I have a problem

I get obsessed over lot's of things. Who knew!

My latest obsession is over sunscreen. Yes. Sunscreen.

It all started innocently. The kid's preschool is providing their own sunscreen this year, at a low cost of $10 per child (which I have to admit is cheap...). But it is the "chemical" type of sunscreen.

Same ingredients as Water Babies, but I read too much, and so I have been pretty picky over the sunscreen I put on my kids the past two years. I get the natural brands that you find at health food stores. And it is really not that much more expensive.

So, I obsessed over this for a few hours on Friday. I even emailed PK to see what she thought, and she was really helpful...she pretty much let me come to my own conclusion that I should keep doing what I'm doing if it makes me feel better. I think she might have a shot at being a therapist, actually.

I called the preschool director for the third time in like an hour, and reluctantly she agreed that we could still bring in our own (like she had a CHOICE? Hello? They're MY kids!). But before I did this, I did a bit more research to make sure I wasn't being too pushy for no good reason. And holy crap. There is some scary stuff on the internet. But I digress. I came away convinced more than ever I was doing the right thing.

The problem is, in the process I re-educated myself on the two main physical ingredients: zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. And as it turns out, there is even a bit of controversy even within the two physical ingredient camps. Great. So more research. Confusion. Angst.

Finally, I came away convinced that the absolute best thing I could get is a sunscreen made of zinc oxide, if I wanted to be safer than safe. And, I realized, the past two years I've been getting ones made with titanium dioxide. I even realized that in a few cases of brands I had purchased (I like to experiment), they actually contained chemicals. Wolves in sheep's clothing.

Turns out even the health food stores carry some of those chemical-laden sunscreens, disguised in natural name-brand containers. You have to look for ones labeled "Chemical Free". And then you have to check which physical ingredient they have.

So, guess what? Not only are sunscreens made of zinc oxide hard to find, but they are damned expensive.

And guess how much time I've spent now researching and obsessing over this?

Yeah. Right. Go ahead and guess. But I'm NOT going to disclose it. That would be too humiliating.

And the saddest part of all, is that I still haven't purchased any. Here's the stuff I really want, but DAMN that is a lot of money to spend on sunscreen.

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UPDATE:

I found a zinc oxide product at a local healthstore today. It is SPF30, It smells nice and it rubs on clear, not white. AND... it is affordable, at $12.50 for a 6 oz tub (the cost at my local store). It is called Sierra Madre Sun Cream, and can be found here.

Also, somebody commented about Epicuren Zinc Oxide sunscreen, which also looks good. Unfortunately, it is even more expensive than UV Natural (the first one I found). But, if interested, you can find info on it here.

And finally... anyone interested in learning more about the use of zinc oxide as protection from the sun - I found a pretty good site here. There is, of course, ton's of information on the internet, some of it which is pretty radical. This one seemed tame, yet helpful, to me.