Sunbathing before 9am can be harmful to children

Recently, Dr. Le Quang Hao, National Institute of Nutrition, released a piece of information that has caused great concern among mothers. According to Dr. Hao, sunbathing for children before 9am and after 4pm is unscientific and can cause skin cancer, darkening of the skin and skin aging.

Why do people still get rickets even though they get enough sun?

According to Dr. Le Quang Hao, for decades, doctors and the media have been instructing people, especially children, on how to sunbathe to prevent nutritional rickets (rickets due to lack of vitamin D (vitamin D3) before 9 am and after 4-5 pm. However, world science has proven that sunbathing at this time is completely wrong. Not only does it not create vitamin D, but a type of ultraviolet rays (UVA rays) that make up the majority of sunlight penetrating the earth can cause skin cancer and eye damage.

Doctor Le Quang Hao said that in reality, during the process of examining children's nutrition, it was also shown that although many children were exposed to enough sunlight, they still suffered from rickets. Even adults, many of whom spend a lot of time in the sun, or intentionally expose themselves to sunlight fully and on time, still lack vitamin D, which greatly affects their health. The reason is that the popular way of sunbathing for a long time not only fails to prevent and treat vitamin D deficiency in general, and rickets in children, but also reduces the amount of vitamin D in the body, increasing the risk of skin cancer and eye diseases.

Improper sunbathing for children can cause "reverse effects", negatively affecting the child's health.

Specifically, for the eyes, UV rays cause cataracts, skin cancer around the eyelids, macular degeneration, and keratoconjunctivitis. For the skin, UV rays cause skin cancer. Statistics in 2008 in the US show that: The number of people with skin cancer is greater than the number of people with breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, and colon cancer combined. Up to 90% of the changes in the skin that we often think are due to aging such as dark skin, wrinkled skin, black spots on the skin... are actually due to excessive exposure to sunlight.

Dangers of sunbathing incorrectly

According to Dr. Le Quang Hao, there is a mistake in the way of sunbathing in Vietnam that has long been recognized by experts but few people know about. That is a serious mistake in the time of sunbathing. The popular way of sunbathing in Vietnam today is before 9am and after 4pm. However, sunbathing during this time not only does not have the effect of creating vitamin D to prevent rickets in children but is also the cause of skin cancer, skin darkening and skin aging.

Le Quang Hao said that vitamin D is not a vitamin but a steroid hormone. It is produced by the body when we sunbathe, under the direct impact of ultraviolet B (Ultra Violet B-UV B) rays on the skin, or the body obtains vitamin D from vitamin D supplements or vitamin D preparations.

Vitamin D is very important for health. Vitamin D has been shown to affect about 3,000 genes in the body, even more. Vitamin D affects many diseases. Specifically, scientists have now found at least 68 diseases that can be effectively prevented and treated with vitamin D such as: cancer, mental illness, autism, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, all dental disorders... and of course 100% effective prevention and treatment of nutritional rickets. Because of the importance of vitamin D, vitamin D deficiency is now considered a public health problem not only in Vietnam but also worldwide.

According to Dr. Hao, children should be sunbathed from 9am to 3pm for best results. Depending on the child's age, sunbathing time can be from 10-30 minutes per day. In the first few days, mothers can let their children sunbathe in the shade for about 10 minutes and gradually increase the sunbathing time to about 20-30 minutes for the following days.

To supplement vitamin D for the body, in addition to using medicine and food, exposing the skin directly to sunlight is considered an effective method of creating vitamin D. However, as we know, sunlight is essential for life for all species on earth, it is necessary for health but also brings some risks when the body is exposed to it incorrectly.

How to sunbathe for babies

Lay your baby flat on the bed so that the sunlight hits his back first, then his sides, and finally his stomach and chest. When you first let your baby sunbathe, you should only let the sunlight shine on each part (as divided above) for about 1 minute, gradually increasing the time. In the summer, the UV ratio in sunlight is often higher than in other seasons, so you must pay attention to protecting your baby's head and eyes. It is best to let your baby wear a hat made of natural, cool, sweat-absorbent fabric and especially a wide-brimmed hat to block direct sunlight from the eyes.

Let your baby wear less clothes when sunbathing.

At first, you should dress your baby as usual. After sunbathing for a while, if you feel your baby's body temperature rising, you can gradually take off some of your baby's clothes. Doing so will make your baby feel very refreshed while ensuring your baby's health. After sunbathing, you should put more clothes on your baby because while sunbathing, the pores open up, so when you bring your baby into the house or a shady place, cold air will easily penetrate through the pores, causing your baby's body to quickly get cold, even leading to a cold.

Children who are being treated for acute illnesses, children with endocrine diseases: Basedow, children with eczema, herpes, and children taking Quinolone antibiotics should absolutely not be allowed to sunbathe.

When should I sunbathe?

According to the recommendation of Dr. Le Quang Hao, National Institute of Nutrition:

- Only sunbathe when the length of your shadow is shorter than your height. That is, from about 9am to before 3pm. In Europe and America, sunbathe at noon. On the first few days of sunbathing, sunbathe for only 3-5 minutes (especially in the middle of summer) to let your body get used to the sunlight. Melanocytes will produce pigments to prevent your skin from being exposed to too much sunlight, to protect your body. When your body gets used to the sunlight, in the summer we sunbathe for 5-10 minutes, in the winter 15-20 minutes. The sunbathing time should be shorter the closer to noon. Wear sunglasses that can block UV rays and a wide-brimmed hat when sunbathing.

- Observe the skin color, when the skin is pink, we have sunbathed enough. Avoid sunlight on the face and around the eyes because the skin is the thinnest in the body. You can apply moisturizer on the sun-exposed skin to create favorable conditions for the body to create vitamin D.

- During the days when there is no sunlight, or in winter, our best option is to supplement vitamin D orally. The dose does not differ much according to age: from 400 - 600 units of vitamin D per day.

According to Family & Society