As the summer months draw closer and the kids wrap up the school year, one thing is for sure: Everyone will be spending a lot more time outside. And you want to avoid any harmful sunscreen.
But before packing up and heading out to the beach, mothers everywhere are warning about the harmful effects of—not the sun—but some harmful SUNSCREENS that have caused more than just a scare with their young kids.
Last week, Faithit reported about a mother named Rebecca Cannon, whose 14-month-old daughter suffered 2nd-degree burns from Banana Boat Kids SPF 50. The little girl endured weeks of painful swelling and blisters on her face which doctors believed to be a chemical burn, caused by the harmful sunscreen.
Rebecca Cannon
It turns out, Rebecca is not alone.
One mother from Queensland, Australia is sharing disturbing pictures of her 3-month old son who was hospitalized from the burning effects of harmful sunscreen–not the sun.
Jessie Swan purchased the Cancer Counsel’s Peppa Pig Kids Sunscreen SPF 50+. Though her infant son was not exposed to the sun, she decided to lather him up anyway, because the whole family was outdoors and she wanted to be safe.
“He has not been in the sun, he was simply outdoors, so I put screen on him just in case,” she said in a Facebook post.
“We’ve been in hospital for 3 days 2 nights so far trying to treat this horrible rash/burn caused by your 50+Peppa pig sunscreen,” Swan added before strongly urging parents, “DO NOT BUY THIS SUNSCREEN.”
Jessie never expected that erring on the side of caution would have actually done more harm than good.
Doctors say that outbreaks similar to this have happened in some babies, and are often caused by severe allergic reactions.
Expert List to Avoid Harmful Sunscreen
Experts suggest doing some research and self-testing before relying on a particular sunscreen.
The Environmental Working Group’s “Skin Deep” sunscreen guide is an excellent place to start. After examining each of the more than 239 beach and sport sunscreens with a green rating from the EWG’s 2017 Sunscreen Guide, the group narrowed down the 19 best-scoring pr