What's the Safest Sunscreen for Your Little One?

Saturday, April 24th, 2010 at 1:09 pm

1272114575 What's the Safest Sunscreen for Your Little One?

TruKid's all-natural SPF 30+ sunscreen: Safe Mama-tested, Droolicious-approved.

Before you break out the Water Babies or Banana Boat this season, here's a fun bit of information: From their potentially hormone-disrupting and carcinogenic properties to the gunk they wash off our bodies into the ecosystem, chemical sunscreens may be anything but benign when compared with their physical counterparts. Truthfully, though, we had a hard time understanding the difference between physical and chemical sunscreens in the first place, so we went to the American Melanoma Foundation's website for help:

"Chemical sunscreens contain special ingredients that act as filters and reduce ultraviolet radiation penetration to the skin. These sunscreens often are colorless and maintain a thin visible film on the skin. These sunscreens usually contain UVB absorbing chemicals and more recently contain UVA absorbers as well.

OK, got that.

"Physical sunscreens, most often referred to as sunblocks, are products containing ingredients such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide which physically block ultraviolet radiation (UVR). Sunblocks provide broad protection against both UVB and UVA light. they can be cosmetically unacceptable to many people, because they are often messy, visible and do not easily wash off. however, some new zinc oxide products are available in brightly colored preparations which are popular with young people."

Young people! you mean like us? Sweet. still, given all the scary news we've heard about chemical sunscreen's dangers, there have to be reasons beyond simple aesthetic appeal for choosing a physical sunscreen for the little ones this summer, right? Enter our friends at the Safe Mama blog, who recently conducted a sunscreen showdown to help make just that determination.

Though Safe Mama notes that "the active ingredients in just about every sunscreen can create harmfulfree-radicals when out in the sun," its test for other hidden ingredients (namely, nasties like parabens, phthalates, and the endocrine-disrupting synthetic chemical oxybenzone) helped to narrow down our choices to a handy list of five safe sunscreens for the summer.

We won't spoil the details of Safe Mama's whole report (available here via PDF), but if you're wondering why we included a photo of TruKid's Sunny Days Mineral Sunscreen UVA/UVB Broad Spectrum ($14 from Amazon) at the top of this long-ass post, it's because we concur with Safe Mama's findings: if you're looking for a natural, kid-safe sunscreen that offers broad-spectrum protection and also happens to smell great, this eco-friendly, paraben-free, SPF 30+ formula should be a staple in your beach bag this summer.

Side note to all of this -- if you're truly determined to give your little ones natural protection from the sun's harmful rays, you'll want to avoid slathering anything on their skin and make sure that a UV sunsuit is on your summer shopping list. Check out Erin's awesome recent find from the Florida-based Sunsafe, as well as this quirky suit from overseas, for a few Babble-selected sunsuits that offer great looks in addition to their monster UV protection.

What's the Safest Sunscreen for Your Little One?