Skincare

It’s enough to drive parents crazy: “Slather your kids in sunscreen!” we are told. Yet, we are learning that the majority of popular sunscreens might NOT provide protection from the worst of the skin cancers and might actually increase our children’s chances of getting some cancers.

I’ve had a slew of Ask the Green Mama questions recently that boil down to this: What are real dangers and what are the imagined dangers of parenting? This is at the heart of most questions, isn’t it? What will really kill my baby and what is actually not worth the stress of the worry. 

Of course, much of this we just don’t know. Parenting is risky, because life is full of unknowns. Today’s science, however, is telling us much about where our worry line should be.

Here’s what we do know.

A few years ago I became super vigilant about looking at labels, scanning the ingredient list for some of the big offenders. I wanted to avoid parabens, synthetic fragrances, propylene glycol, dyes, 1-4 dioxane, petroleum based ingredients, and--most recently--nanoparticles.

I’d been pouring over labels for years and considered myself a savvy shopper, but the skincare aisle almost had me duped.  I’m one of those people: the kind that stands in the Whole Foods aisle obsessively scanning every label.   I am not appeased by claims of Natural! Kid Safe! or Hypoallergenic. What I’m looking for are the ingredients. The rest, as far as I am concerned, is just fancy PR. I want to know what I’m putting in and on my body.