Does your child wear a hat on the playground during recess? If not, your child is not the only one. Many elementary schools in the U.S. ban students from wearing hats on school grounds. As a result, children are left exposed to peak ultraviolet radiation on the playground. Read about ways you can protect your children during school hours.

“Tanning is beneficial to your health,” claims tanning salon owners and employees when the House Committee on Energy and Commerce undercover investigators called 300 tanning salons nationwide. This false claim may not fool many sun protection advocates, but the rest of the U.S. population could be easily led to believe that tanning is good for you.

Did you know the expression ‘you are what you eat’ is true to a certain extent? While it’s well known that your overall health can be impacted by diet, your outward appearance, skin in particular, is greatly affected by everything you put into your body as well. If you’re hosting this year’s Thanksgiving feast, take a second look at your grocery list before heading off to the super market. If you want to keep your skin looking healthy and naturally glowing throughout the holidays, fill yourself with food and nutrients your skin, and body, will love.

Sun protection is a passionate subject for many people who have been impacted by cancer. Ellery, a high school freshman and Girl Scout, has been involved in fundraisers for treatments and cures of cancers. Now, Ellery has made it her mission to help educate young students and school officials about sun protection and show them that it’s possible to effectively, and inexpensively, protect students from the sun’s harmful UV rays during outdoor recess and activities.

Worried your kids aren’t getting enough fresh air and exercise? You’re not alone. Inactivity in children is an issue many parents and health care providers are concerned with. According to the Center for Disease Control, in the U.S, approximately 17 percent of all kids (ages 2-19) are obese. Environmental factors are mostly to blame, such as poor eating habits and a lack of physical activity. Luckily, the National Environmental Education Foundation is taking action and encouraging pediatricians to prescribe a healthy dose of outdoor activity.

On Sunday, October 9, 2011, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill making California the first state to prohibit minors from using tanning beds. This raises the question, should teens be able to decide whether or not to use tanning beds? According to Aim at Melanoma Foundation, using a tanning bed before the age of 20 doubles a person’s risk of developing melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Even more staggering is that 28 million individuals in the U.S. use tanning beds each year despite the statistics, which includes 2.3 million teens.

The Children’s Melanoma Prevention Foundation (CMPF) began delivering skin cancer prevention education to school children in 2003. Maryellen Maguire-Eisen, an oncology/dermatology nurse practitioner, founded the organization to help children better understand UV intensity and utilize sun protection as most skin cancers are preventable and easily treated when detected early. CMPF’s SunAWARE Program provides a specialized curriculum for students in grades K – 12.

Here at Coolibar we work hard to educate adults and kids about the importance of staying SunAWARE. Our friends at Abbey’s Hope, a local Minnesota non-profit, are just as serious about pool safety.

Parents of school aged children, are you concerned that your child is being exposed to dangerous UV rays during recess and at the bus-stop? If so, you may be interested in learning how to implement sun protection at your child’s school. Read on to see how a local dermatology office got Coolibar sun protective hats on the heads of kindergarteners at a school in Spokane, WA, and sun protection education into their classrooms.

Pediatric Dermatologist Dr. George offers advice to keep your kiddies protected from the sun’s rays. Learn what to look for in sunscreen, how to use it, and how to add fun to habits so that your kids will enjoy sunscreen time.