summer is here and with it brings endless opportunities for fun in the sun but hold on to your sun block and your bug spray because while we're excited to jump into the pool and head over to Backyard barbecues safety is still important on the next episode of ask the duck I'm going to discuss the essentials of skincare prevention and kids and I'm going to talk about topics such as bug bites sunburn rashes and everything in between so see what happens next on ask the DK send in your questions to questions allhealth tv.com or allhealth go on Facebook or YouTube or visit the askthe do page on our website allhealth tv.com welcome to ask the doc I'm Dr Scarlet constant this is a show where we encourage you viewers to send in your questions so that I can answer them now in real time here comes our first question right now from Juan Pablo Dr conston I have a question but it's kind of a two-parter if that's okay last summer was something of a nightmare even after slathering on tons of sunscreen on my son he had pretty painful case of sunburn what's the best way to treat it I've heard that some people put butter on it does that really help and to add insult to injur injury his twin sister had an allergic reaction to the same sunscreen that said do you have any suggestions for safe sunscreens wow on Pablo that's a lot that sounds like a pretty eventful summer for you I definitely have a couple of tips and an answer for you but first let's watch our video by the doctors at the Mayo Clinic you're heading to the pool or Beach and you stop to pick up some sunscreen but knowing what is the best SPF is tough when you have no idea what SPF actually means it stands for sun protection factor is simply a ratio of the number of minutes that you can stay outside with the product on before getting minimal redness to the skin and Dr Don Davis a Mayo Clinic dermatologist says preventing that painful redness is one of the biggest factors in preventing skin cancer so how do sunscreen Brands calculate an SPF so if you stand outside in a particular location and you're testing the sunscreen and it takes you 10 minutes to develop redness to the skin without the product on but then you apply the product on a different area of skin and it takes 50 minutes for the skin to show redness then that L an SPF factor of 50 over 10 which equals 5 Dr Davis recommends a minimum of SPF 30 which theoretically means you could stay protected from UV rays 30 times longer than without sunscreen okay okay Von Pablo back to your question so the first part of the question you were asking about sunscreens that I recommend I think the best thing to do is put on a sunscreen on your child that has a minimum of an SPF 30 now there's a difference between mineral sunscreen and chemical sunscreen and the chemical sunscreens are usually the creams that are a little bit thinner they go on a little nicer a lot of people favor them because it doesn't have that sticky factor that kids really don't like but the mineral sunscreens which are a bit thicker because they do have titanium and Zin oxide are more protective and you you want to definitely choose one of those and an SPF 30 or higher is best for your child usually they also have emolient factors to moisturize the skin and a lot of the times they are hypoallergenic if you do have a child that tends to have uh sensitive skin or erupting allergies then you want to take a look at some of the products that have more of the zinc oxide component than anything else but usually for the most part A lot of the sunscreens out there are healthy and fine for the skin sometimes what happens is we'll see in kids they'll have an allergic reaction if they're going to the beach they'll have an allergic reaction with the sunscreen and the sand or the sunscreen and the salt in the water rather than actually just the sunscreen itself so that's just to um something for your daughter and as far as choosing the sunscreens you definitely want to find a mineral sunscreen with a minimum of SPF 30 now I believe the second part of of your question was um just a couple tips about sunburn so with sunburn the at the moment that it does happen you want to remove the child from the Sun of course you want to bring them into a cool place or a shaded place you want to put some cool compresses on the skin if the burn is significant enough to where it does feel very hot or uncomfortable you can put some cool compresses but as far as treating the sunburn throughout the week you want to make sure that you're rehydrating your child making sure that they're drinking lots of fluid that they're adding emance to their skin aloe gel is great because it has anti-inflammatory properties and it also is a bit of um just like a soothing feeling because it is a gel so you want to apply aloe and then you want to moisturize the skin with your regular emolient hopefully an emolient that has ceramides um if the pain is so severe that your child is complaining day of or a few days after the sunburn you can absolutely give an analgesic like Tylenol or Motrin but that's usually in a very severe case of sunburn I hope that this helps and and hopefully we could prevent this from happening again one Pablo let's see I think we have our next question coming in this question comes from Elizabeth hi doctor my husband and I had a baby girl about three months ago we're going to visit friends who live on the beach but I'm not sure what kind of sunscreen to use on an infant or if I should even apply sunscreen to our daughter but as parents living in South Florida we have have to do something right absolutely that's a great question Elizabeth and you do need to do something so with infants you know of course we recommend barrier sun protection meaning Sun protective wear babies should almost always have a hat on a nice big hat that has a brim that's going to cover the ears and the back of the neck so most importantly you want your baby to have a hat and then now there are a lot of sun protective bathing suits like shirts or shorts