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These are my most frequently requested summer product recommendations!
Insect Repellent
In general, for insect repellent I recommend DEET as it is the best studied, easy to find, effective mosquito-repelling product. However for those of us (myself included) who feel a little gross slathering DEET all over our kids (maybe it’s the smell??) my favorite “natural” alternative is picardin. Picardin was engineered in Germany from a pepper plant, has a very mild scent and is proven to work as well as DEET! This goes on my kids every afternoon before going outside. Effective picardin should be at least 20% and any product that contains this should work. My go-to is Sawyer brand as it comes in lotion or spray. A little stickiness is the only draw-back IMO.
Sawyer Insect Repellent with 20% Picardin
Sunscreen
In my opinion, the jury is still out on whether chemical suncreens (like oxybenzone, avobenzone, octisalate) can truly cause harm compared to physical suncreens (like titanium oxide, zinc oxide). If you’d like to delve a little deeper into that discussion, this report by the EWG breaks it down for us pretty well. Wherever you lie on this discussion, I like to say that in general, if mineral sunsreens will work for you, that may be the safer option. Mineral suncreens will not work for you if you will be less likely to apply them because of the undesireable aspects (white nose anyone?, harder to spread - really need to dry to stay on before getting wet, i.e., less waterproof). If you are inclined to try mineral sunscreen, the one below has been the one I have found to spread more easily and have a relatively lighter casper-the-ghost effect! If you find one you love, let me know and I’ll add it here!
Nutrition
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash
Iron
Although I can send a prescription for iron to the pharmacy — it generally tastes pretty bad. The most common OTC iron formulation I recommend is Novaferrum. The type of iron in this medicine may be better tolerated (fewer reported GI symptoms) and definitely tastes better than regular iron from the pharmacy. The dosing I give is for the WOW! High Potency Liquid Iron (red box).