:wave: hello everyone, :wave: :wave: :wave:

I have a quick question, we live by the coast and we are just dying to head out to the beach, my dd is 3.5 months old.. What do you think is a good age to take her with us? Do you think she is still to young to go to the beach.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Congrats on your daughter!

My dd was born in June '06 and we really wanted to bring her to the beach since it is one of our favorite summertime activities. My pediatrician told me absolutely no sunblock until she was 6 months old, but if we absolutely insisted on taking her to the beach to be sure that we had her completely shaded and out of the sun. We had a big umbrella that goes with our chairs and she had a bouncy seat that had a canopy to be in so we had her well protected. I'm looking forward to being able to put sunblock on her this year and getting her in the water.

If you are unsure just talk to your pediatrician.

I'm really jealous that you're going to the beach!! It's only mid 60's here! I can't wait for summer!

Last summer my daughter was 3-4 months old and we took her to the beach with us a couple of times and honestly it was a pain in the butt! My dh and I couldn't go in the water at the same time since someone needed to sit with her, and it was too bright for her, and as much as we tried to keep sand away - she was covered! Overall I would've preferred if I had just left her home with Grammy... which we did a couple of times after that!

By the time beach weather hits around here she'll be 15 months and I can't wait to take her!

Thanks for the advise girls

Test a little sunscreen on her in an inconspiuous place one night. If she doesn't break out from it, you can use it on her. Our ped told us to do that with our first baby. We had a different ped by the time the second child arrived and that ped gave us basically the same advice. We live near the beach, have a pool and all three of ours were born either in May or July. Needless to say, we didn't let the fact that they were young stop us. We tested the sunscreen, all three did fine and we hit the water!

Nancy

Hey! We went for a week's beach vacation when my DS was 7 mos. It was absolutely fantastic and we would have even been ok at 5 mos I think. We had him wear swim clothing, including shirt and hat that had SPF 50 as well as using sunscreen. He loved playing in the wet sand. He was an early crawler and a sitter so he was quite active on the beach! We also bought a little tent that had 50 SPF that we put toys in to get him out of the direct sun occaisionally. We had it east tho because grandma, grandpa, etc were there to help!

I agree with the other poster -- it seemed like a good idea at the time, but turned out to just be a pain in the rear. We had purchased a three-sided tent for use on the beach, so we had her shaded, but it also meant she didn't get a breeze at all. Somehow we ended up with sand EVERYWHERE -- and I was very careful (I thought). I had other kids with me (nieces and nephews) and couldn't enjoy playing with them at all while I watched baby (she was 4 months and not crawling or rolling yet). Overall, I chalked it to experience and just decided to stick to pools for awhile.

There is another current thread about sunscreen use that you might want to check out as well... no need to rehash all of that here.