Over the last week or so I have begun to wonder how we ever coped with living and working in Cyprus for two years. It's not that I object to sunshine and warm weather (I'm not moaning, I promise!) It's just that it is very hard to get anything constructive done when it's this hot and we have loads to do, most of which involves moving furniture... Urrrgggh.
So, as we have been spending more time outside the house than in, I was grateful for a well timed delivery of summer essentials from Boots.
I always remember Boots fondly as the place we'd stock up before our summer holidays in Spain when I was a child, it was all part of the drawn out build up to a holiday which usually involved being bought a new book to read too! Of course a lot has changed since the 1980s when we wore sun protection factor 2 on the beach and thought nothing of getting burned quite regularly. Fortunately the Boots experts have lots of advice about how to stay safe in the sun this summer and they offered me the chance to put a question to their experts too. Thinking of the care free summers I spent with minimal protection in the 80s I was curious to know what the advice was for kids these days...
Q. "There is a lot of talk about children not getting enough vitamin D and I am wary of smothering my son in suntan lotion too early in the year. Is there an easy way to tell when you should apply sun protection in the UK?"
A. "We receive a great deal of incidental sun exposure throughout the year all of which allows synthesis of Vitamin D. Vitamin D is also present in our diet; oily fish being a good source, and this can also be supplemented. Deliberate UV exposure without sun protection should be avoided as even short exposures can cause long term skin damage. As a rule of thumb think about using sun protection from April to end of September."
I thought that was a rather interesting response and certainly a indication that I might need to buck up my rather slack personal suntan lotion routine (Ooops!) You can find more help and advice here.
It's difficult being a parent sometimes! A few months ago I was listening to the radio (BBC London) and they were talking about vitamins for kids based on the Chief Medical Officer's advice and recommendations at the time. I don't put sun protection cream on Dan that much in this country unless it is super, super hot. He has to wear it to preschool and they reapply it throughout the day if needed and they make them wear a hat of they want to play outside. Here's the article that was referred to: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2013/10October/Pages/Chief-Medical-Officer-free-vitamins-for-all-children.aspx. Apparently most of Europe all give their kids A, C & D vitamins as a matter of course, and North Americans put extra Vit D in milk, bread and cereal. I asked my friends with young children if they supplement and it was a 50/50 split. I had no idea I should be giving him vitamins, so I bought some drops and Dan will not entertain them at all! Typical!!
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