Natural Remedies for Sunburn in Children

As summer quickly approaches, many children will venture into the outdoors to play in the sun and enjoy the warm weather. As parents, we must work, diligently, to prevent and treat complications associated with outdoor summer playtime, most notably, sunburn.

Sunburn in children, caused by an excessive and prolonged exposure to the sun's harmful rays, results in a reddening of the skin, often very pain and accompanied by inflammation. Since this excessive exposure to the sun's harmful rays can, ultimately, lead to skin cancer as your child becomes an adult, it is important to protect your child from even suffering from a sunburn when out doors.

But, what should you do when your child has been exposed and is now suffering from the symptoms of sunburn? Because sun burn often results in an immune response in your child, it is important to first recognize the complications that may arise when the sunburn is too severe. Blistering of skin, vomiting, fever and even fainting are considered complex complications of sunburn, at any age, and, therefore, your child should be seen by a pediatrician immediately when these symptoms appear.

When a mild case of sunburn occurs in your child, there are some simple home remedies you can use to alleviate the pain and resolve, to some extent, the redness and inflammation. First, using several hand towels, dip the towels into a mixture on part skim milk and five parts of cold water and then place the cool compresses on the child's skin. This mixture will provide an alkaline base therapy in which to soothe burned skin.

Along the same theory of applying alkaline based products, you can engage your child in a fun activity of treating sunburn by applying plain yogurt to the skin. Often, when covering their own skin in yogurt, children become less occupied with the pain they may be feeling. This yogurt provides a soothing remedy to sunburn pain and can be easily washed off. Be sure to rinse in cold water!

For children who experience sunburn on the face, it is important to reduce swelling, especially around the eye area. While a yogurt mixture is not recommended for the face, the use of cucumber, potato or even apple slices can soothe burned eyelids along with tea bags that have been boiled, cooled and then re-saturated in cool water.

As with any summer time adventure, playing in the summer sun can be a risky event, especially for children. When your child suffers from mild sunburn, consider these home remedies to alleviate the pain, redness and inflammation from your child's sunburnt skin.