A few of my kids also have naturally fair skin and burn easily. Our family lives in a very northern location where many people get pasty white in the winter. *This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. In a nutshell, yes you should get some sun! However, you can still use common sense regarding when and how much. Salmon, tuna, egg yolks, and mushrooms are great food sources. Vitamin D can also be obtained through diet.Morning sun is said to be the healthiest, and there is much less risk of skin damage.If a person were to be outdoors throughout the day, they would get their daily quota of Vitamin D even wearing some skin protection or long clothing.We were designed to be outside in nature, not indoors.Oh man, do I even enter into this hotly debated topic? It also seems that the science around vitamin D and sun exposure seems to be constantly changing! Should we block sun exposure? What about vitamin D deficiency? While those products may have served their purpose to block the sun, we now know that those chemicals were causing more harm than good. The problem came when large companies decided to try to use chemicals in order to make a superior product to the natural ways people had been protecting their skin for generations. Zinc oxide is one of the main ingredients in most mineral-based sunscreen products as it has a natural spf. It is also thought that Indians were the first ones to use zinc oxide on their skin as a natural homemade sunscreen. This paste was made by blending fat, butter, and red ochre, and served as both protection from the sun and insects. In fact, those who had tan faces were looked down upon, as it was a sign of poverty.Įven in countries and cultures where fewer clothes were worn, we can see how the people had concocted ways to protect them from sun damage before the days of commercial sunscreen.įor example, the Himba women of Namibia coated their hair and skin in a reddish paste called otjize. It was the norm in days past to keep most of your skin covered, especially outside. The fact is, people of European descent have only recently started running around mostly naked in the sunshine. One thing I remember distinctly about them was how they wore long sleeve shirts and long pants on the hottest of days – out in their garden! It was so strange to my shorts and tank top-wearing self. They were the OG homesteaders before homesteading was cool. One of my sets of grandparents lived a very old-fashioned life. We now know that these chemicals actually cause cancer and other health complications. Oxybenzone is also an endocrine disrupter according to many recent studies. Many commercial sunscreens contain chemicals, such as oxybenzone, octinoxate, octocrylene, homosalate, avobenzone, and octisalate. I will also share my favorite coconut oil sunscreen recipe for those times when extra protection is desired. Today I’m going to share why you should not be slathering your children (or yourself) in chemical sunscreens and several natural alternatives to using any sunscreen at all. I stopped letting marketing campaigns and fear-mongering take away from the truth: sunshine is healing for the body, you just have to respect its power.Īnd I started experimenting with more natural ways of lessening the negative effects of getting too much sun. I stopped using sunscreens filled with toxic chemicals and started using natural techniques for minimizing the harmful effects of too much sun exposure. And suddenly I felt that feeling of panic and guilt all over again. When my oldest was nearing kindergarten I started to learn about the chemicals that most commercial sunscreens are made of. And then, I spent the next 5 years making up for it by coating my children in every sun-blocking chemical labeled for use on kids. While we were sitting in the shade, the UV rays were still coming through. Later we found out that while the canopy used to have UV protection, the protective coating must have faded with use. We sat underneath a shade canopy, carefully making sure that our precious baby was not in the sun.īut guess what? Her poor little face got burnt! When my first baby was just 2 weeks old our new little family of 3 attended my sister’s ball game.
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