This past week I had the chance to see just how bad sunburs can be. A teenager I know went on vacation and where he was the temperature hovered at about 105. Him and his family stopped at a lake and swam the whole day without using sunscreen of any kind. The boy turned very red on his back and shoulders and was in a lot of pain so the family returned home cutting short their vacation.
He was given a cream and ended up having second degree burns. On about the third night after the burn he developed large and small blisters and woke up saying that it itched him. The family in desperation to make him more comfortable from the iching put some aloe vera on his back. They had only squirted a couple spots and had not even rubbed it in yet, when the teen started screaming that it felt like his back was on fire. Not knowing what else to do for him, they took two washcloths and wrang them out in cold water. They put one on his back and the other in the freezer and them alternated the cloths about every five to ten minutes for about three hours. He started to feel relief right away and as the minutes ticked by beagan to feel better and better. He was then able to sleep peacefully. The next morning the back looked a lot better and he felt a lot better.
When the skin began to turn brown from bright red the aloe vera worked to soften the skin and felt great.
The sun seems to me to be a lot hotter and more damaging than it was when I was a teen so the point is use sunscreen when out in the sun and limit your sun exposure.
Oh my…that sounds awful. As a mom, I am now even more careful and cautious of how damaging too much sun can be for our skin. I used to lifeguard as a teen and my mom was always telling me to make sure I had my sunscreen on. Now I understand where she was coming from- I don’t think it is something all teens consider. Our family uses Topricinkids cream for all kinds of issues and it works great for sunburns! I hope this helps