First of all, I’m tired because I’ve been up since 4am with a poorly Master Frugal who’s had temperatures of up to 40 c today so I apologise in advice if this comes across as a giant moan.
I rang the Dr’s for some advice this morning and after an interrogation from the receptionist (which is a whole other post) she advised us to pop down to our local A&E with Master Frugal seeing as he was so hot and so very sleepy. He literally could not keep his eyes open and at one point he just sat down on the floor and slept right there.
You can imagine how impressed a grumpy sleepy child was at having to be woken up and dressed so we could take him to the A&E so imagine how impressed I was to find the waiting room overflowing – we couldn’t even get a seat in there! As we walked through the waiting room I was horrified to see the number of people (all adults thankfully) with what looked like sunburn related injuries.
Now I know I’ve had sunburn before but it’s not usually for lack of putting sun tan lotion on (only once when the weather was cloudy so I thought I was OK). We’re all fair skinned so at the first sign of sun, the factor 50 is out – in fact, this is the picture I posted on Instagram before I went on holiday last year:
I think we took more sun tan lotion than clothes but at least I knew that we’d be well prepared for the Sun. And the reason we did that?
Because not only does sunburn hurt like mad, it can also have much more severe long term effects. The same UV rays that cause sunburn is known to increase the risk of skin cancer and premature aging. I’m not telling you something that you don’t already know though am I?
The best ways to avoid sunburn are:
- Avoid the Sun at it’s hottest point in the day – usually between 12pm and 3pm.
- Apply Sun tan lotion 15 minutes before going out in the sun, making sure that you’re using the right SPF factor for your skin. We’re fair skinned and burn easily so we stick to factor 50.
- Reapply at regular intervals and especially after you’ve been in the water.
- It’s best to cover up in the sun – t shirts over bathers and swimming trunks are the way forward.
You can buy sun tan lotion all over at this time of year at some really great prices – supermarket own brands especially are really reasonably priced so there really is no excuse when it’s this hot outside.
I get that everyone is entitled to care on the NHS which is one of the things that makes it great but it makes me so angry. Why should I have to sit on a hard bench outside the waiting room with my poorly little boy burning up while the nurses were bandaging sunburnt arms and legs because people were so careless?
And…. Since I wrote this, I read a post about one ladies experience of the devastating effects of skin cancer. If my words don’t convince you to stay safe, I guarantee that this will.
