Health Tip: Protect Your Child's Skin From Winter

Some easy suggestions

(HealthDayNews) -- If dry, itchy skin is making your child miserable, try these tips from the Mayo Clinic:

  • Shorten their showers and baths. A long, hot shower or bath dries and irritates skin. Your child should stay no more than 15 minutes in the bath or shower, and keep the water temperature lukewarm.
  • Avoid scrubbing too hard or too long with a washcloth or sponge. Light sponging can be just as good as forceful scrubbing, and it's less drying. The same is true for toweling off -- pat your child dry instead of rubbing.
  • After a bath or shower, apply a moisturizer from head to toe.
  • Apply sunscreen with a sun protection factor of 15 or higher to your child's exposed skin, just like during summer. When reflected off snow, ultraviolet radiation from the sun can be intense, even when the air temperature is below freezing.

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