When I was just 36 weeks pregnant I was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. I didn't know exactly how bad it was at that time because I had to have surgery first but after all was said and done I ended up with stage 3a. Now, it could be worse of course, but there are only 4 stages to cancer. I was never a tanner, but I was also never an avid sunscreen user. I thought a tan was a "healthy" glow though, so I never prevented it from happening. It doesn't take much to get skin cancer so the best thing that you can do is protect yourself and your family.
Now that I have been through all that I have I make sure that I am extra careful with Elijah. We try to stay inside during the peak hours, I constantly use safe, all natural sunscreen (you need to be cautious about what kind of sunscreens you are using. Check out the
Environmental Working Group (EWG) for safe sunscreens and information).
The one good thing (and I mean ONE, only!) about melanoma is that I have met a lot of wonderful people through online melanoma groups and social networking sites, one of those people happened to be the woman who started UV Skinz, Rhonda Sparks.
Rhonda lost her 32 year old husband, Darren, to melanoma, just days after 9/11 in 2001. You can read Darren's story
here on the UV Skinz website. Darren is survived by Rhonda and their 3 children. Rhonda made it her mission to raise awareness about the disease and get kids (and everyone!) covered everywhere.
Rhonda was nice enough to send me a baby swim shirt, swim trunks, and a sun hat for myself to try out. I was really excited to get this stuff because I didn't have any swimwear with sun protection for Eli, and I have never had anything with sun protection for myself. All UV Skinz clothing has UPF 50+ sun protection, that means they block 98% of the suns harmful UV rays. It's all day protection that doesn't wear off, and it's 100% safe unlike some of the mainstream sunscreens that are out there. UV Skinz + an all natural safe sunscreen from the EWG's top 10 list = bulletproof sun protection.
The first thing that I noticed when I received these items was how soft the swim shirt was. Elijah is sensitive to what he wears and you will frequently see him pulling on stuff that he doesn't find comfortable (such as shirts with heavy transfers that make the inside of the shirt stiff). Elijah was totally fine wearing the swim shirt and didn't try to pull it off at all! I especially love that there are no seams inside the shirt to dig into Eli, they are all flat locked on the outside.
The swim shorts have a built in swim diaper with elastic legs, so no need to put anything on underneath.
Since this is our first swim shirt and shorts with sun protection, I have nothing to compare it to, but for us it's now a tried and true brand. They also sell skinz for men and women, sun hats for children and adults, and some outdoor sun shade protection tents with a UPF!
