Hi Folks! Since to the marketing world I am an “influential mommy blogger,” I hear from a ton of companies pitching their products. Sometimes, they’re peddling something sensible. Usually, they’re peddling the idea that kids today are so fragile and needy, they absolutely cannot live without…whatever. It’s part of the pernicious idea that we have to buy, buy, buy and do, do, do more for our kids than ever before.
To counter that trend, I’m introducing  The tinhshdzsf
Hall of Ridiculousness. It will  highlight silly and/or unnecessary products peddled as necessities. So here’s our first entry, edited down from an email I got yesterday. Feel free to discuss whether kids have been truly “suffering” from a lack of these products till now:
Back to School Shopping for SafetyAs parents begin to shop around for classroom essentials, O2 COOL explains how to make your child’s safety on the top of the list.As the summer days begin to dwindle down, children (and parents) are reluctantly preparing for the upcoming school year.  Many parents assume that the end of summer means the end of sun protection however; children are still in danger of the intense heat even while at school. From recess play to extended outdoor field trips, children are especially vulnerable to suffering from dehydration and heat-related illnesses. O2 COOL, a leader in innovative cooling products, offers tips to keep you children safe throughout the school year. ÂRecessAfter a rambunctious recess break, it’s important that a child cools down before entering the classroom to promote attentiveness that will last for the rest of the school day. One of the quickest ways to cool the body down is by circulating the still air. O2 COOL’s Clip-On Fan is the perfect solution for children, it’s soft blades are safe for a child’s fingers. The built in clip on the bottom of the fan allows you to clip the fan anywhere you need it to be, whether on a backpack or lunch box.ÂField TripsFor those days with extended periods exposed to the sun, staying hydrated isn’t enough. For complete protection, the body needs to cool both inside and out. O2 Cool’s Mist ‘N Sip begins where most water bottles end. Its separate misting chambers allow you to fill the bottle with any drink of choice while misting with fresh, cool water. The Mist ‘N Sip not only replenishes the body, it keep skin hydrated and cool.ÂÂPlease contact me for more information or to obtain a sample product for your publications.Â
I thought schools didn’t do recess anymore. I doubt children anywhere are moving enough to break into a sweat that warrants the use of a carabiner with a battery powered twirling foam. Don’t children today have hands they can wave? They’re at school, maybe they have a piece of paper they could fold into a fan instead. The water bottle that subtly suggests that water isn’t good enough to drink, is good enough to mist on your child makes me rage. How long before schools outlaw because it shoots water?
When our kids overheat at school (love our small school), the teachers tell them to soak their heads and faces in water and “take a breather” in the shade!
On one field trip to White Sands, they filled a plastic sled with water and let the kids flop down in it.
I can’t think of what this company would think of our rodeos. Kids have been known to (gasp) sink themselves in the stock tanks!
I thought the same thing @derpedoo. I’d rather my child cool themselves off by drinking water and not misting themselves with it. Works better, and longer, if not faster.
The products look ok to me. (I’d sort of like Mist N’Sip for myself!)
It’s the Marketing that’s beyond-silly.
Or you could buy a $1 spray bottle at your local big box store and fill it full of water to squirt on yourself, which is what my daughter does when she plays summer softball here in Texas (where the temperature is routinely close to, if not above 100 degrees in the summer and you can soak your shirt with sweat walking to the mailbox). She also wets a bandana and ties it around her neck. Most schools here are air conditioned anyway, so the kids are going to cool down after entering the building. But really, hydration is the essential ingredient of surviving the heat. I’d rather the kids put the water in themselves, then on themselves. This is just more plastic headed for a landfill.
Lenore, you’re missing the big picture here.
You’re an influential mommy blogger. Mommy bloggers get paid to work advertisements into their blog posts (I’m reminded of the smart diaper blog post You linked to).
You’ve got kids approaching college age.
We’ll all understand. Just try not to vomit as you endorse the product of the week. 😉
I agree — WTH is up with a “heat safety” product that encourages kids to NOT drink water? That is quite possibly the dumbest thing I have ever heard.
Yeah, it’s the marketing that’s so awful. We use squirt bottles to keep cool in the summer and they’re great, but I’d go out of my way to avoid buying something that was advertised like this.
And yet somehow my child survived two school years in her unairconditioned school in the South Pacific without these things. I don’t know how we managed.
