I learned a hard lesson this week. For the past seven years, my children have played in our shady oasis (aka our backyard) without a single worry. On the 4th of July, my children and I set up their little pool in our backyard. As in year’s past, the pool was in the shade. Throughout the day, the children played in the pool. When he wasn’t napping, Patrick joined them. At the most, Patrick probably spent about four hours outside.

In the afternoon, my husband brought Finnian outside and I realized for the first time that we were not in the shade. I moved my chair to the only shady spot that I could find and continued to watch the children in the pool. A few minutes after Finnian joined us, I noticed that Patrick was getting sunburned. I told all of the children that it was time to come inside. Due to last year’s windstorm, our shady oasis had turned into a suntanner’s delight.

We applied Aloe Vera to Patrick’s sunburned shoulders and back. On Thursday evening, July 5, we noticed that Patrick had a few small blisters on his left shoulder and we gave him a cold bath. By Friday morning, the blisters had formed one large blister, over one inch in diameter. I took him to our pediatrician’s office shortly after they opened.

I felt awful. The nurses and doctor tried to reassure me, saying that several children had come in the day before with blistering sunburns. The nurse cleaned around Patrick’s blister which was now measuring closer to two inches in diameter. The doctor gave me some prescription strength antibiotic ointment to apply if the blister popped and a prescription for Tylenol with codeine for my son’s pain (I didn’t fill the prescription, as the children’s Tylenol and Motrin were working). Patrick has a second degree burn because I did not put sunscreen on any of my children on the 4th of July.