The Mother’s Day lesson my daughter taught me: What every Black mom needs to know before Summer vacation
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During spring break in Mexico, my daughter got sun poisoning, and it scared me in a way only a mother can understand. What started as a beautiful family vacation quickly turned into a lesson about preparation, protection, and how fast things can change when it comes to our children’s health.
I’m sharing this not from a place of guilt, but from a place of grace and to ensure other moms are educated.
As a Black woman, I was always taught that my melanin was my protection from the sun. Growing up in Houston, Texas, I played outside from sunup to sundown without sunscreen. We rode on the backs of trucks in the blistering heat and never once thought about sunburn. I’m almost embarrassed to say I didn’t start using sunscreen until I became an adult.
It wasn’t until I became a mom in 2017 that I learned about sun hats, sun shirts, and the importance of protecting my children’s skin. And honestly, if my son didn’t burn easily, I may have never educated myself the way I should have.
But everything I thought I knew still hadn’t prepared me for what would happen with my daughter.
This Spring break as my family vacationed at our favorite resort in Talum, we pride ourselves in knowing what to do to keep the kids protected. But little did we know the sunscreen, sun hats, UV-protected sun shirts, and swimsuits wouldn’t be enough.
On day three of our vacation we enjoyed the pool just like any other day and closed out the night with a family dinner and silent disco before putting the kids to bed. Around 7 a.m., my daughter woke up screaming in excruciating pain, crying about her eye.
When we turned on the lights, I thought she had been bitten by something in the bed. Her eyes were swollen shut, and her face was twice its normal size. We immediately called the resort doctor, and hotel security rushed us to the medical building.
That’s where they diagnosed her with sun poisoning.
Sun poisoning is more than a bad sunburn. It can come with blistering, fever, chills,
nausea, dehydration, dizziness, and pain. For my daughter, she had swollen eyes, a swollen face, a rash that covered her entire body, itching, and pain.
I was alarmed. I had heard of sunburn, but never sun poisoning. Like most moms trying to figure out what is happening in real time, I started researching. I found TikTok posts from young women who had experienced something similar, and I realized this was something more people needed to know about.
@blayyy__ Sunscreen my bff now 💀💀 Curacao did its big one on me #fypシ゚viral #sunpoisoning #summer #sun #spf #viral #curacao #skincare #fypp
@iamtangyd I wrote an ebook called Black DOES Crack explaining how I got sun poisoned in Bali and the ONE Product I Used to get my skin back to normal. click the link or go to www.iamtangy.com to learn more or purchase. Thank you in advance for your support and kind words. #sunpoisoning #sunscreen #darkskingirl #darkskinwomen #eczema #Bali #traveltips #skincareadvice #skincaretips
We immediately rushed home from vacation to see our doctor. I told him that we had been applying Benadryl cream and aloe vera to her face, but she was still extremely swollen. He was hesitant at first due to her age, but I insisted that the doctor give her a steroid shot to reduce the inflammatory reaction.
He instead gave her an oral steroid that would be much milder for her age. By the
next day the swelling had gone down tremendously. But she was still covered in a rash. The doctor informed us that the heat rash was made worst because of her eczema. For the next week, we gave her cool baths and added Aveeno oatmeal powder to the water.
The doctor advised us to only let her stay in the bath for no longer than 10 minutes, which was so difficult because she loves to play with her dolls in the tub. After two weeks, she was finally about 80 percent, but they had field day at school, and the rash came back.
Now, we are being extra careful. She wears a hat when she is outside, we make sure she drinks plenty of water, and we apply a generous amount of sunscreen. We are also paying closer attention to shade breaks, heat exposure, and how her skin is reacting.
This Mother’s Day, I’m grateful my baby is OK. I’m also reminded that motherhood is not about knowing everything. It’s about learning, responding, advocating, and sharing what we learn so that another mom can be better prepared.
So before summer officially begins, pack the sunscreen, but also pack the hats, the cover-ups, the shade breaks, the water bottles, and the extra awareness.
Because protecting our children is not just love. It’s action.
Happy Mother’s Day to every mom learning as she goes.
This article was very needed as we gear up for
the coming summer break. Precaution and educating the significance of sun protection is crucial.