Saturday, July 2, 2011

Our Sunscreen Dilemma

So I'm over sunscreen this year! We are having the worst time with it. E is allergic to zinc oxide. She breaks out into hives and it can get pretty bad- especially if in the diaper area. Not a fun place (for her) for us to learn about the allergy when she was an infant.

Last year I got her titanium dioxide sunscreen at the beach from a natural store. Of course I don't remember the name, I just know it worked. This year I decided to go with California Baby since it scored a 1 on the EWG. I coughed up the obscene amount for it since there were no other eco options, plus we were headed to the pool the next day so it was a quicky buy. When we got home from the pool that day, she broke out in a mild rash on her chest. I thought it was heat rash. The next day and the next, same thing. So I went to the health food store to see their options. Their only non-zinc formula was Alba. I saw some ingredients that I knew were questionable, but I needed something fast since we were headed to the pool again the next day. I decided the "natural" was better than half of the stuff the other kids were using, so why not...

Maybe I should explain we got a 2 week YMCA membership because it was cheaper to join for 2 weeks than to pay 3 times as a visitor. I wanted to get our moneys worth, so if it was pretty outside, we were going to be at the pool. And I had no time to wait for sunscreen to ship. ;)

So, we used the Alba on Tuesday.
That is poor E at urgent care after the pool. Notice her purplish toes? She had a horrible reaction to the sunscreen. She was covered in hives on her hands, feet, legs, chest, and back. On her back the hives were only in the area that was sun exposed and the Dr. said basically the sun could have caused a chemical reaction and that's why it's not everywhere on her body.

The bottle of sunscreen said "Natural- Very Emollient." I looked up the ingredients on the EWG and was really upset the sunscreen scored a 6.


You know I preach about looking up products ingredients, and the one time I don't... look what happens. I contacted my local food store and let them know how upset I was that they carried anything with such a high rating. They forwarded me to Alba and someone from there contacted me asking me to send the bottle back. I'm assuming for testing to see what caused the reaction.

But, lesson learned. Always look up products before purchasing! I'm trying some Juice Beauty this week and hoping it works!! I'll keep you posted on how everything goes.

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