Friday, May 13, 2011

Seeing Red!

My oldest daughter came home today from her school field day with a horrible sun burn. I sent 50 SPF sunscreen with her this morning... but due to the morning rush I didn't apply any before she left. It's hard to think about sunscreen at 6:45 am when you know that it'll all going to wash off in the water play anyway. That said there is no excuse for me not applying it this AM... but couldn't they have done something at school? I was unable to attend due to a sick 3 year old... and a six year old is not capable of applying sunscreen properly without help. If they are going to be out in the sun all day shouldn't someone be making sure that they are protected all day long? OK there is my rant... I'm done.

What's done is done and I just needed to find a way to make her more comfortable. In my research for Makeover Monday I've stumbled across many home remedies for sunburn care and so we tried a few out. It seemed to work. She is tucked in bed right now and seems to feel much better.

First I made a strong cup of tea (I mixed green tea and black tea) and added some mint leaves to make it more refreshing. I iced it down and then sponged it onto her red skin. She loved this and I think just the attention and care worked wonders. I put the rest in the fridge in a spray bottle to spray on as needed. The green tea is suppose to be especially soothing and I've read that drinking green tea is good for the skin as well.


I also made a cool bath for her and added vinegar and lavender oil. When I was a kid my mother always poured vinegar over us when we got a sunburn. In the 70s and early 80s when we used tanning oil instead of sun block it seemed like we got at least one bad sunburn a year. Parents just expected it... in fact it seemed like every year you just went out in the sun to get burned that first time to get it over with... similar to the way parents used to expose their kids to chicken pox. But due to the excellent protection provided by modern sunscreen my daughter has never had to experience a sunburn before other than a pink nose or a spot on her shoulder that we missed.

Looks like we will be spending the weekend in the shade. There are worse things in life. We are still recovering from fevers and pink eye anyway maybe a chilled out weekend is just what we need.

Anyone have any tried and true sunburn remedies? Leave a comment I'd love to hear about it.

Jenn

7 comments:

  1. You're a GOOD Mommy Jenn!
    Another trick for relieving painful sunburns is fresh Aloe Vera. I keep a plant right outside my backdoor for just these types of emergencies. Just break a tip (leaf, I know that's not the correct name, but I can't think of it right now) and rub the goo all over the burn. It works wonders on sunburns, burns from the kitchen, you name it. Mother Nature is Queen! xoxo

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  2. Vinegar huh? I've heard of many uses of vinegar but never that. I'm going to tuck that away somewhere in my brain if I can find enough space.

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  3. Vinegar is a jack of all trades that is for sure. You can clean your house, store vegetables for the winter, make a salve for what ails you and whip up a mean salad all with one thing.

    Sadly we had a late freeze and being in Texas and ignorant of such things I left my aloe veras out to freeze. I need to get some new ones for the herb garden... they do work wonders.

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  4. Awww...poor girl! Good that mommy has a good home sunburn remedy!
    I also forgot to send my daughter sunscreen for her field day. And when I got to school, she was already in the middle of playing and didn't want to apply sunscreen anymore. Good that she didn't get a sunburn!

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  5. oh youre such a loving mom! your daughter is so lucky.back home when I was a little girl,whenever i have fever,my mother would put a wet towel with vinegar on my forehead.

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  6. That sounds refreshing on hot, sunburned skin! Poor little peanut. I remember we used to go out with the baby oil to tan! Ugh.

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  7. Well, you know, Schools are not responsible for applying sunscreen for your child but I think it's great that you have a home remedy to help!

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