that the babies can wear so the shirts are great they have SPF 50 protect from the Sun and then any sun exposed areas such as the thighs the feet and even the face because there still is some direct sunlight that your infant will be exposed to you absolutely do want to put sunscreen and so you ask what type of sunscreen well they do have infant sunblock uh for ages less than two and that's predominantly going to have the zinc oxide component in it and that's just to repel the Sun so you can find um honest baby California baby um quite a few other companies have infant sunblock that you would absolutely apply to their Sun exposed areas I hope that you guys have fun on your Beach vacation see if we have any more questions coming in oh well here's a question from mashi hi Dr constant I know that I should know this already but what does the SPF rating really mean is SPF 70 really that much better than SPF 50 and is an SPF of 10 really going to protect anything and lastly what about using baby baby oil on babies not as sunscreen obviously but as moisturizer sorry my wife just asked me to sneak in that last question okay that's fine okay so SPF that's a great question because now there's 30 50 70 I think I've even seen a 100 at the store and so it is an interesting question and the the real the real answer is um SPF 15 let's start with 15 because that's the lowest one and that's I feel what we were exposed to years ago um that's going to repel about 93% of the UVB raise so that means that about 7% of the UVB will be will come and be absorbed in the skin so spf30 was created and that's going to repel about 97% which is much better than spf15 of course both are protective and if you only have one you want to use what you have so you're absolutely protecting yourself but spf30 is going to protect you that much more and only allow 3% of the UVB ra now when you move up to SPF 50 the change is not so drastic so now this is repelling about 98% of the UVB as opposed to the 97% so is SPF 50 better of course but marginally so my advice to you is get what's available and uh protect yourself the best way that you can and for those of you that don't remember how to submit your questions here you go send in your questions to question at allhealth tv.com or allhealth go on Facebook or YouTube or visit the ask the do page on our website allhealth tv.com here comes a question in from Facebook this is a question from annab hi Dr constant my question is not necessarily Sun related but it is skin related my daughter is 12 now and like many girls her age on social media we limit her Time online but she's still the perfect audience for the millions of influencers out there promoting beauty products now that she's a tween she wants to use her allowance to buy some of these products I'd love your thoughts on this well Annabeth this is very relevant because we've seen a huge increase in skin care routines as you said because a lot of the tween are watching Tik Tok videos on skin care and uh regular regimens so I think that this is you know it's twofold this is great I think it's wonderful that young kids already understand that skincare is important and that they should start adopting a regiment that they're using every day so that it's we're not trying to play catchup as adults and get rid of the wrinkles and the lines and moisturize for the first time so I think it's amazing and kudos to your daughter for actually taking this seriously but I will warn you about the products that are available to teenagers so at this point at 12 years of age if she is pre prepubescent meaning she doesn't have acne breakouts or anything like that and um you want to make sure that she's buying products that contain ceramides and that will moisturize the skin because the most important thing right now is for her to moisturize you want to uh make sure she's getting a facial wash that doesn't really have any strong products really just has um maybe a benzo peroxide if needed but if not just a gentle face wash to use in the morning at night and then after her face wash she would just moisturize and finally you want to make sure that she finds a sunblock that has SPF 30 or higher and that's a mineral sunblock of course and she can apply that to her face every day especially for those of us that are here in South Florida you should have sunblock on your face every single day whether or not you're going to the pool or Beach just your regular outings you would need sunblock so I think that those things are very important what she should look out for is she shouldn't buy any material um products that have strong exfoliating properties at this age the kid the twin don't need to exfoliate their skin they also don't need um anti-aging creams um hyaluronic acids and other types of exfoliating acids that are known to kind of regenerate the skin cells or SLO off the old skin that's usually for the older ages but in the tween population you really don't need anything that that strong just a gentle uh wash moisturizer and Sun blog so let her know that she's doing a great job and keep up the good work but just stay away from products that are strong for her young skin so now we have another question coming in from Laya hi doctor I went to a Sleepaway Camp as a young girl and remember getting bitten up by mosquitoes and black flies every day and I even got stung by a be once back then we used bug spray which I think was toxic and applied calamine lotion to the bites and stains my question is this what are the best ways to treat bites and things these days and how do I make my kids less of a target for mosquitoes and ticks well that's a great question lla especially here in Miami we all know that once July comes and the rainy season is here we are plagued with mosquitoes uh so what you want to do is make sure that you spray your kids with bug spray and the bug spray should definitely contain DEET DEET is very important to repel the mosquitoes and picaridin is also important because it's a mosquito antic repellent so you