Does Skin Cancer Affect Children?
Post date: September 25th, 2006It is only very rarely that skin cancer affects our children. But if we do not protect them as children their risks of skin cancer as adults are much higher. So, what can be done?
The most important thing we can do for our children as related to skin cancer is not assume that they are infallible. We must begin now to protect them and teach them to protect themselves so that their skin does not get damaged young. Studies show that the average person get fifty percent of their lifetime’s sun exposure by the time they are a mere eighteen years old.
We must be careful when taking our young children out to play. Never think that because they have youth they are not exposing their skin to the UV rays that an adult is. Their skin is more sensitive than ours. So, when they go to play in the yard, at the park or with the neighborhood kids, that need sunscreen higher than that recommended for adults. It is suggested that children use a SPF, sun protection factor, of no less that thirty. They should play outside only if they have their sunscreen on, with any exposed areas, those not covered by their clothes, well coated. Children should wear a hat to protect their heads from ultraviolet exposure. Remember that even when you are in a pool with your child, especially the youngest ones who play in wading pools, that the water does not protect them and they must wear sunscreen then as well. For water to offer any protection you must be submerged at least a foot.
What about our adolescent children? They are far more concerned about looking and acting cool than understanding any serious health risks for later in life can be based on what they do as teenagers. This is the time they begin to express themselves. They take direction from their friends, and want to impress each other with how they know more than their parents. They sunbath so they can look more attractive to the opposite sex. This is the time in their lives when the things that are important to them are what are happening that day not thirty years in the future. Yet research has proven that if in childhood the child has five or more serious sunburns it greatly increases their later risk of skin cancer.
You’ll need to work with your teenagers to convince them of the advantages of sunscreen use and wearing hats. Appeal to their vanity. Explain that without taking these precautions they risk, even at their age, peeling skin, blistering from a severe burn, or freckling. Suggest a sunscreen that has a moisturizer to improve their skin’s appearance. And if the only way to get them to wear a hat is to spend a couple of dollars extra on that funky one she wants, the one you’d never be caught dead in. Remember, you don’t have to wear it, but it will protect your child.
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