Sunscreen Tips

This weekend will be sunny and a great time to go outside. Here are some sunscreen reminders to get us ready.

First and foremost, you need to apply sunscreen at least 20 to 30 minutes before going out in the sun. It works by reacting with your skin and needs that time to provide you the most protection. And regardless of the type of sunscreen you're using you need to apply enough to cover all exposed parts. We all need someone else to apply it to our backs---we just can't reach that far. Then reapply every 2 hours, regardless of how much protection the bottle says it has. You're sweating, swimming and toweling off--all of these remove whatever sunscreen protection you have, so reapply every 2 hours.

And when you buy a sunscreen, get one that has both UVA and UVB protection. For UVA protection, look at the label for zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, oxybenzone or avobenzene, or Mexoryl. Although sunscreen's UVA protection doesn't last as long as it's UVB counterpart, you need both to keep you safe.

Experts recommend sunscreen have an SPF of 30 or more, but recent studies at Aspen and Vail have shown that the high altitude sun of Colorado might require even higher SPF, the best protection came from sunscreens with SPF of 70 and 80.

So when you head outside this coming weekend remember to protect you and your kids from getting too much sun.