Best Nourishing Sunscreen Options and A Homemade Recipe

May 28th, 2010 · Vina Barham · Natural + Sustainable, Nourishing Lifestyle, Nutrition + Health Comments Off - Tags: homemade sunscreen lotion, natural sunscreen

Photo By MassDistraction

Summer is coming up and many mothers everywhere are scrambling to get the latest sunscreen protection for their little ones. I was that mother last year. I found mine at Target, Aveeno Baby I think. But every time I dabbed that lotion onto my baby’s precious skin, my gut whispered foul. I was torn. Sunblock was necessary, right? I had to protect her for those harmful UVA rays, right?

Well guess what? Aveeno Baby made it to the Environmental Working Group’s Hall of Shame. Yikes. (Breathe. It’s okay. It was just one summer. She won’t get cancer. Forgive. Release. Whew.) The more I researched about sunscreens, the more I am convinced of one thing: I’m staying clear of them.

41% of sunscreens contain a type of Vitamin A (retinyl palmitate), which may actually increase cancerous skin tumors and lesion. While it’s good to consume vitamin A veggies, not so much for applying on skin.
Most sunscreens are awesome protecting skin from the UVB rays which causes the skin burn, but they virtually leave the skin exposed to the UVA radiation, which penetrates deep into the skin and causes all that bad stuff you truly want to protect them from. Because sunscreen users may feel justified in staying longer in the sun, many may be at more risk of melanoma skin cancer caused by the UVA rays.
Sunscreens block almost all of your body’s Vitamin D production, an essential vitamin for our immune system among other things. For people like me who live North of the equator, are dark-skinned or are likely deficient or have low-levels of Vitamin D as many children nowadays are, we need direct sun contact daily for 10-15 minutes, or vitamin D food sources such as Cod Liver Oil.
FDA is a little bit behind in updating the regulations, so just because it’s being marketed as “safe” for your baby, you really can’t trust the profit-driven industry for saying so. After all, they have their shareholders to report to.

So What’s The Best Sunscreen Option?
I grew up in sweltering hot summers in the Philippines, and now that I think about it, I really don’t remember applying sunscreen on my skin. We simply carried umbrellas around in the heat for instant shade. But who does that anymore? The thing is, that’s the simplest sunscreen option I can think of. And avoiding direct sun contact between 10 am -2 pm. No messing with our skin. Or having to shell out money for cool sun-protective gear like Coolibar . Of course don’t forget those sunglasses. They aren’t just for fashionistas, you know!

But suppose you have to be out in the sun for an extended period of time, and you really feel like you ought to put at least something on. What to do? You can check out EWG’s top sunscreen options. The most accessible one seems to be California Baby as you can get it from Target. I checked out the reviews on Amazon and many prefer it to Soleo and Naturals, which are also both recommended by EWG.

OR.

You can just make it yourself .

Basic Homemade Sunscreen Recipe
Folks over at the EWG think you shouldn’t mess with this stuff at home, but if you really want to give it a try, you really just need three basic ingredients: (1) Oil a.k.a. The Carrier (2) Beeswax a.k.a. The Water Repellant and (3) Zinc Oxide, the broadest spectrum UVA and UVB reflector that is approved for use as a sunscreen by the FDA and is completely photostable.

For oil, you can choose sesame oil or coconut oil or make your own combination. Beeswax you can find at your local beekeeper if you’re nearby one, or you can find them also at candlemaking shops or crafts store. And zinc oxide you can get at your local CVS or drugstore.

Directions::

Heat 1 cup or oil in pan over low flame.
Add 1 ounce of beeswax. Stir until beeswax is completed melted
While stirring, add 2 TBSP of Zinc Oxide very slowly. Handle with care. Do not inhale.
Once everything is mixed, pour into a mason jar and let it cool.
You can keep it in your fridge to store.

Some folks like to add essential oils, but unless you know how the oils react to each other and to zinc oxide, I’d stay clear of that. Alternatively, you can also use your all-natural lotion you use now and add the zinc oxide. There are also other recipes online that do not have zinc oxide as an ingredient. I also hear that even just dabbing coconut oil on your skin gives you some protection.

My sunscreen option this summer? Staying out of the sun during specific hours and donning my umbrella! What about you?

On Doctors and Vaccines: A Mother’s Confession

February 4th, 2010 · Vina Barham · Natural + Sustainable, Nourishing Lifestyle, Nutrition + Health 2 comments - Tags: immunization, vaccination, vaccines

Photo byBhollar / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

When Naomi turned one, we went to see her pediatrician for her routine 12-month wellness check-up. I was dreading that day, because Naomi was up for her MMR vaccinations. She’s gotten some of the other scheduled vaccines, and we’ve been fortunate that there has been shortage on one of them (I forget which) and since it comes in a combination, we also had to postpone the others.

A few months prior to this, I had been reading books on vaccines, like Evidence of Harm and How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor, and D-day was upon us. A decision had to be made. And I still was on the fence. Would we vaccinate her or not?

Deep in my heart, I knew what I had to do. I needed to do more research and read some more, and precisely because I was still unsure of where I stood with the whole vaccine issue meant that I couldn’t let Naomi get the MMR vaccine just because I am told that I must. I couldn’t let Naomi get any more vaccines for that matter. I was starting to develop an aversion to the present day vaccination schedule and the big profitable industry it is making for pharmaceuticals and doctors alike. I was also slowly learning to trust my maternal instincts, and to make informed decisions in all things parenting, like this.

So there I was sitting in the doctor’s office, and of course, they weighed her and measured her and poked her and all that unnecessary stuff. And then I was handed the form. You know, the one that says you are okay with all that risk that comes with vaccines, and oh, should something go wrong there really isn’t anything you can do about it. I pretended that we were planning to head to the injection room afterwards, made nice talk with our pediatrician and then bolted out of the door for the very last time. I didn’t have the courage to be honest about where I was at because the last time I had brought up the issue of vaccines, our doctor dismissed my questions. I felt small, silly and stupid.

She is now 18-months old, and we have not gone on another wellness check up. We’ve also missed all the other vaccinations recommended for her, plus all the other ones we’ve already missed. No, we didn’t get flu shots, nor the H1N1 shots.

Today, she got sick with a slight fever, and my first thought was, oh boy, maybe we should have gotten her the vaccines. What if she got sick with something one of the vaccines could have prevented? I could so worry myself to death.

But she is fine. Her body is just fighting an infection of some sort the way it is naturally designed, and for it, she’ll have a stronger immune system. Why are so quick to medicate anything that brings discomfort, even as something as common and natural as a cold or a flu? Why do we make decisions out of fear and worry?

I’m still learning about the nitty-gritty facts on vaccines. I am not yet fully informed, but I’m getting there slowly. And I’m learning that when I seek Truth, I find it and I no longer make decisions based on fear nor based on what I am told what to do. I can stand up with conviction and passion, but without judging or dehumanizing the Other. There is Truth waiting to be found in all things, even in the doctor’s office.