Sun Tips

Family friendly, beach resorts are most families’ first holiday. And in many ways they can be the easiest.

The first holiday with babies, toddlers or children can be daunting so, in addition to these sun tips for toddlers, I have curated some handy tips to take the stress out of your trip:

• What to pack for your first holiday.
• How to survive a flight with toddlers and babies.
• Summer packing list for toddlers.
• Travel services to plan your next summer holiday.
• Where to book your next package holiday.
• Toys to pack for your baby or toddler.
• Or you can simply Contact me with any worries you might have for your first holiday and I will try my best to give my honest opinion.

Summer holiday tips for toddlers

This advice goes beyond putting a sun hat on your kid because if you are strong enough to push a human out of your vagina I presume that shade, hats and glasses are a given.

A lot of these tips include recommended items. I must stress I do no advertising – apparently Mother Care don’t agree with my view that toddlers are tiny terrorists.

You may think that I have shares in Temu as I often mention them – and I probably do have some investment in them with the amount of money I spend – but all of these items come just highly recommended from a genuine toddler Mum trying to keep my offspring alive.

I don’t ever spend a lot of money on toys or gadgets as toddlers are forever changing so no matter how good an item is, remember it is not going to have much longevity.

The Holy Grail

One our daughter’s first ever trips abroad, at 6 months old, I was shopping for last minute bits and found this. AKA. The Holy Grail.

No it is not just a small paddling pool with a sunshade. It is your new best friend.

I bought it and naively very nearly left it at home to save space! Thank goodness I didn’t. Every single day, we took it down to the pool, filled it with water and some water toys and our daughter spent hours in it.

This may not seem groundbreaking but it meant: We could sit on our sunbeds whilst our daughter was happily playing; she was safe from the sun; every other parent looked at us like dons, like we had discovered the holy grail.

I often say that toddlers are forever changing and some tips and tricks are usually only relevant for a certain stage of childhood. This is one staple item that we still bring on holiday now our children are two and four.

We don’t often take it down to the pool anymore, though we could. But it stays on our terrace or balcony for when we want to chill at the accommodation and our two will play in it for hours.

It is also good for beach days when children want to play in the water safely.

Some of their favourite things to play in the The Holy Grail include:

• Pouring with paper cups
• Putting they little characters down a ‘slide’
• Hook a duck
• Fill it with bubbles
• Fishing net

As well as all this fun, it can also double as an inflatable bath for smaller children.

Now, just tell me ‘What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow’ and I will tell you where I got it from.

‘Here comes the sun’

Best sun protection for toddlers

Now for the actual most important thing to consider for a sun holiday. Sun protection.

I cannot tell you the best sun cream for your baby or toddler as it really depends on the individual. Our daughter suffers from extreme eczema but all the allergy free ones reacted to her so it literally is a case of test them with it and see if they call Childline or not.

The second problem with sun cream is application. We have probably tried every variation of sun cream application, bar a torture camp but these are our two go-tos: 

Solar Buddies

You put any sunscreen you like in this applicator and it has a sponge round the outside which rubs the sun cream in for you. I like it because I just hate the feel of sun cream constantly on my hands, plus I’m sick of my palms never getting a suntan! My 4-year-old daughter can now apply this herself using this.

I bought the cheap Temu version of this and it has leaked every time so it is probably worth investing in the proper one as I tend to buy a new one every trip which seems pointless but I weirdly feel like I’m saving money because it is cheaper.

Aerosol sun cream

We often buy the aerosol style spray sun cream. We find this the easiest way to apply sun cream but our kids do hate it. It comes out quite cold. But are you even protecting your children from skin cancer if they are not screaming?

Do remember to try out the sun cream you intend to take on holiday before you go to make sure that your little one’s skin doesn’t have a reaction to it.

Best sun shade for prams

We have tried many different sun shades for our prams over the years and by far our favourite is the Koo-di Pack it Sun and Sleep stroller cover.

The beauty of it is that the kids stay cool underneath. Other products I have used to keep them shaded (included muslins) they feel hotter than the surface of the sun under it.

Unfortunately, I tried to find the link but looks like they don’t sell them anymore. There are plenty on second hand sites but I think you could also find something with a similar concept rather than canopy style or a stuffy muslin cloth.

Best fans for toddlers

Remember that really hot summer where every shop ran out of fans? I think that was us buying and trying them all out for our toddlers.

There are a lot of different types of fans to keep your little ones cool. We have tried them all.

Our favourite is a simple and cheap fan that clips to the top of the pram shade.

It doesn’t have to be expensive. Ours is from – you guessed it – Temu.

The key is that it clips to the top of the pram, out the reach of those tiny inquisitive hands.

We tried the spider type ones that wrap around the pram bar and our two just constantly grabbed them or tried to stick anything pokey inside it.

We also tried the cute little hand powered fans with their favourite characters, but they were as powerful as a B&H gold smoker blowing on you.