Skin deep: Children’s skin is very sensitive to UV radiation and needs to be protected

It's vital parents and carers take the sun smart message on board and protect children’s skin

Sisters Isla and Pippa Finn from Navan with their mother Emma at the launch of the new SunSmart campaign.  Picture: Mark Stedman

Getting sunscreen on small children can be a tricky task – between protestations that ‘you’re tickling me’ as you try to apply it to their neck, fretting you’ve missed a spot somewhere and realising, after they’ve run out the door, you forgot to do their ears.

And yet it’s vital that parents and carers take on board the sun smart message and protect children’s skin, particularly from now until the end of September when the intensity of sunburn-producing ultraviolet radiation (UV) is greatest. Children’s skin is very sensitive to UV radiation.