want to spray that and actually if they're going to be exposed for long periods of time or out Camp ing or hiking somewhere outside of Miami where it is a tick uh endemic area you want to make sure that they're uh reapplying their sprays and I wouldn't worry about toxicity because this is safe for the skin and it has been FDA approved and tested for children above the age of Two And even children under the age of two down to six months of age they can use these sprays and creams to protect against ticks and mosquitoes also it's really important to wear protective wear long pants I know that it's really hot and sometimes people don't want to wear long sleeve shirts but at least wearing pants and socks to protect the skin especially in a t um endemic area you certainly want to wear something that's going to protect your skin aside from the sprays now if it's inevitable you get bitten anyway especially by the mosquitoes when you have a couple of mosquito bites especially the ones that swell and and they get pretty big and inflamed and especially the little kids they they scratch them a lot and they might even cut them open you want to stop the itching right away because you just don't want the kids to scratch too much and expose their skin to secondary infections so I always recommend putting cortisone 10 on the actual bite the cortisone is going to decrease the inflammation of the bite and it's actually going to stop the itching and that's going to help prevent them from the scratching all night long if the insect bite is that is really bad and swollen and red and is even um just causing a lot of athema around the area you could give oral Ben drill if needed but that's a last resort that's for people that have almost like a a mild allergic reaction to the actual bite all right so for those of you that want to submit some questions take a look and see how to do it send in your questions to questions allhealth tv.com or allhealth go on Facebook or YouTube or visit the ask the do page on our website allhealth tv.com all right so we're back with a couple more questions let's see who we have now Daniela doctor my toddler son has pretty normal skin I mean I guess it's normal but the nurse practitioner at our pediatrician's office recently said something about establishing a daily skincare routine for Isaac what would that entail and why well that's a great question Daniela I'll start with a little biology lesson the largest organ in our body is the skin the skin is the one of the largest and it's one of the most important organs that we have because it protects us from infection from Invasion from outside organisms it protects us from dehydration the overall health of the skin is going to keep us healthy overall so yes you do need to establish a skincare routine for your child and you need to do it as early as possible because as I mentioned before when you're later on in life you don't want to play ketchup you want to keep the skin healthy as early as possible and prevent diseases of the skin dermatitis which is inflammation of the skin you want to prevent secondary bacterial infections and so forth so it is very important to start this regimen and what does that include honestly in a young child it's not terribly complicated you want to use a a non odorous soap or non- perfume soap that is gentle on the skin that doesn't have any chemicals something like Dove or cave Cetaphil L there a myriad of products out out there that You' want to use as a wash you want to bathe your child in warm water not hot water as much as we love hot showers hot water dries out your skin and it does mildly irritate your skin so you want to bathe your child with warm comfortably warm water and then Pat them dry rather than rubbing down the skin dry as dry as possible you really want to Pat them dry so the skin is still a little bit damp and while the skin is still damp then you would apply your emoon which is going to be a cream better than a lotion a cream that has ceramides and you want to put that all over the skin and repeat that routine every evening before they go to bed so here's our next question Zahara we have a question from Zahara hi Dr constant my friend Alicia was over yesterday and she saw my daughter scratching her arm she was scratching it pretty good and it looked kind of nasty I thought it was a rash that would go away by self but Alisia thinks it's eczema or maybe psoriasis do forget doctor forgive my ignorance but what are eczema and psoriasis and how can I help my daughter get rid of it for them okay well so psoriasis is actually a chronic medical condition and it is actually an immune disease where the skin cells proliferate meaning they um multiply um at a rapid rate causing thick scales that tend to be large itchy and uh GR and it's a chronic condition and usually it's diagnosed by a dermatologist it's usually a genetic disease and you'll see it in other family members but this is something that is diagnosed by dermatologist and you will be treated by the dermatologist with long-term therapy eczema is um an inflammatory disease and it's more epistatic and it usually is associated with allergies and Asthma and it's a type of dermatitis so this is inflammation of the skin that's going to cause a little bit of redness itchiness and they'll happen in little patches around the body and that's a little more episodic and easily treated because you can actually use ointments at the time of an of an eruption to uh suppress the um ex exitus lesions um but if your child is complaining or scratching a lot or seems to have dry skin absolutely bring her to her pediatrition to have her skin evaluated so that a proper diagnosis can be made and then you'll know exactly how to treat her all right so if you have any other questions and you want to see how to send them in take a look here send in your questions to questions allhealth tv.com or allhealth goo on Facebook or YouTube or visit the ask the doc page on our website allhealth tv.com so I hope that answer helped about