BioNike Baby Sun

The skin of newborns and children has not had time to develop adequate defences and must be protected from the sun with all due caution. To give it the best protection, it is important to know how to choose the right form of suncare for children.

Children’s skin is more delicate than adult skin, because their epidermis is finer and the hydrolipidic film has not fully developed. These characteristics mean that the skin’s barrier function, i.e. its capacity as a “shield”, is lower than an adult's. Therefore, a child’s skin is more susceptible to dehydration and dryness, as well as being more vulnerable to external aggressors.

Fragile and undeveloped, infantile skin needs special care when it comes to the sun too. This is particularly true for newborns, whose defence system — in terms of the melanocytes which produce melanin — is not yet developed. This means that their skin is not capable of defending itself from the sun.

For these reasons, newborns and small children are more sensitive to the damaging effects of the sun’s rays, both in the short- and long-term.

Therefore, to prevent the damage caused by exposure to the sun, it is extremely important to use sun protection for children, particularly very young children.

For newborns and small children, it is best to avoid direct exposure to the sun entirely. Even when they are kept in the shade of a parasol, however, it is still necessary to apply sun protection, as ultraviolet rays reflected from the sand can reach the skin.

For those with hypersensitive skin or a tendency towards atopic hypersensitivity, it may be more suitable to opt for sun protection products whose formulas exclusively contain mineral filters.
It is always advisable to select water-resistant or very water-resistant sun protection for children, bearing in mind that neither of these indications means the product is entirely waterproof.

These phrases simply certify that the product has been tested and found to resist water, meaning that it partly maintains its protective properties (at least 50% of its SPF value) even after prolonged immersion in water. If it resists for 40 minutes, the product can be described as “water-resistant”; if it can last 80 minutes it is “very water-resistant”.

Sun protection for children must not only be effective, but also practical for use, meaning it must be easy to apply and non-sticky so that it doesn’t cause sand to cling to the skin. In fact, the formulation should be designed to last for a long time on the skin, where the filters “work”, and must also be tested for anti-sand properties to ensure that the sand does not adhere.

As with all other products for children, children’s sun protection should also be designed to minimise the risk of allergies. Therefore, their formulation avoids the substances which can most frequently cause intolerance and allergies