STEVEN SHAPIRO, MD: We also happen to have a two
year old, so what we did is we started very, very early, the moment he
started to go outside. We always applied sunscreen as a rule before
he left the house. And as most parents will know, it was very, very
easy at the beginning, and then you hit the terrible twos and it becomes
a little bit more difficult. What I found with time is that if you
break the rule once, it’s more easy to break the rule again, so that we
tell him it has to be done that way.
When we dress him in the morning, that’s when we put the
sunscreen on, because usually they’re lying there, it’s a little bit easier.
There are moments when he sees the sunscreen bottle, he associates that
with going outside, he gets more excited, he wants to run, you have a little
bit less time.
At those times we keep a spray sunscreen around, which
is very quick to apply. In fact, what I found as a parent is that
before I had children I used the creams and lotions, and now with two children,
I tend to use more of a spray sunscreen, it’s just quicker, because once
they’re ready to go, it’s very difficult to stop them.
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