Eczema and if not you can take a look at this video from our doctors at the Mayo Clinic this little guy has done this nightly ritual since before we could walk like 20% of kids Max has an overactive immune system eczema better known as atopic dermatitis is a sensitivity of the skin that happens because the immune system is hyperaware naoc Clinic dermatologist Dr Don Davis says sometimes these patients have abnormal or partially functioning protein structures in their skin structure for instance your immune system recognizes something different or foreign on your skin the robust immune system can sense this difference and releases chemicals due to stimulation at seas and the chemicals released by the immune system cause the local nerves and blood vessels to become irritated and that leads to lots of redness of skin and lots of itch that's where lotions can really help Dr Davis also recommends seeing a dermatologist for Advanced Care wet dressings and light therapy and also some systemic medications welcome back so let's just go through this again because I know that we discussed a lot about skin care and bug bites and everything in between so let's recap first we'll talk about the treatment of sunburn so once you see the telltale signs of a sunburn make sure you get your child out of the sun right away get them to a cool place a shaded area or hopefully indoors and we'll have to limit their their sun exposure after that next you want to make sure that your child takes a nice cool not cold but a cool shower or a bath and then you'll apply the cool compresses on their skin and this is going to decrease the inflammation it's going to help soothe the skin from the burn and it's going to uh help kind of just release some of the heat from the skin next you're going to want to make sure that you're giving extra fluids for the next two to three days remember at this point your child is most likely mildly dehydrated not only from being exposed to the Sun but then furthermore from being burnt getting receiving a sunburn so you absolutely want to give extra fluids and almost hyper hydrate for the next two to three days and you could use water Pedialyte Gatorade um or any other type of electrolyte type of um of drink that you have next you want to make sure that you give your child an analgesic such as ibuprofen or cedam cin moin or Tylenol and that's just needed if they need to relieve the pain a lot of times the first 24 to 48 hours the child would feel a lot of pain and burning and this will calm them down and it'll also ease some of the anxiety associated with the burn next you want to use moisturizing creams or an aloe gel so the aloe gel is going to be more of an anti-inflammatory effect and a soothing response but as far as moisturizing you're going to want to use a cream that has ceramides um and so you could put the aloe and then you can go ahead and put the moisturizer afterwards the next thing you want to do is um make sure that the next time they do go outside that the sunburn areas are fully covered until they're healed you certainly do not want to expose them to Sun again remember sunburn is first or second degree burn so you absolutely want to put on uh clothes and protection that will cover it completely before receiving exposure again something to be taken very seriously because sunburn can be complicated in the future next please remember never to use butter butter on the sunburn is not helpful it's actually the contrary the butter the oil in the butter will actually lock in some of the Heat and sometimes even make the burn uh hurt or sting even more than it did before so you certainly never want to put butter on a sunburn I hope that this helps and I hope that you guys stay safe this summer so the next recap oh we have a question here from deardra Dr constant we took the kids to the to the beach last weekend and my husband noticed that our six-year-old had what looked like a cluster of tiny red and purplish bumps or blisters on the back of his neck my husband thinks it's either heat rash or an allergic reaction to the life jacket we made him wear when he's near the water what do you think and what can we do for him before we hit the beach the next time well I'm sorry that that happened deerra it could be a lot of things what you want to do is make sure that especially the back of the ears and the neck are protected from the Sun that's a very common spot to get sunburn so really make sure that you're applying the sunblock 30 minutes before exposure to the Sun and then after you get in the water you want to reapply the sunblock again because a lot of times that gets washed away you want to reapply sunblock if even if you're not in the water at at least two to three hours after being exposed to the Sun so that's most important is to protect the back of the ears and the neck maybe even the next time he can wear a hat to protect him or like your husband suggested it could just be an allergic reaction not necessarily an allergic reaction but an irritation which we call contact dermatitis from the life jacket that very well could have been the situation at which point um you'll know next time maybe to put something around the neck before putting the life jacket on but either way I would suggest that you see your pediatrician and have them take a look at it and just to determine exactly what happened let's see if we have any other questions and if not okay so let's recap um eczema because we definitely spoke about that excuse me about a routine skin care so remember for kids we want to have a routine skin care where we're cleansing the fla the face we're moisturizing by applying a very mild emolient and we want to protect from the Sun even if it's a cloud cloudy day please remember UV comes through the clouds hope this helped everybody can't wait to see you next time on ask the doc I'm Dr Scarlet constant send in your questions to questions allhealth tv.com or allhealth go on Facebook or YouTube or visit the askthe do page on our website allhealth tv.com e