How to Help Your Child Set Lifelong Sun Safety Habits

Creating a healthy lifestyle means regularly visiting health care clinics and checking in with medical providers. Click here for more information.

How to Help Your Child Set Lifelong Sun Safety Habits

How to Help Your Child Set Lifelong Sun Safety Habits

5 April 2017
 Categories:
, Blog


Skin cancer affects over 11,000 Australians every year, and if you want to keep your children as safe as possible from this potentially deadly disease, you need to start protecting them when they are young. Wondering how to make skin protection and skin cancer vigilance a natural part of your child's life? Try these tactics.

1. Be Consistent

Consistency is key when establishing any habit, and that's true when it comes to trying to establish healthy habits in kids as well. Ideally, you should strive to follow all sun safety guidelines as regularly and consistently as possible.

For instance, it's important to avoid the sun during its peak hours. When your child is young, create a schedule that focuses on playing outdoors during the early morning or late afternoon and early evening. Then, your child will get used to not going outside during the sun's peak hours. Similarly, if your child never goes outside without wearing a sun hat and sunglasses, he or she will accept that just as naturally as he or she accepts wearing shoes, and that consistency will help you create a lifelong positive habit in your child.

2. Talk About the Risks

It's also important that your child understand the risks of excessive sun exposure. Try to educate your child without being scary. Liken this conversation to how you might talk about cavities or other childhood risks. Present the facts, but put them in words that a child can understand.

You may even want to consider getting a book. For example, "Medikidz Explain Advanced Melanoma" by Dr. Kim Chilman-Blair is a comic book designed to explain melanoma to children whose parents are affected by the disease, but this book can also be a useful resource to teach children about melanoma. Having access to the right knowledge can also help kids to be more serious about sun safety.

3. Choose Daycare Providers and Educators That Help

When trying to get your child to set a lifelong habit, you can't expect to do it all on your own. You also need your child's other caretakers and educators to be involved. When choosing daycare providers or a school for your child, make sure that facility is also committed to sun safety, and look for ways that that those institutions can help support your efforts.

For more tips on sun safety or helping your child set positive lifelong habits, contact a family health care centre.

About Me
Creating a Network for a Healthy Life

Welcome. My name is Wendy. This blog is about health care. I hope that when you read my posts, they help you create the network you need for a healthy life. In my opinion, living a healthy lifestyle includes multiple elements. You need the right health care clinic and medical providers, but you also need a healthy diet, a relatively stress-free life that lends itself to positive mental health, a community to support you and several other elements. I hope to address many of those things and more here. After reading my posts, I hope you have the knowledge you need to create a healthy life. I am a mum of three very energetic boys, and ever since they were born, I have realised how important it is to be healthy. After all, I hope I'm around as long as possible. I can't wait to see them grow up!

Search
Archive