When the Little People were even smaller they went to a nursery school. This was “PM”…pre Melanoma….before my world turned into a mini cyclone. Even then though, I was “sun-conscious”. I covered up their baby skin, covered them in sun lotion and kept them out of the harsh glare as much as I could.
On sunny days they would go into Nursery fresh and adorable, smelling of baby powder, skin soft and clean. I would collect them at the end of the day and they would be clammy…their skin warm from being outdoors, covered in a thick white paste of suncream.
But that didn’t matter…because they had been outdoors…they had got the fresh air & Vitamin D. Children should go outdoors – it is important.
The Daily Mail article last week mentioned my sun-exposure as a child. But thankfully it didn’t say don’t go outdoors as some of the comments after the article would have suggested. What it did say is that UV Rays are cumulative.
Who knows why rates of Melanoma and skin cancer are increasing….but they are.
Who knows why 1 person gets Melanoma and another doesn’t. Is it genetic? Is it diet? Is it climate? Or just a horrible mix of back luck and a combination of some or all of the above.
I have it…my brothers don’t. Why? Maybe because my younger brother wasn’t exposed to UV for as long so his levels haven’t reached maximum yet….maybe as an article this week suggested, my older brother doesn’t have Melanoma because he had excema as a child. http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/Media-office/Press-releases/2014/WTP056368.htm
The point of articles like this is to tick additional possible links, potential causes or indicators…because we really just don’t know why…and often understanding why helps find cures, treatments and solutions.
It has frustrated me for quite some time that we are happy that our littlest of little people have sun tan lotion applied at preschool settings…and yet seemingly the day they start Primary school aged 4-5 suddenly we don’t care about their skin?
When your child goes to primary school they have to look after themselves…as a parent you send them in with hats, you pop sun-cream on them in the morning and a labelled bottle in their bag…and you hope that they can manage to apply it themselves. You tell them to drink lots of water.
Schools won’t make them do any of that. They won’t make them keep their hats on, they won’t make them drink water, sit in the shade or apply sun lotion.
They most definitely won’t apply sun-cream on our little people…little people some of whom are as young as 4 and need help visiting the toilet. “you can wipe my child’s bum but not rub sun lotion on its arms & face”???
Has the world gone mad?
These professionals are the people we trust with our children’s lives and wellbeing for 6 or more hours a day…but we won’t trust them with applying sunlotion…and worse still they won’t apply sun lotion in case your child has an allergic reaction to whatever brand is applied and then you sue them.
The litigation culture has taken over the world of common sense.
We must be proactive. In Australia the rates of “new” instances of Melanoma are falling for the first time in decades…this is attributed to the impressive sun policies adopted by their schools.
There are a couple of great school/ club campaigns out there at the moment.
A well established campaign from charity Skcin called Sun Safe Schools :
http://www.skcin.org/Our-Work/Innovative-Campaigns/Sun-Safe-Schools
and a new campaign for clubs and associations that launched yesterday:
http://oksunsafetycode.com/
In Australia all the school children know about Melanoma & Skin Cancer. They apply sun-lotion, stay out of the midday sun & have vast areas of space outdoors where they can play safely under UV canopies.
Up until recently the school that my Little People attend didn’t have a proper area where the children could play, sit and eat lunch outdoors that was in the shade. They recently changed that & installed a fantastic seating area under a pagoda.
Sun Safety for children isn’t just about slapping on sun-cream….protecting our children is about raising awareness even as Little People about the importance of knowing when enough sun is enough. Not just stopping when their skin turns pink…but preventing that happening in the first place.
Melanoma can strike at any age…..even children.