Sun products for babies: what you need to know

In recent years, we have seen multiplying on the market for sun protection products intended for children, and more particularly for babies.By browsing the stores of stores, you could believe that exposing infants in the sun is normal.Some manufacturers of solar creams target them, in fact, openly considering sunburn between 6 and 12 months!

Also on the Internet, bloggers are echoed by solar products "for babies" available on the market, praising merits - alternately and according to their personal convictions - of conventional or organic products.“Home” recipes are also, in some cases, indicated as usable in the baby.

Result, at the pharmacies counter, parents question: can we expose a baby to the sun from birth?At 3 months?At 4 months?The answer is in regulatory texts, and it is clear: "Do not expose babies and young children directly to the sun".

Very surprising "advice"

Some cosmetics brands specify that "baby" solar products can "be used from birth", "from 0 months", 3 months or 6 months.There are also suitable protection advice on ... sites of companies specializing in infant food!We can notably read there that "many creams are not recommended below 3 years and, until very recently, it was customary to apply nothing on the skin of small under 6 months".

This "until very recently" is intriguing, insofar as the exposure of children in the sun being contraindicated, sun protection is not imposed in no way.Just as amazing are the recommendations of these sites on the management of sunburn occurring in infants of the 6-12 month age group.

Finally, let's add the comments relayed to many blogs, which sometimes refer to recipes for homemade solar products based on zinc oxide, used in the cosmetic field as a coloring, not hesitating to say that this ingredient is "Much used on babies' skins ”.In fact, zinc oxide constitutes the flagship ingredient of products intended for the buttocks of babies.It exercises in this type of formula a protective role constituting an interface between the skin, urine and/or excrement.

But this type of zinc oxide should not be confused with nanometric zinc oxide likely to be used in the field of solar products.In the latter case, zinc oxide particles are highly in size than those used in previously cited products.What is essential: we have shown that the protective effect vis-à-vis the sun is all the more important since the size of the particles is low.

What does the regulations say?

From a regulatory point of view, a text published in September 2006 on the Official Journal of the European Union should be perfectly known to people putting sun protection on the market.

It details the elements to be taken into account when formulating any sun protection.To put such a product on the market, the manufacturer must determine the sun protection index, and calculate the share of this protection targeting the UVA (remember in passing that the UVAs are the UVs involved in the tan, but also in thecarcinogenesis phenomenon).This share must be at least 1/3.

The text also specifies the elements of public health to include the packaging to raise awareness of the risks linked to UV.

In this regard, a number of clear messages must be relayed by laboratories marketing these products.First, the mention "total screen" or "total protection" should be banned from marketing language, as well as the allegation "prevention throughout the day".The Commission also underlines the need, on the packaging of sun protection products, "warnings indicating that they do not provide 100 %protection, as well as advice on the precautions to be made in addition to their use".

Read more: how to choose the right clothes (and parasol) to protect yourself from the sun

These warnings, specifies the regulatory text, could consist in indicating: "Do not stay too long in the sun, even if you use a sun protection".Or, note: "the overexposure to the sun is a serious threat to health".Or, to point out: "Do not expose babies and young children directly to the sun".

The "baby" does not exist

Under these conditions, it is easy to understand that a solar product cannot be addressed to the very specific target that is the baby.We note, in passing that from the point of view of cosmetic regulations, the baby (term indeed very imprecise) does not exist: only the child is considered under 3 years of age, for which a certain number of ingredients areprohibited, like salicylic acid.

Finally, let us add that the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) has published a thematic file on solar products.A box warns against tanning, "which does not replace solar products".It begins with the following sentence: "In general, do not expose yourself to the hours of the day when the radiation is the most intense and never expose babies and young children directly to the sun.»»

Can we say it more clearly?Leaving children from 0 to 3 years old under the fiery rays of the sun is completely contraindicated.European texts clearly mention the obligation of a public health message in this sense, and this for many years.

Note, however, that there does not seem to be a real control of the allegations mentioned on the cosmetics, with what the industry seems to be embedded from year to year.However, it would be high time to put an end to this escalation in terms of products for babies;We can understand the confusion of parents who discover that this type of product exists, and fear that they are encouraged to take reckless risks.

Asked, the pharmacist's response will be clear: a baby should not be put in the sun!In addition to the risk of insolation and dangerous burns for its fragile skin, its sun capital is alter, with the key the risk of appearance in adulthood of melanomas, that is to say, photosive skin cancers:We know this risk all the greater as there were sunburn during childhood or adolescence ...