Its a perfectly ok semi-useless product. Something you’d see ppl hawking at parades & fairs & trade shows. It will break in like a week. But to play into the unfounded fears of parents, to sell a junky dollar store quality item is pathetic.
My kid is very active at school. They are outside a good 25% of the school day. In May & June, the entire school does a running program. He’s 5 & ran 31KM in 6 weeks 🙂 Kids drink from water bottles brought from home or the water fountains. His kindie teacher had a regular spray bottle, filled with water that she would spray on the kids.
“One of the quickest ways to cool the body down is by circulating the still air.” Wow. Who knew.
Actually, I think that product is for the teachers….have you ever had a group of sweaty, smelly kids (particularly in the 9-11 yr range) come into class??? (shewww)
🙂
Why do I have the feeling that the vast majority of the schools in this country would allow neither product — talk about wasted money!
We have a couple of these that I think my kids won somewhere as a prize…they like them mainly to play with because the squirt each other and they are different than the many other play old water bottles that we have for sports, camp etc. However I think they are expensive for a silly water and the misting trigger is easily broken. They definitely do NOT need them for school.
Apologies…not typing well in the previous post.
i like that cute little fan clip thing. i’m a big baby when it comes to heat (i feel like i might melt every summer – lol!) so i might like this for myself.
i survived field trips when i was a kid, and my kids will survive field trips now. no clip-on fans necessary. 🙂
Exactly, Jet. My first thought was, “Oh, yes, I’m sure the teachers really want the kids messing with fans and squirting themselves after recess. So conducive to getting settled and ready for the classroom again.”
Becky, the thing is that cute little clip fans have existed for a long time. But now we have a marketing genius making it a “must have so your kid survives school” thing.
Oh, and like it’s going to be used for squirting THEMSELVES? Riiiiiiiiggggghhhhhht.
We had little foam fans on a stick when I was a kid. Some of them even attached to spray bottles. They were practically useless for cooling off, (that’s what folding paper was for) but they were great fun to stick your fingers into. Needless to say the teachers had a 6th sense for those and would tell you to put it away the moment it came out of the back pack. They quickly lost their appeal even for sticking one’s fingers in.
I do appreciate a cold mist, though. But I wouldn’t want some battery operated misting device like this thing appears to be. The last time I needed a cool mist, our power was out for 5 days in the heat of summer. Last thing I needed then was another thing to eat batteries.
I don’t think this is so bad. Yes, kids survived without it, but in Arizona they go back to school August 5 and it will be 100+ degrees every day for two more months. And the misting does make the heat more bearable.
But, as pentamom said, “like it’s going to be used for squirting THEMSELVES??” Ha! Doubtful!
Our 6 year old son actually does get heat exhaustion extremely easily and has since he was 2. As in, we got a call during his kindergarten year that he’d overheated in P.E. It was 49 degrees. (And when I say heat exhaustion, I mean the full blown symptoms: fainting, vomiting, severe headaches, etc). So he’s had to take a few extra odd precautions (and I might even check into the above, as absurd as it may seem). But, we need to figure out a better solution and hopefully figure out a root cause soon because it’s not easy. Or normal. So these types of measures are silly for the masses. But not silly enough for me to mock the lot of children as puny in general.
Of course some Supersoakers during recess would be much more effective…
LOL, can you see the kids, debating if they are hot enough to use them, because they know it is damn uncomfortable sitting in air conditioning in wet clothes.
@angelgirl
The whole issue is the marketing approach. That it is a safety device, and that your kids are useless in class if they don’t use the device. As for your son, there is most likely a correctabe medical problem making him so heat sensitive.
@Dana
Yes misting makes the heat more bearable, but it can also cause problems. It makes the surface feel cooler, but does absolutely nothing for internal body temps. It also dilutes the effectiveness of sunscreen.
In other words it can make you feel cooler, allowing you to expose yourself to the sun and heat longer, which is not the best course of action.
Hats, sunscreen, lots of water, and knowing your limits are the best ways to combat heat.
I’m in Texas. I encourage my kids to bring refillable water bottles. We have 30 min recess everyday, and we go out even when it is hitting 100. We do cut a couple minutes off on those days so the kids can cool of by washing their faces and arms off, before lunch. Most of the boys and girls with short hair stick their heads in the sink. As long as they aren’t dripping all over the floor we don’t care. Honestly a fan or waterbottle that squirts water are probably going to be taken up and student told to keep it at home from now on.
