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Dealing with Sunburns:

No matter how hard you try to prevent your child from getting a sunburn, they still might get one, and you will want to be able to reduce the pain as much as possible when this happens. There are a few methods that can help, and any of them may or may not work, depending on your child and how severe the sunburn is. The best way to try to make your child feel better, and make their sunburn heal more quickly, is to try to use as many of these tricks as you can.

• Hot water—the most common thing to do is to put your child in a really warm bath. While cold water may offer more immediate relief, the warm water helps to draw the heat out of the skin, providing more long-term effect.

• Lotions—there are many different creams and lotions on the market that can help ease the pain of sunburns. Usually, the ones that work the best are ones that contain Aloe Vera gel in them. In fact, the absolute best thing to put on a sunburn (or any other type of burn) is Aloe Vera gel directly from the plant. Having one of these plants is much cheaper than the creams you can buy, and it's always accessible, and never goes bad.

• Aspirin—not many people know this, but aspirin works great for sunburns. It helps ease the pain, and it also helps relieve some of the redness that goes along with a sunburn. The only bad part of this is that it really depends on your child's age, because it is not recommended that children be given aspirin. So, you should definitely call your doctor before giving it to your child.

• No clothes—anyone who has ever had a sunburn knows that it hurts for anything to touch it, even a shirt collar. The best way to avoid any unnecessary pain is to let your child wear as minimal clothes as possible. If your child needs to wear clothes, try to make sure that none of the seams of the clothes are against the sunburn.

• Cool air—this one can help a lot, but it has a downside as well. Cool air can help a sunburn feel better, such as a fan blowing lightly on the child, but sunburns make a person feel cold, so the cool air may make this part worse.

• Avoid the sun—this is one of the worst things in the world for a sunburn. You will want to keep your child out of the sun as much as possible during the time that they have a sunburn. The heat from the sun after only a couple of minutes can make a sunburn feel as if the skin is on fire.

Nothing can relieve all pain of a sunburn, the goal is just to make it as bearable as possible until it begins to fade. Then, once your child has healed, you will want to make sure and take precautions to prevent it from happening again.

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