If your child is in day care in the Perth area, it is important to protect his or her skin. While day care centres do their part to protect your child from peak UV hours, there is still a lot you need to do to ensure that your child is protected. Here’s what your child’s day care centre will do and what you can do to help.
What the Day Care Centre does to Help Protect Your Child
According to the Cancer Council, there are five important strategies day care centres should employ to help protect your child from the sun.
The first is to spend minimal time outside during peak UV periods between 11am and 3pm. When children are outside, they should be required to use protective hats, sunscreen and protective clothing. Between April and September, it is regarded as safe to play outside anytime during the day due to lower UV levels.
Day care centres are also expected to use shade for play whenever possible during the peak hours while remembering that protective gear is still necessary.
It is important to use the right kind of hat. According to SunSmart, children can use bucket hats with a deep crown and a brim size of 5cm or more. Broad brimmed hats with brims of 6cm or more are fine, too. Adults seeking protection should increase brim sizes to 6cm for bucket hats and 7.5cm for broad brimmed hats. Legionnaire hats are also safe for adults.
Children should also wear protective clothing that covers as much skin as possible. The final layer of protection is sunscreen of SPF 30 or more. It should be broad spectrum and water resistant.
What Your Day Care Centre Asks You to Do
Your day care centre will request that you dress your children in clothing that offers full protection from the sun, including long sleeved collared shirts and long shorts or pants for boys and long skirts or dresses for girls. You will be asked to provide a hat for your child according to the specifications already listed.
The last items on your end are to apply sunscreen on your child and provide sunglasses.
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