What is the best way to encourage children to apply sunscreen without having to remind them?

Answer 1

It has to be much a part of their daily routine as brushing their teeth is. I replace the sunscreen with body moisturizer in the winter but my 16 yr old and 3 yr old put their lotion/sunscreen on in the morning before heading out to play/hang out. I use the spray sunscreen and find that my daughter who is 16 loves how easy it is and the scent of it helps. My 3 yr old loves to be sprayed with anything.

Habit, it has to be a habit. We even use SPF20 on our faces daily year round. Keeps the freckles away!!!!!!!

Answer 2

This depends on the age of the child. If they are 10 years and under then you as the parent should make it a point that they are not leaving the house unless they put on sunscreen, or you put it on for them. Kids over 10 should be forewarned every day the dangers of the sun, and should be told horror stories and shown gross pictures of people that have gotten skin cancer. I'm sorry but with older children that is the only way to get them to do something, through using healthy fear tactics.

Answer 3

Get fun color sun screen or easy spray on sunscreen. Depending on the age get a bottle with a fun picture on it. Have them pick out the sunscreen they want to apply.

Explain the benefits of sunscreen and tell them why they should use it. Make it a routine that 30 minutes before we leave the house we put on our sunscreen (like make it apart of you daily routine) and get the kids used to doing it every time and they are more likely to remember to do it with practice, and make it a positive and fun experience. Also, parents should do it too. Otherwise as the kids age the say well if they don't have to do it why should I.

Answer 4

I'm in childcare, no hat or sunscreen no play. Since we are dealing with younger children, we apply it for them and they in turn get a sticker or stamp on there hand to show that they have got sunscreen on. They love this as they are getting something in return. By the time they get to the kindy room 3-4 years, they know that they can not play in the sun without sunscreen, and they will now want to apply it themselves.
But I was thinking that you need to make it fun to start of with, make up a song (sing to your children) or stamps,stickers, or a sticker chart maybe for home. I know you guys have another product with colourful bits in it. Can your toddler milk come in a clear bottle so children can see what they are applying and would it be possible to add those colourful bits in the toddler milk?

Answer 5

For little kids, you should find ones that have an interesting scent, so that they enjoy smelling it. Or you could make a fun way to put on the sunscreen, like makin a race or something.

For teens and preteens, you should get the tinted color kind, so that it matches their skin tone. I hate the fact that sunscreen makes my body look purple, and because of that, I never wore sunscreen. But now that i have found the tinted kind, I put it on every day.

Answer 6

It doesn't matter if the sunscreen is purple, pink, rainbow color. You are talking about children here; children need constant reminding! Tell the child the night before the day at the beach or amusement park. tell the child that morning, tell the child in the car driving there, again in the parking lot. Then maybe the child will remember.

Answer 7

I'm a kid and my parents put it on for me til I was about 7 or 8. By that time b/c they were putting it on I had never gotten a sunburn but when I did get one it hurt A LOT! I still didn't like sunscreen until my parents got the spray-on kind. It's alot easier to put on, you don't feel as greasy and it doesn't stink!
Also for a while my Mom (who is in to healthy skin, lotions & potions, ect.) had to do a facial peel skin thing because when she went to Hawaii a chemical reactions that had to do with some sort of vitamin she was taking and the fact that she forgot to wear sunscreen on just ONE of the eight days we were there caused her to have some unattractive brown spots (not freckles, more like large blotches)on her face. B/c of that ONE day w/o sunscreen she was peeling for about four weeks!
She took me to a dermatologist and got my super strong Obagi facial sunscreen that doesn't cause breakouts, which is important to kids.
All in all just make it easy, and they will do it! Also as for facial sunscreen be sure it's oil free and won't clog pores.

Answer 8

I have a spray bottle sunscreen and i let my three and a half year old squirt it on and i rub it in!!! It makes for a great game and now he never complains about putting it on!! We live in Queensland where it gets very hot so we have to put sunscreen on more than once a day and i find that this is the best option!!

Answer 9

Product, product, product!

Buy sunscreens they want to wear: scented, coloured or anything novel.

Even us adults are good for the old marketing trick - I bought sunscreen that sprays on and smells of coconut the other day just because I fancied it!

P.S. As a child, I had coloured zinc cream and I loved it! No need to remind me back then.

Answer 10

The best way is a) seeing other kids and also yourself applying sunscreen everyday before you go out to make it a habbit. b) always encourage your kid to apply sunscreen himself. He will think he's a big person!! c) get one of those colourful ones or nice smell ones.

Answer 11

This is a hard one. Habit is best. Just get them used to having it applied and to applying it when they go out in the sun. I saw a great photo of an older woman sitting on the beach with her brown tanned skin with wrinkles all over her body so much so that she looked like she was deformed -- was all from the sun. That photo could be a great deterrrent. Wish I could upload it here. I was burned several times as a kid. I worry about my son as we used to go hang gliding and sat on the sand and beach all day and he was burned badly a few times. I've had some pre-cancerous growths cut off. He was more badly burned than I ever was so as he gets older that is a big danger and could be on his back where he couldn't see them as that is where he was burned the worst.