduce Your Teen’s Chance of Skin Cancer
The kids and I have spent a considerable amount of time at the pool this summer. I’m one of those mean moms who makes my kids lather up in sunscreen before they hit the pool. They used to moan and groan about it, but now they (usually) just wait their turn for me to apply their sunscreen.
I have (very) fair skin (and auburn hair) and I burn very easily. I have never had a tan that did not come out of a bottle. But when I was a teen I was determined to tan. I laid out in the sun drenched in baby oil, for hours, waiting for my skin to turn brown. Baby oil, people. That’s how stupid I was. As you can imagine I did not tan. Instead I burned. Badly. I remember one occasion I was so burned my entire body itched like I’ve never itched before. I was a cashier at a fast food restaurant and I couldn’t stop scratching my back. I’m sure the customer’s were loving that. I had to have a couple friends run to a nearby drugstore to buy me some aloe. You’d think I would have learned. But I didn’t.
Like many teens I knew that sunbathing could lead to cancer, but I (stupidly) took the risk anyway. Teens just don’t fully comprehend how damaging the sun’s rays can be. They are more interested in looking good and they define “looking good” as having tan skin. Even my eight-year-old is on the tanning bandwagon. The other day he told me “you look better when you have a tan.” I politely pointed out two older ladies who were sunbathing at the pool. They had obviously been sun worshipers for many years and their leathery-looking skin proved it. They were very tan, but I wouldn’t say they were “looking good.”
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention only 10% of teens use sunscreen when they are out in the sun for more than an hour or more. TEN PERCENT?!? That’s 90% of our teens running around under the sun’s harmful rays with no protection whatsoever. The early you start sunbathing and the more often you burn dramatically increases your risk for skin cancer as an adult. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation “one blistering sunburn in childhood more than doubles a person’s chances of developing melanoma later in life.” The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center states, “Three or more episodes of sunburn before the age of 20 that require more than three days to heal increase the risk of contracting melanoma by two to five times.” This means many teens are playing Russian roulette with the sun.
So what can we do?
- Keep talking to your teen. Make sure they know and understand the consequences. Give them the facts.
- Apply sunscreen every day. I wear a moisturizer with an SPF of 15 under my makeup all year round. Have them make it part of their daily routine so it will be second nature like brushing their teeth.
- Wear a sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher, even when it’s cloudy out. The rays can still get through the clouds. Use a higher SPF when around a reflective surface such as water.
- Don’t be stingy. Sunscreen is pretty cheap so lather it on, especially when you are in a place with a lot of direct sunlight like the pool.
- Give it 15 to 20 minutes to dry. Don’t leap in to the pool right after applying sunscreen.
- Apply several times a day. Even if the bottle says it’s waterproof you should reapply every two to three hours.
- If possible, avoid the sun between 10am and 4pm. Of course, this is practically impossible for kids. That’s smack dab in the middle of peak pool time. So instead use a higher SPF and apply more sunscreen more often.
- Don’t forget about your eyes. The sun can damage your eyes as well. Wear sunglasses and a hat.
- Get a tan from a bottle. Lotions today can create a very natural looking tan. DO NOT use tanning beds. Tanning bed still have UVA rays and can still cause skin cancer. If you must go to a tanning salon go for the spray on tan instead.
Summer is a great time to get outdoors and get active. The sun isn’t all bad. With summer we have longer days, giving kids more time to be outside with their friends. And the sun helps the body create vitamin D. But make sure your teens are keeping themselves protected from UV rays. Skin cancer is real, but it can be prevented.
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POSTED IN: Safety
1 opinion for Reduce Your Teen’s Chance of Skin Cancer
Topsy-Techie
Jul 17, 2008 at 3:12 am
As a fair skinned mom, of two fair skinned tweens/teens, I wanted to say a big thanks for this post. And don’t feel so bad about the baby oil - - I once let a friend convince me to use VEGETABLE oil! Yep, I was crispy, and well done for several days afterward. Sigh.
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