At our school the kids are more likely to complain they are freeeeeeezing from the ac, Than that they are hot, except right after recess and PE.
How did I survive childhood?!
Schools had no air conditioning (and often very little heat btw) and they didn’t close for excessively temperature like they do these days. We could get a drink from the fountain only before or after school and at lunch/recess. Unless there was an electrical storm recess was outside, in the sun! We could only go to the bathroom at the same times unless it was an emergency, then you had to stand up and announce your need to go to the class so you prayed that didn’t happen. Our lunches sat uncooled in our lockers and they often contained chicken, eggs and/or mayo and a GLASS!!! thermos of milk
How did the human species ever survive through thousands of years without these kinds of products?
I’m impressed that some of you have air conditioning in classrooms. As to these ‘products’, they would definitely be banned in our local schools – I can see the portable fan being the ultimate tool for disturbing one’s neighbour. Imagine the long hair you could tangle in it! As for misting yourself, my school kids usually lift their caps and just pour drink bottle water straight on their heads. Works well, no battery required. :-).
I have to agree with others that I think teachers would ban these fast.
My kids’ school allows them to have water bottles at their desks, and for those who don’t, there’s the drinking fountain. Bottles have to be clear, so the teachers can see that it’s water and not juice, soda, etc., I suspect so that any spills are easier to clean up. My kids mostly don’t bother, as they find the drinking fountain convenient enough.
Sorry, I’ve got to correct some inaccurate assumptions by a few posters and get on my chemical engineering soapbox. Misting absolutely will help you cool off, absolutely will lower your internal body temperature. How? The same way that your body does via sweating.
It’s called evaporative cooling. The water on your skin needs thermal energy to turn into a vapor. This causes a drop in temperature on your skin in order for that to occur, and your internal body temperature via heat transfer. You don’t drink water to bring down the temperature of your body, you drink it to enable yourself to continue sweating, which will bring down your body temperature.
Ironically, if you get more evaporative cooling from this mister than body sweat, it’s probably better in terms of heat stroke because you’re not losing as much salt as you would from only sweat. That is, if the cheap plastic parts don’t break within the first 30 seconds of use.
Ok, down from the soapbox. Carry on!
As a mom of a 7 year old boy all I see is a weapon of annoyance to be used on other students. You wouldn’t ‘mist’ yourself with this, you’d ‘mist’ the other kids.
Where I would use this? DisneyWorld. That place is SO hot no matter when you go.
It’s a silly way to promote the product, but it is something I might buy. I don’t handle heat well at all, being a northerner born and bred, so temperatures above 80 degrees are highly unpleasant for me, and any physicial activity in temperatures in the 90s will put me into full-blown heat stroke. Though I generally prefer to stay inside with air conditioning on such days (and wonder what the hell posessed me to move to an area where hot days are not occasional occurence just before a thunderstorm hits but can last weeks on end).
Nice try Natalie. Your conclusions are wrong. Occasional misting will not act in the same way as sweating. Chemical engineering explains alot though. Never met an engineer that had an ounce of common sense. Just alot of over thinking, with no results.
Warren, you could be nicer.
I’d throw this in the hall, too:
https://www.livingsocial.com/cities/1-washington-d-c/deals/717392-dna-child-protection-kit?afsrc=1&id=717392-dna-child-protection-kit&utm_campaign=digest_familiesdigest&utm_content=7&utm_medium=email&utm_source=blast
Hmmm…
First sentence: sarcasm.
Second: an opinion
Third: an assertion
Fourth: hey, that sentence is absolutely true when taken out of context!
Fifth: opinion, confirmational bias, stereotyping, insult
Sixth: opinion, insult
Yeah, pretty typical.
But you are a constant source of unintentional hilarity.
In short, look it up warren. Evaporative cooling.
Another thing–why do back-to-school ads have to start so freaking EARLY?!?!?! My brother saw one on July 2nd, when the schools here in Ontario had their last day on June 23rd.
I would like to nominate this product for the Hall of Ridiculousness: http://www.mypeepeebottle.com/
At first, I thought it was a parody website, but it appears to be a legitimate product. I don’t know why anyone would buy one though.
@Jenn
Wait, you mean you don’t want to collect your child’s pee in a bottle? You’d rather use a (gasp!) public toilet? (eeeeeek!) What’s wrong with you?
