My First UV Skinz
UV Skinz is giving away UV Protective Baby Swim Shirts to thousands of newborn babies this year in honor of National Skin Cancer Awareness Month. UV Skinz, one of the original companies to design and manufacture sun protective wear, wants to ensure that all babies are given proper protection against skin cancer, and has chosen to do so by donating free baby swim shirts to newborns at various maternity wards and pediatrician�s offices throughout the United States. This is the fourth year in a row that UV Skinz has generously donated swimwear for their cause.
Rhonda Sparks, the woman who founded UV Skinz in 2005 after losing her 32-year old husband to melanoma says, �We are super excited to be offering baby UV swim shirts to the newest members of the families as we feel all babies deserve quality, chemical-free sun protection from the very start of life.� In addition to the large donations going out to the hospitals and doctors, UV Skinz will also add a free baby UV Skinz swim shirt to each order placed in May, in hopes it will find its way to a baby-in-need. Each shipment will contain a free UV Baby Skinz along with a flyer asking customers to pass along the Baby Skinz to a needy organization or even a needy neighbor. Sparks goes on to say, �We want wearing UV Skinz swim shirts to be a daily preventative to sun burns like toothpaste is to cavities and by starting the awareness when the kids are little, it will instill good sun protection habits into adulthood.� UV Skinz has shipments being sent to UCSF Benioff Children�s Hospital in California, Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Washington, The Queens Medical Center in Hawaii and UV Skinz corporate offices local hospital, Sonora Regional Medical Center. Sparks adds, �We are awaiting word from a few more medical facilities as well and plan on donating every single baby swim shirt we have specially manufactured for this cause!�
Without exception, babies under age six months should not be in the sun and most pediatricians recommend no direct sunlight exposure for infants within the first few years. The reality is that most infants older than six months will likely spend some time outdoors, even if just for walks in a stroller, and should therefore be sun protected from head to toe year round, not just during summer months. Skin�s sun protection defenses are not fully developed in newborns and young infants so special care to protect babies� delicate skin from direct sun or indirect water, snow or concrete glare must be taken into consideration for the first few years of life.
The effects of sunscreen on babies� thin skin have not been adequately tested to date. Babies cannot communicate what is uncomfortable or what may be irritating to their skin and eyes. UV Skinz products carry a UPF rating of 50+, which blocks over 98% of the sun�s harmful UVA and UVB rays, without using harsh chemicals that can often be found in topical sun screen lotions. �And then there�s the �wiggle� factor,� Sparks adds. �Anyone who has kids knows how difficult it is to get them to stay still long enough to get on a proper coating of sunscreen. Our UV wear minimizes unprotected skin areas that would need to be covered with a non-toxic broad spectrum sunscreen which should be applied correctly and often.�
Statistics show that we aren�t doing enough to curb the phenomenal growth rate of skin cancer occurrence in this country. Only one severe sunburn in childhood can more than double the chances of skin cancer developing in adulthood. The American Academy of Dermatology provides a host of alarming skin cancer facts on its website. Among these facts are that more than 2 million cases of skin cancer are diagnosed annually. Melanoma accounts for about 3 percent of all pediatric cancers with 90 percent of pediatric melanoma cases found in 10-19 year old girls. With every sunburn comes a decrease in the skin�s natural ability to protect itself and an exponentially higher likelihood that skin disease, eye damage or weakening of the immune system will occur later in life.
The National Cancer Institute reports that while many common cancer rates are falling, melanoma rates within the U.S. continue to grow at an astonishing rate, faster than those of the seven most common cancers. Sparks implores parents to cover their children, discourage tanning bed use and protect them from becoming the one in five Americans who will develop skin cancer in their lifetimes. �I am doing everything I can to protect my children from suffering the same fate that their father suffered when we lost him to melanoma. I hope our �Save A Baby�s Skin� donation program will be a small step in preventing more families from being impacted by this devastating disease.�
Rhonda Sparks is no stranger to the destructive dangers of the sun. It was losing her 32-year-old, avid surfer and snow skier husband to melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, and having to raise their three young boys on her own that spurred her to action to help raise awareness about this potentially lethal disease. �We were just so ignorant to the causes of skin cancer and how deadly it can be,� Sparks said. �If we can keep one sun burn from happening, then Darren�s life and our hard efforts are all worth it.� For more information visit: www.uvskinz.com.
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