SPF

About a month ago one of my best friends learned a very quick mommy lesson about the sun when her little one got sunburn. She was just fine (mommy from the trauma and baby from the burn) within the week there was no evidence of the event at all. I was with her and Lydia was about 15 minutes shy from having a similar sunburn. The thing is that we both had sunscreen with us and totally had the mental flash that we should put some on the girls but we fell for the oldest Florida trick in the book. We were in a shady area for less than 30 minutes. Thus my confession:  I am a little obsessed with SPF clothing.

First, and I suppose foremost, is my issue with sunscreen. We have several baby sunscreens and since Eliot is of fair skin as well when we are out we all use the baby's Aveeno 55 SPF.  The thing is that as soon as it gets warm it melts off your face and it pours into your eyes and it burns! Seriously? A baby sunscreen that leaves you blinded? We also have Baby Coppertone in the car  which we have only used once and not sure we have had enough time to figure out if it does the same thing. We also have Neutrogena Baby that we haven't used yet. I am a little nervous because I don't want to burn Lydia's eyes out.

Some baby stores sell clothing pieces that have been tested and advertise a certain SPF level. I think this is a brilliant idea and I am all for getting every summer fun piece of SPF protection that I can find in Lydia's size. Eliot laughs at me because he says that all clothes protect you from the sun and they are just charging me more money for the SPF sticker. Admittedly, it took me several weeks to understand  that SPF wasn't embedded into the fabric and it was just a measuring system. Even now I only slightly agree with him that all clothes protect you from the sun but isn't it better to be sure of how much sun protection you will get from a hat or bathing suit, especially for your baby? Or am I just a nut?