Look, it’s even color coded lest you make a horrible faux pax and allow your girl to pee into the BOY bottle. Girls have to pee into PINK bottles.
btw – if there were a competition to find the most ridiculous product, you win. I can’t see anyone topping this. (if it’s a legit product)
Sorry Natalie you are absolutely correct, the unfortunate aspect is that for you to be correct, the child would have to contnuously be misting him or herself.
Occassional surface relief, may feel good, but it can cause harm to, if one does not monitor themselves. Which most young children cannot, when their bodies are getting the artificial relief. The feel good, stay out longer, stay in the sun longer, and so on.
If Natalie you knew anything about internal body temps, you would know that occassionally spritzin yourself with a mist of water, won’t do squat for your internal temps.
And no S, I have dealt with engineers alot, and Natalie is no different. All planning, thinking, analysis and rechecking, and by that time real workers already have the job done. Far too many times you hear an engineer start a statement with, “Well on paper…….”
Natalie, I’m not an engineer, but intuitively, I think Warren may be right (about the main point, not about how he said it!!)
Remember that human bodies are heat-generating machines themselves, plus you have to deal with human psychology, not mere physics as with inanimate objects. Does evaporative cooling a little bit at a time now and then really counter-act the constant heat generation of the human body, which may already be operating at an excessive internal temperature? And on the psychology point, I tend to think Warren’s on to something when he points out that it may make kids “feel” cool but not actually cool their bodies meaningfully, which could lead them to overactivity or under-hydration in the meantime.
So absolutely I understand the idea of evaporative cooling, I just think it might not apply so simply to human systems.
Mostly, though, I still stick to my point about how this isn’t a really great need. I concede that there are a few places where school is in session unusually early and it is unusually hot (the Arizona desert and school calendar being clearly exceptional both in climate and calendar) but if the kids are not dropping like flies already it is presumably because the people who live there understand their climate and were not waiting desperately for this product to come along — they already knew how to compensate in other ways. 😉
All the products are about entrepreneurs trying to make a living by telling us we need more stuff. But those calling you are just lumping you into a “mommy blog” group they assume are hyper focused on safety. In this case, they don’t understand their audience.
Perhaps they ought to tailor their products better to meet the free-range philosophy. How about those old metal canteens? Oh, I know! Chemistry sets that are really fun and let you blow stuff up!
By the way, we also got hot in school. We folded paper to make fans. A kid would probably get teased with a clip-on fan–even today.
They have missed the real target audience! I’m spending this incredibly hot summer in my third trimester of pregnancy- I need one of those things, not the kids I work with, who simply use whatever’s handy to soak themselves!
We have acquired versions of both those things which are mainly used to make watching baseball tournaments in July more bearable. If nothing else my littler one could amuse herself fanning and spritzing. The marketing copy is so silly, almost like an exercise/ assignment “take whatever object you see lying around and come up with a creative way to sell it”. (Maybe I watched toouch tv in the 80’s but I think that is a “thing”)
And silly markeiting and products aside, i am surprised here to see a stance of “let’s not let science or facts get in the way of our opinions”.
Hahaha. Got a good chuckle from reading the email ad. Thanks for sharing.
Just read about my peepee bottle. The best part is that you can personalize it!
@Pentamom –
The ONLY way humans naturally cool down is through evaporative cooling. Sweating and panting are nothing more than evaporative cooling. Essentially internal body temperature is dropped when liquid, usually in the form of sweat, evaporates from the skin.
Adding additional water to evaporate would enhance the evaporative cooling already occurring (in practice humidity level of the air plays a part in this too). This is why first aid for heat stroke is to wet the person and then fan their body. However, I highly doubt that an occasional spritz from this bottle gets you anywhere.
But it also doesn’t cause any damage. It is possible, in long term exposure situations, that you could get dehydrated because the water source and spritzing source are the same so there would be less water to drink if you are spritzing but this is certainly not going to happen during school recess.
As for sunscreen, if an occasional spritz is dangerously washing off your sunscreen, how is it lasting through all that sweat? (I realize that you didn’t mention sunscreen but Warren did).
And for what it’s worth, there is good science backing up the value of misting water onto skin to prevent or treat heat stroke. But as Lenore has already pointed out, this particular product ad targeting overly-cautious parents is beyond ridiculous.
