Newborns get sunlight exposure daily primarily to help their bodies produce Vitamin D, crucial for strong bones, teeth, and a healthy immune system, with short periods in morning/late afternoon sun (10-30 mins) being sufficient and helping with conditions like mild jaundice. While beneficial for development, prolonged direct sun is harmful, so it's balanced with sun protection like hats and shade to prevent sunburn and skin cancer, often via indirect light or brief, controlled exposure.
The usual recommendation is 15-30 minutes a day between the hours of 7am and 9am, or early morning sun. Parents are asked to cover the child's eyes (to prevent exposure to UV rays), cover the child's genital area (also for UV protection), and to sun both front and back of the child.
Here's what can happen if your little one misses out on enough sunshine: ☀️ Vitamin D Deficiency – Sunlight helps the body make vitamin D, which is key for strong bones. 🦴 Rickets Risk – Without enough vitamin D, babies can develop soft, weak bones (yes, it's as serious as it sounds).
[1] Vitamin D synthesized in the skin by ultraviolet (UV) rays of the sun has been considered to meet nearly 90% of the daily requirement. [2] It has been suggested that sunlight exposure for approximately 15–30 min twice or thrice a week is sufficient to produce the required amount of vitamin D.
Indirect sunlight: it can help to expose the baby to indirect sunlight for 20-30 minutes a day, with your baby inside the house. Make sure the baby is well-fed: if babies do not eat well, they can become dehydrated, causing the bilirubin to increase.
Daily sun exposure is very beneficial for a child's overall development. Sunbathing helps newborns absorb sunlight, produce enough vitamin D that the body needs, reduce rickets, and treat neonatal jaundice. Moreover, sunbathing for newborns also helps prevent diaper rash, as sunlight has an antibacterial effect.
Symptoms Newborn jaundice
If your baby has jaundice, their skin will look slightly yellow. Changes in skin colour can be more difficult to see if your baby has brown or black skin. Yellowing may be more obvious elsewhere, such as: in the whites of their eyes.
Parents should take the opportunity to let their babies sunbathe before 7 a.m. to avoid the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays on their children's sensitive skin. The ideal time for sunbathing is between 6 and 7 a.m. when the sun has just risen with its first rays.
If babies and young children don't get enough vitamin D, they might have poor growth, develop joint pains and are at risk of a bone disease called rickets, which can lead to osteomalacia in adults.
Too much ultraviolet (UV) radiation can cause sunburn, skin and eye damage, and skin cancer. Overexposure to UV during childhood and adolescence is a major factor in determining future skin cancer risk[1][2][3][4]. A baby's skin is sensitive and can burn easily.
The 7 key danger signs for newborns, often highlighted by organizations like the WHO, are not feeding well, convulsions, fast breathing, severe chest indrawing, lethargy/unconsciousness (movement only when stimulated), high or low temperature, and jaundice (yellow skin/soles) or signs of local infection like an infected umbilical stump, requiring immediate medical attention.
Signs of heat stroke in children may include:
Infant sunlight exposure in their early infancy is essential for the cutaneous synthesis of vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent due to inadequate exposure to sunlight. In Ethiopia, one in thirteen children had rickets, which could be prevented by sunlight exposure or supplementation.
"But we want to be mindful of their developing immune systems, especially in the first eight weeks of life." Healthy babies don't typically need to wait any amount of time between birth and going outside, but be sure to double check with baby's pediatrician just in case.
Keep babies out of direct sunlight either in a stroller with a hood or canopy, under an umbrella or in a heavily shaded spot. Long walks are best in the early morning or late afternoon. Limit sun exposure for long periods with an infant between 11 am and 3 pm, and especially around noon.
Do infants get enough vitamin D from breast milk? No. Breast milk alone does not provide infants with enough vitamin D. Shortly after birth, most breastfed infants will need an additional source of vitamin D through a supplement.
Here are 10 unexpected signs of a vitamin D deficiency that may surprise you.
While early vitamin D deficiency may not show symptoms, severe deficiency can lead to: Poor growth. Rickets – symptoms include refusal to walk or delayed walking, leg pain, swelling of wrists and ankles and delayed closure of soft spot on an infant's head.
Treatment for newborn jaundice is not usually needed because the symptoms normally pass within 10 to 14 days, although they can occasionally last longer. Treatment is usually only recommended if tests show very high levels of bilirubin in a baby's blood.
Babies under 6 months old should be kept out of direct sunlight. Older babies should also be kept out of the sun as much as possible, particularly in the summer and between 11am and 3pm, when the sun is at its strongest.
It is recommended for the baby's room to have natural light and good ventilation. Curtains and shutters help to regulate the amount of light so that it is not bothersome or harmful to children.
Unconjugated or indirect bilirubin: This pigment is increased mostly in infants with neonatal jaundice. It is the bilirubin associated with normal destruction of older red blood cells. This is called physiologic jaundice. The baby's urine is usually light yellow and the stool color is mustard yellow or darker.
Your baby may be placed under a special lamp that emits light in the blue-green spectrum. The light changes the shape and structure of bilirubin molecules in such a way that they can be excreted in both the urine and stool. During treatment, your baby will wear only a diaper and protective eye patches.
About 1 in 50 breastfed babies get jaundiced for a prolonged period of time. This happens later in their first week of life. It peaks at about 2 weeks of age. It can last 3 to 12 weeks.