“MUM, WHAT’S IT like to be really, properly sunburnt?” asked my kids as we all melted in the shade of the recent heatwave. Their question stopped me in my tracks, because when I was a child, sunburn was a regular occurrence.

Cast your mind back to your own childhood summers. I’m willing to bet you got the skin burned off yourself more than once.

Being really honest, it probably happened every summer, and unless you were on your holidays, the likelihood of your parents religiously slapping sun cream on either themselves or you was rare.

1983 Tropical Blend Tanning Oil Ad. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

As a teenager, I can remember the many occasions where I stupidly sat out in the sun in the back garden without a drop of sun cream on and getting absolutely destroyed because I thought “this is Ireland, sure there’s no heat in that sun, why would I need to put on sun cream?”

If I did put it on, it was probably the lowest factor I could find or a sweet-smelling tanning oil from Hawaii that only made my skin sizzle even more. I remember laughing and comparing notes with friends over our peeling skin, slapping on aloe vera to try and ease the pain and the literal hum of my sizzled skin you could fry an egg on.

Fast-forward a few years and thanks to the increase in education and awareness around sunburn, the dangers of UV rays and skin cancer, things are different. Sun cream is a daily necessity for children in the summer. Schools, crèches and summer camps are all constantly reinforcing the message that you must never forget to put on adequate sunscreen on your young children.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy though. In fact, applying sun cream to toddlers is almost........

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