I agree the human body attempts to cool itself thru evaporative cooling, and it is such an effective method. So effective that humans no longer suffer heat strokes, heat exhaustion, dehydration or complications do to heat. Oh wait, yes we do.
Misting yourself in the face and neck does nothing more than give you a quick moment of relief. So unless you are going to undress, to access the best areas to cool your core temp, don’t kid yourself that you are battling heat caused illness.
And Donna, alot of pre puberty kids do not sweat, so yes misting is going to dilute the sunscreen. I never said it would wash it off, but it will dilute it.
I am not saying these things shouldn’t be used. But they should be used carefully. Just because you misted and don’t feel as hot anymore, doesn’t mean you are not hot.
False sense of security can be dangerous. Just ask anyone that has gotten a sunburn on an overcast day, or in the middle of winter.
Haha! I went to the zoo with my nieces and they all had the misting bottles. It was 100 degrees and we were all fighting over them. Can’t wait to go to sporting goods store and buy my own! They were fun and cooling but didn’t save our lives or anything : )
Donna, I agree, but I meant the marginal effect of a few spritzes of water on a body that is failing to cool itself by sweating (which is far more effective) is not significant enough to counteract a rising body temp. Sorry I was unclear.
And I didn’t really mean the thing was “dangerous,” I just meant that any small marginal benefit from spritzing might be counteracted by a false sense of cooling that prevented you from slowing down or drinking more when you needed to. Not enough to cause dangerous dehydration or heatstroke, maybe, but enough to make a few spritzes completely pointless on balance.
I don’t at all mean to suggest that spritzing yourself doesn’t feel good, isn’t cooling — I walked a 5K last week on a very hot evening and eagerly walked under the hoses of the neighbors who were sharing. 🙂 I just meant that this is yet another “probably not worth it and certainly doesn’t live up to its marketing because what it does is not really much” kind of thing.
“there is good science backing up the value of misting water onto skin to prevent or treat heat stroke.”
Sure, but I imagine that’s a much more intensive effort than a kid squirting himself a couple of times with a water bottle. And if it’s more than that, if they’re spending the whole recess standing around squirting themselves, then there isn’t much point to the recess, either.
We live in Scottsdale where, during the first and last months of school it can be in the 100’s daily. Ironically, our schools are air conditioned to the point of FREEZING. If it’s hot enough here for kids to need to be misted, they should not be outside running around. In the desert, heat exhaustion is a real problem, not an overprotective parent’s imagination. But hydration is the most important thing….ingesting water, not spraying it on.
I lived in a hot climate (maxed out at 122F degrees) for many years, mostly without air conditioning. So how did I stay cool? Wet and wring out a T-shirt and put it on. Voila, instant portable swamp cooler. Works great.
I wonder what the marketing brigade will come up with for winter… pinkie warmers, in case your little lovely has to walk more than 10 feet to school??
pretty sure our district would ban both of these as nuisance items and distractions… thanks goodness!
@Pentamom-
Honestly, you should just start every post with “I have 5 kids beeyotch! All hail me!” And we’ll defer because few few people can do what you do.
You don’t need to be an engineer to understand how evaporative cooling works. If you read howstuffworks.com or maybe wikipedia, it should give you a pretty good jargon-free answer. It’s actually pretty interesting (coming from someone who enjoys thermodynamics, so take that with a grain of salt), and the concept isn’t just used to cool off people. You’ll be surprised at how effective evaporative cooling is. It’s amazing what a little heat of vaporization can do. Using an outside source of water in addition to sweat has some additional advantages in that it doesn’t deplete your salts (also a cause of heat stroke), and doesn’t use up your internal water supply as fast.
@Warren
We had quite a few posters leave comments that, without getting into the details of each and every one, clearly showed that they don’t know how our bodies cool down, or what the purpose of sweating is. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t consider people to be weak-willed because they don’t know every single thing on the planet.
So then we get to your latest rant (wow, you have issues with engineers too, in addition to the rest of the world). The engineer must have disagreed with you.
Which leads me to the first part of your post about… what?
What in the world are you talking about? The occasional spritz? Only the face and neck? Who is talking about these things? Who is talking about using this product at all? You are. Not me.
You want to qualify my post with things I haven’t said so that you can keep that oh-so-fragile ego of yours from breaking? Go ahead. But it’s not me you’re arguing with.
See Warren, this is what’s called a straw man. You are trying to save face so you set up an argument which is easy to knock down, regardless of what the other person has said.
