Hilarious photo proves kids and self-tanning lotion don't mix
There are quite a few reasons to keep kids away from fake tanning lotions, and a pair of cute boys proved one of them recently: They’ll make a mess.
Kyle Duffield, 2, and his 3-year-old friend Leo Riddell, of Scotland, have made headlines just by testing out one of their moms’ self-tanning product and making an adorable bronze mess in the process. Kyle’s mom, Billie Fotheringham, posted to Facebook a video and a photo in which the boys have brown and orange splotches all over them, making it look like they’re covered in dirt. One of the boys is naked, while the other wears a disastrously messy T-shirt. The product is smeared all over their hands, faces, and bodies.
The story has been featured in the local paper as well as in the Scottish Daily Mail, which explains that Fotheringham turned her back briefly before noticing that they were suspiciously silent. That’s when she found the fake-tanned boys — and bed sheets.
“They took the tan and hid it in the room,” Leo’s mom, Shirley Goodsir, told the Daily Mail. “Billie walked in and screamed because she didn’t know what it was to start with, until she found the empty tan bottle. The tan was all over the floor, over the covers and of course all over them. Then my son comes through with a perfectly tanned bum and says, ‘Kyle tanned my a**.’”
While this is undeniably cute and innocent fun, one shouldn’t ignore the fact that this should not be tried at home, as the cosmetics can be hazardous to a child’s skin.
A product found in self-tanning products, dihydroxyacetone (DHA), has not been proven safe for children.
“The active ingredient, DHA, in sunless tanners, although far safer than solar ultraviolet light for tanning in adults, has not demonstrated safety in children and should be avoided,” Nava Greenfield, M.D., of Schweiger Dermatology Group in Brooklyn, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “DHA appears to be safe for adults, despite that controversy around this product several years ago.” Greenfield explains that the tanner works by basically staining your skin without going past the first layer of skin, but that children, however, are different, as they are more delicate and still developing.
“Anything that is used on children has to be extensively tested to make sure it is safe, and therefore I would not recommend using a product like DHA on children until those tests have been performed and the safety has been verified,” she says.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
Can You Get a Spray Tan with Pre-Existing Skin Conditions? Dermatologists Weigh In
P!nk’s daughter, 7, now has purple hair. How safe is dye for kids?
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