Reply to Why did my mom let me get sunburned all the time as a kid?!

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here. For the record, I'm not holding a grudge against my mom. I'm honestly just confused as to why she didn't do anything to prevent those sunburns. I get sunscreen was different back then and the culture was different, but even if sunscreen wasn't a thing now, I have a hard time believing I'd just let my super pale daughter go out and get lobster red 4-5x a summer and not take some kind of action, like being militant about hat wearing or changing our schedule, or forcing her to wear zinc or pants. Something. It's wild to me that I got probably 20+ really bad sunburns in my childhood and we didn't do anything about them.

I think I'm also surprised because I don't remember ever treating any of those sunburns. I don't remember being encouraged to drink more water or doing any kind of topical treatment. Now I know to always have hydrocortisone on hand and to give an anti-inflammatory pain reliever and push extra water when anyone in our family has had too much sun. But I learned this as an adult. Did people truly not know back then? Hydrocortisone is cheap and OTC. Drinking water is practically free. Those burns could have been a lot less painful if we'd treated them, but I remember just having sleepless nights in pain while I waited for the burned skin to peel off and I'd finally get relief.

It's just wild to me. I'm not sitting around stewing about my mom, I'm just kind of shocked at how different it was and how there were some fairly easy things we could have done to protect my skin or recover from burns faster and we just didn't do them. I'm glad my DD is getting better sun protection and after-sun care than I did![/quote]
Drinking water doesn’t “treat” a burn. I’ve literally never used hydrocortisone or an anti-inflammatory on a sunburn. They’re not some magical treatment. Once you’re burned, you’re burned. [/quote]

It's important to drink water after a bad sunburn because otherwise you will dehydrate faster. It's not about treating the burn, it's about taking care of your body as it recovers from the burn. This is true of all burns, just like you need to hydrate more when you have a fever. You will feel better.

Hydrocortisone will promote healing and reduce itchiness, which is good because the burn will heal faster if you don't touch and irritate it. Taking ibuprofen can reduce pain and swelling at the burn site, which also aids healing. Also after a painful sunburn, the combo of hydrocortisone and ibuprofen can make you comfortable enough to sleep well, and just like with staying hydrated, good sleep aids healing helping your body function well overall.

I would do all of this for myself or my kid, it's a solid home treatment course for a severe sunburn.[/quote]
If you’re the OP, you seem like a way over thinker. Of course you drink some water after you’ve been in the sun all day. Pop a Tylenol with a glass of water. This list of needing good sleep to “heal your body” is over the top. It’s why we have all these non-resilient fragile snowflake children these days. That will 100% be your child’s complaint about you. [/quote]

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