Also, so we can get back to the original point of the post:
I found this: The Tinkle Tube!
http://www.babyrockapparel.com/tinkletube.html
And Potty Mitts! Oven mitts, for the potty!
http://macandcool.com/potty.php?t=Potty%20Mitts
“Honestly, you should just start every post with “I have 5 kids beeyotch! All hail me!†And we’ll defer because few few people can do what you do.”
Whaaaaa??????? I have NO idea where that came out of. The point of my screen name is not to flaunt anything, it’s a name I picked years and years ago because it describes me and I couldn’t think of anything more interesting. (Also because I came across an Octomom online at the time — long before the whole Nadya Suleman thing — and thought it was cute.) I didn’t intend to assert superiority or superior in any of my comments — I though we were having a conversation, and I was explaining what I thought. The only time I can recall saying something about having the experience five kids was when a recent conversation devolved into some silliness about who knew more than who based on how many kids for how long and I decided to join the absurdity to make fun of it.
“You don’t need to be an engineer to understand how evaporative cooling works.”
Yeah, I know. I meant to say that I understand about evaporative cooling, but my “not an engineer” point was to express that I’m not an expert and presumably have some gaps in my knowledge in the finer points . You took that as “All hail me! You must defer!”??????
You might have just explained where I’m wrong without taking my mere existence as an attack, because I never intended to attack your understanding at all.
Sorry about the typing errors and missed words above — I hope it make enough sense.
Many kids on outdoor sports teams use the water bottle.
@pentamom-
That wasn’t meant as an insult. We REALLY have a communication problem. I think that part of it is you cant see my facial expressions or hear the tone of my voice.
It was more along the lines of, you go girl, you’ve got 5 kids and that’s awesome. The hyperbole was supposed to make you laugh, so our senses of humor are different? I wrote it because of your comment about not being an engineer, meaning, “so what? You don’t need to be.”
This is where you say, ” are you a comedienne?”
And I say, “no.”
And you say, “good, don’t quit your day job.”
Put it this way Natalie, everyone else was talking basically about kids and this product. If you want to lecture and educate the masses………..start your own site.
You want to talk about bullcrap………..when called on the effectiveness of evaporative cooling and the human body, when called on the actual method and effectiveness of this product, you run like a scared rabbit…………you now claim you were just educating the masses and not speaking on topic.
So yes guess what………..an egineer caught wrong and trying to cover their ass. Your version of “Well on paper it looks …….”
@Reziac
The wet shirt is fantastic, because it lasts longer than misting, it covers a larger area, the area it covers contains major temp regulating spots on the body, and as the shirt dries it acts as an indicator.
Yes Warren, you go right ahead. Pat yourself on the back for knocking down a straw man. I’ll go get some popcorn while you engage in a pissing contest with yourself.
May i recommend the peepee bottle?
Warren, human physiology is not your strong suit.
ALL people sweat, even newborn babies. Post-pubescent people sweat more, but everyone sweats throughout their entire lives. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t survive to be post-pubescent as they would have no ability to regulate body temperature. What young children don’t do is stink to high heaven (although I am sure that some elementary school teachers will disagree with me). That is a result of hormones and the activation of different sweat glands, not an absence of sweat in younger years.
Misting is not going to dilute sunscreen any more than the sweat already present. If your sunscreen is that weak, I’d suggest you get different sunscreen. Mine works just fine through substantial adult sweating, swimming, and, yes, even misting. Of course it has to be reapplied every couple hours but misting doesn’t increase the need for reapplication any more than the sweating and swimming does.
Jumping in late…As my name implies, I am a runner. I have run, and finished, 5 marathons and close to 20 half-marathons. For warm weather races the prevailing advice at the water points is to drink at least one cup of water (mixed with sports drink in half-marathons and marathons to prevent hyponatremia) and take another cup of water and pour it over your head. Some long races issue sponges to the runners and have buckets at the water points where they can dip the sponge and use it to cool off. But drinking enough is always stressed in warm weather races. By both drinking and pouring water on yourself, you are cooling your body on both the inside and outside. Running with wet hair and a wet shirt from water that dripped off my head feels great on a warm day.
