SUMMER! Bring on the sunburn... but what of the consequences for our little ones?

As a kid, I remember heaps of times going out in the sun, sometimes with sunscreen, if I remembered it, if in fact my mother made sure we had it on. Back then, noone really talked about skin cancers, melanomas and all that. Kids ran down the park, street or beach, being careful enough, but not always heeding advice from our folks.

I remember wearing my brightly coloured, flowery, floppy hat, a long shirt, and zinc. But as soon as you hit the water, it was often a case of lets see who can hit the water first on the old lilo (the old blow up type with handles). Never mind how long you were out in it. Hence my sister and I would come home, burnt and sandy, have a bath, and Mum would get out the cold teabags to try to take the sting out of it, or slap on some kind of gunk to appease the redness. Gee I was careless, how much damage I have probably done is anyones guess. Then again, how big were the holes in the ozone layer? What was an ozone layer? What did SPF mean? I dunno, people were too busy whacking on REEF TAN OIL.

But as a generation of guinea pigs, one would hope we would have learnt our lesson, ensuring we protect our little ones. Yep, right. I still shake my head in dismay as I see mum pushing 1 year old Jack down to the shops, his legs and arms exposed to the sun smack bang in the middle of the day, and without a hat! Gotta hope there's lots of sunscreen on the poor chappy's face and hairline on his scalp. With repeated exposure, it is widely known that it could in turn increase the risk of skin cancer in later life, so why does it still happen?

Check out this quiz (you might have to copy and paste in a new window, dunno if the link works, sorry)

http://pediatrics.about.com/library/quiz/bl_sun_safety_quiz.htm

My father was a taxi driver, one arm out exposed to the sun onthe window ledge. He had cancers cut out of his arm later. Oh yeah, and lost half his ear from the sun getting in on it thru the window. He wore a hat in later life, but the damage was done. Imagine finding a melanoma on your 18 year old kid? The risks are far greater these days, and most of the damage is done in the early years when some of us think our kids are bulletproof from a "little bit of sunshine".

Most of you know the rules when it comes to protecting our littlies, and ourselves, but don't be complacent. It takes 10 - 15 MINUTES in the middle of the day for a burn to develop, and it can be so easily prevented.

Enjoy summer everyone, just use commonsense, and our kids will be around to tell their tales of endless fun on the beach on summer days to their grandkids.

Now can someone please pass me my hat?....Thanks.