Best remedy for sunburn (apart from not getting burnt in the first place!)

sunburn on the neck

As parents, we all know that you should protect yourself and your children from sunburn using a recommended SPF30+ sunburn cream.  You should also cover up whilst in the sun, and stay out of the sun during the middle or hottest part of the day.  For most of us (particularly in Australia), we know how damaging the sun is, and know to slip, slop, slap.  Slip on a shirt, Slop on the suncream, Slap on a hat.  With all this prevention and care, sometimes little bits of sun get through all your protection and – ouch!  You have a sore little body to deal with!

If you or your children have been accidentally sunburned, then this is the best remedy there is!  Use brewed tea, maybe still in the pot from left over from a recent cup of tea, and it best if it has been sitting in the pot for a couple of hours.  You can use it at room temperature or put it in the fridge, but it needs to be COLD, not hot!  (Don’t put hot tea on your child, or any sunburn as you will do more damage).

Tea!

Pour a little bit of the cool tea into a bowl and use a cotton ball to gently wipe or dab it onto the effected area.  The wonderful coolness relieves the burning skin immediately and something about the tannin in the tea helps to relieve the pain of the burn.

T-bags are great for this because you don’t need to use a cotton bud, but you will need a cup of tea so that you have enough liquid to wipe on.  You can put the tea on as many times a day as you need, but you will find that you only need to do it 3 times a day until the sunburn has faded.  (Cold T-bags put in the fridge are also great for tired eyes!  Just put them over your eyes when you take them out of the fridge, lay down and relax!  Fantastic!)

Be aware that because the tea is brown coloured, it may stain your child’s clothes so keep this in mind when using this remedy. You will find that the tea will dry on the skin and is quite comfortable so you should not have too much trouble putting it on your child.  This is a great remedy for children as it relieves the nasty burning feeling and helps them to feel more comfortable straight away.

The water content helps to hydrate the skin so you won’t need to put creams and lotions on either.  Not a good thing to do whilst the skin is still hot from the burning sunburn.  Don’t use any creams with an oil content on sunburned skin because it acts like oil in a hot fry pan and prolongs the burning.

slip slop slap

PLEASE NOTE:  This method is NOT recommended for burns or serious sunburn, these should be treated by a Doctor as soon as possible.

RESOURCES

http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/sunburn.html