I grew up in Los Angeles, where it is hot in the summer and early fall. When I went to school, there was no air conditioning. During recess or lunch (we had a long lunch period so we had time to eat and play) when the weather was warm, we used the school’s drinking fountains. We did not need our own personal water bottles. Somehow we were able to figure out that we needed a drink and walked over to the water fountain. When it was really hot, we would go into the bathrooms and splash water from the sinks on our faces and arms. I’m sure that water fountains now have been banned because they could contain germs from so many people using them. Thus the reason that kids “need” their own water bottle with sprayer.
If you want to nominate more products for the Hall of Ridiculousness, here are some more:
Baby knee pads
Helmets for kids learning to walk
The backpack for kids up to 60 pounds.
Natalie — in all sincerity, great, I’m glad that was meant in fun. I’m sorry I misunderstood and reacted. We’re good, I guess we just have to both be careful to not overinterpret one another. As long as each of us is willing to clarify if there’s a misunderstanding, we should get alone fine. Here’s to future amicable discussions. 🙂
Don’t worry about misunderstanding, it came out of left field. I misunderstand comments as well. And yes, here’s to more amicable discussions, what a great sentiment.
Sorry Donna, I should have said they don’t sweat like post puberty. My error.
They sweat, but alot less. Thus making them more vulnerable to heat illnesses.
Do you realize your logic is slightly off? Misting won’t dilute sunscreen anymore than your sweat. Im sorry, my logic tells me that anytime you add more water to anything you are dilluting it.
Warren – The point is that sunscreen meant to withstand SWIMMING is not going to be rendered ineffective by sweat and misting. Sunscreen meant to withstand adult sweat is not going to be detailed by child sweat and misting. If you are legitimately concerned about your sunscreen being fully effective if you use this product, your sunscreen is the problem, not this product.
Derailed, not detailed.
Sunscreens can’t withstand sweat, water, swimming, etc, unfortunately. I wish they could. Reapplying sunblock when you’re all wet and sandy is the worst. Even if it says water-sweat proof. It’s just misleading advertising. The sunblock eventually loses adhesion to the skin.
The water/sweat proof products just buy you more time, but not much more. They even recommend reapplying directly after leaving the water.
If you can find an adhesive to add which will keep sunblock on despite sweat/water/etc, you, your family and friends can retire now.
@Donna
What I am getting at
Kids playing in park, all prepped beforing heading out. They on and off mist themselves during the day. Giving them the false sense of being cooler than they are, while at the same time lessening the effectiveness of their sunscreen. Because of the false sense of cooling, possibly stay out longer, with less protection.
This isn’t a bunch of adults around a pool, where one will point out that you are getting a little red on the face or shoulders or wherever. Which brings up the fact that even adults forget about reapplying or time unprotected when busy.
Personally I do not worry about sunscreen as I do not use it. My wife and kids do, but I do not. But my fairer daughter burns at the drop of a hat, and always carries the spray on sunscreen, to do touch ups.
@Rae – you beat me to posting about that wacky DNA kit. The marketing copy is ALL ABOUT scaring/guilting parents: “Your job to protect your child is never complete [never, never, ever. Never]. Keep your little one’s DNA profile close at hand with ChildProtect by DNAâ„¢, the only fingerprinting kit that offers a revolutionary DNA genetic fingerprint to give you the peace of mind that comes with protecting your child.”
God forbid they should need this stuff, because I don’t think DNA records “protect” your child, so much as identify evidence or remains. CSI could show up at any time and collect fresh fingerprints of my little darling on the walls/windows/mirrors, and DNA is probably available all over the dirty dishes, dirty laundry, or that partially-eaten sandwich that is on a plate in the fridge……
Warren, I got your point from the first post. I thought your point was ridiculous then and I think it is ridiculous many posts later. This is a silly product that has minimal, if any, effect in truly cooling the body. But it is also not something that needs to be treated with caution. It is basically a toy and nothing more.
And the spritzer doesn’t lessen the effect of the sunscreen in the least. That was my point which you’ve chosen to ignore. Sunscreen needs to be reapplied every 1.5 hours or so. Using a spritzer doesn’t hasten the need to reapply, nor does not using a spritzer mean that you can stay in the sun for longer without reapplying. If you don’t follow that basic tenet of sunscreen use, any resulting sunburn is not because you spritzed. (And once you are noticeably pink, you are already burnt. It is time to get out of the sun and not just reapply sunscreen).
You know what Donna, for an educated woman, you can really be stupid. Either stupid or just tunnel visioned on arguing.
If you cannot see how applying water to a sunsreen body will affect the sunscreen, and if you do not understand that the immediate relief from the heat can cause a false sense of exposure……………..then all I can say is good luck with life,as you deal with your mental disability. By your logic, drinking alcohol to warm you up is harmless.
@Natalie – I fully understand that sunscreens don’t last on the body forever. They don’t really last for long at all.
Warren’s assertion was that the use of this spritzer causes sunscreen to be less effective and is, therefore a hazard to our health. My point was that your typical water-proof sunscreen is not going to punk out on a playground because you are using a spritzer any quicker than it would if you were not using a spritzer. Sunscreen doesn’t permanently adhere to the body, but it also doesn’t wash off at first spritz and if it did, it would be completely ineffective because we produce more water through sweat than is added by spritzing.
Thanks Donna, I have my answer.
Ah, i see.
Agreed, it’s not a health hazard.
Gonna leave this Donna. Simple logic and basic human behaviour is lost on you.
Has anyone else noticed a pattern here? It seems like, a lot of the time, people agree that the new product, “uber-safety” policy, or whatever, in any given day’s article, is stupid, but then it devolves into a full-blown argument over WHY it’s stupid. Okay, so, maybe the (probably overpriced) misting bottle washes off sunscreen, or maybe it doesn’t, and either way, I don’t think it’s a big enough issue to start insulting people’s intelligence over. However, we all agree that the misting bottle is a dumb idea, because kids are likely to use them as water guns, and spritz each other with them. We all agree that we wouldn’t buy one, except in a special case for a child who was extremely sensitive to the heat. So, isn’t that enough? I’m not saying that we have to agree on everything, but when the “free range” community starts infighting all the time, then we’re doing what we accuse the bubble-wrap brigade of doing–a lot of the bubble-wrappers are always trying to be better, safer, and more vigilant than one another, and yet, some people here constantly try to prove that they’re the “most” free-range, often in a really vicious and insulting way.
“Kids playing in park, all prepped beforing heading out. They on and off mist themselves during the day. Giving them the false sense of being cooler than they are, while at the same time lessening the effectiveness of their sunscreen. Because of the false sense of cooling, possibly stay out longer, with less protection.”
But this is being marketed as a back-to-school product.
So the reality of it: kids get prepped before going to school, the sun block has worn off by recess and the school does not allow them to bring in any to apply more, and the time they can stay out is limited no matter how they feel. They have to stay out for 30 minutes even if they feel like they’re getting heat exhaustion and sunburn; they have to come back in when the 30 minutes is over even if they want to keep playing more and haven’t burned off all the energy that is going to cause them to be rowdy in the classroom for the rest of the day.
Y’all might look up anhidrosis or hypohidrosis. These devices can come in handy for people with the problem. We’ve had them around the house for about 12 years (different manufacturer) and they have to be used liberally to be effective. Pragmatically, when out and about the areas are neck, face, and lower forearm to also cool the blood flowing in those areas to get to the core.
I have family members with the latter, though thankfully one has turned a corner now and sweats sufficiently.
I agree with Warren that the most effective method is the wet shirt. I was the only guy in the neighborhood mowing the lawn at a 110 deg F in long-sleeves, fully buttoned, wearing long pants, and a straw hat. The other guys were in shorts, tees, and ball caps sweating like crazy. I had to take the shirt off to warm up.
The sales campaign is just bad.
Forgot the neck wraps that used ice or endothermic crystals, they are fairly effective.
Emily — you make good points. I think the arguments over “why” it’s wrong get started because one person offers a theory, and then someone else, instead of merely saying, “Yes, that might be it, but also this…” or even “I don’t think that’s a problem, but…” shows up and tells the first person they’re stupid and don’t know anything. Or maybe it’s the third person who does it to the second, but you see my point: the argument doesn’t start because people have different ideas about what the worst aspect of the thing is, but because the discussion doesn’t stay civil. Once people are challenged in an uncivil way, it’s hard to resist making it an argument, because you want to prove you’re not the idiot the other person says you are.
You know, I’m interested in all the comments about the mister being used for waterfights instead of its intended purpose. At first, I thought I wouldn’t buy such a thing for a child of mine (since it’s silly) but after having so many point out that this is a more likely use, I think I would buy one. In fact, maybe I’ll buy one for every student in my school. I’d love to see them spritzing each other in class, or on free time.