Summer suggestions for your medicine cabinet and beach bag
Pools, playgrounds and picnics are all part of summer outdoor fun. However, the joys of summer travel and activities can bring occasional health mishaps. Over-the-counter remedies can help provide quick relief and keep the good times rolling.
To inform your choices, check out U.S. News’s Best OTC Medicine and Health Products to treat common seasonal issues, including sunburns, insect bites, allergies and minor injuries. Plus, consider the following advice from physicians when choosing the most effective OTC products for summer health woes.
Poison ivy and insect bites
Being outdoors and exploring in the woods can lead you straight to nature’s threats, including poison ivy and insects. Depending on where you live — or travel — you could be exposed to several diseases, including malaria from mosquitoes and Lyme disease from ticks.
Natural or eucalyptus-based insect repellent products are often good enough to keep mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, flies and chiggers at bay on the playground, but they’re simply not strong enough for heavily infested locations, such as wooded areas or places with standing water where mosquitoes breed.
“We recommend 10% DEET repellents for most of our kids,” says Dr. Natasha Burgert, a pediatrician with a practice in Kansas City, Missouri.
Bees and wasps can also take the buzz out of outdoor fun. A variety of insect bite and sting management products can help.
Topical OTC poison ivy and poison oak treatments — such as Cortizone-10 (hydrocortisone cream) — can relieve itching and rashes caused by these poisonous plants. However, you should call your doctor with more serious cases involving fever or difficulty breathing, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. Rash in your eyes, mouth or genital area, pus-oozing blisters or rash covering large areas of your body may require medical attention.
If you’re sensitive to poison ivy and poison oak, learn what they look like and try to avoid them. If you still manage to come into contact, use a potent, prescription-strength topical steroid, says Dr. Ethan Lerner, an associate professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
“If that does not suffice, a course of prednisone pills, which would also require a prescription, would be effective.”
Summer allergies and colds
Respiratory conditions — such as seasonal allergies, asthma and colds — don’t take summer vacations. Allergies may flare in the summer when pollen is released from grasses, weeds and trees, or because of increased indoor and outdoor mold growth caused by the warm, humid conditions of summer.
There are three main OTC options for treating allergy symptoms:
— Oral antihistamines can provide overall relief for sneezing, runny nose and itchy/watery eyes.
— Steroid nasal sprays can be used to target symptoms of a stuffy nose, nasal congestion or sneezing.
— Allergy eye drops may be used for quick or long-term relief from red, itchy eyes.
Most seasonal allergies can be managed with over-the-counter allergy medications, Burgert says.
Still, choosing the right allergy medicine for your child may feel overwhelming. It’s important to consider their age, severity of symptoms and any existing medical conditions when managing allergies, so consult with your pharmacist for help choosing an over-the-counter allergy medicine, and watch for any adverse reactions, such as excessive drowsiness or hyperactivity, after starting a new medication.
Motion sickness
From lake boat rides and sea cruises to roller coaster thrills at the amusement park, summer is prime time for motion sickness. For some people, all it takes is a road trip or train ride to break out in a sweat and feel queasy, dizzy and nauseated.
If being a passenger makes you suffer, OTC motion sickness remedies — such as Dramamine and Bonine — may help.
The active ingredient that helps with motion sickness is dimenhydrinate, a derivative of diphenhydramine, which is the active ingredient in Benadryl.
Younger children may be especially vulnerable to motion sickness, Burgert says. Children ages 2 and older can start using motion sickness products designed for kids. These products work best when administered about an hour before the activity begins, but they can sometimes cause drowsiness as a side effect.
Motion sickness wristbands can also be a good non-pharmaceutical option for kids as well as adults. Other ways of addressing motion sickness include keeping an eye on the horizon, getting plenty of fresh air, lying down with a cold compress on the forehead and avoiding looking at screens or reading while in motion.
Cuts, burns and scars
What says summer more than grilling, campfires and fireworks? The burns that can arise from these activities.
With a minor burn, an OTC burn treatment may temporarily ease the pain and prevent infection. However, most kids who have significant burns need medical attention and prescription medications to start.
Kids can also injure themselves on the playground, leading to cuts and lacerations or jagged wounds. Liquid bandages can help with minor cuts and scrapes. Spray or brush it on tricky spots quickly and easily to help protect small wounds by keeping debris and bacteria out during healing.
Many parents are concerned about scarring. Scar treatments — such as Mederma and ScarAway — can help promote healing and decrease the appearance of the scar.
Keeping wounds moist, rather than waiting for scabs to get dry and crusty, is also key. Be sure to cover lacerations and cuts with petroleum jelly, ointments with vitamins A and D or similar products to keep them moist during the healing process for better cosmetic outcomes.
Dehydration
As temperatures rise and you enjoy fun activities in the hot sun, the risk of dehydration as well as heat stroke increases.
Besides keeping a water bottle handy, you may want to stock up on electrolyte powders and drinks for maximum hydration.
In addition, if you catch food poisoning, experience diarrhea while trying new foods in your travels or ate something that upset your stomach, staying as well-hydrated as possible is a must.
Dry skin
Parched, dry skin is more vulnerable to itching, sloughing and tearing from scratching. Taking care of your skin during summer (and year-round) is crucial. Moisturizers for dry skin in the form of creams or lotions add an extra layer of protection between your skin and the elements.
Different parts of your body have unique needs, making it beneficial to use specialized moisturizers for each area. The delicate skin on your lips, for instance, benefits from a lip balm that provides hydration and protection against the wind and harsh summer sun.
Frequent hand washing after gardening, playing outdoors and working around the house, can make your skin dry and cracked. But a thicker hand cream that penetrates deep layers of the skin and helps protect the skin barrier can help.
And since you’re likely walking around in sandals and open-toed shoes more often, your feet will thank you for lathering with a foot cream to prevent dryness and cracking.
As you age and your skin becomes more delicate, it becomes even more essential to keep your skin well-hydrated. Your face, in particular, is constantly exposed to the sun and harsh elements, making it even more prone to damage. By incorporating a good facial moisturizer — especially one that contains SPF — into your skin care routine, you can help protect your face from further damage, improve skin texture and potentially reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
Diaper rash
Diaper rash can get worse in hot weather.
“We see yeast-based diaper rash a lot in the summer just because kids’ bottoms are warmer, which is what yeast love,” Burgert says.
Applying clotrimazole-based products can relieve the problem. In addition, make sure you’re keeping that tender skin clean — with the help of gentle baby wipes — and dry.
Babies can also suffer another diaper-based hazard: insect bites.
“Insects love the diaper area, so we see bug bites right at the edge of the diaper line and those commonly get infected because it’s a dirty area,” Burgert says.
In that case, a topical antibiotic such as Neosporin could be useful.
Sun exposure, sunscreen and sunburns
Sunscreen is a must every day, regardless of the season, but as we spend more time in the sun during the summertime, it becomes even more important to shield your skin from harmful UV rays. Be aware that certain medications, foods and health conditions can make you more sensitive to the sun.
Sunburns and sun poisoning are not only painful, but cause lasting damage to your skin. A sunburn is a first-degree burn to the top layer of the skin. And while sunburn relief products can minimize your discomfort, they don’t erase the long-term damage. Other DIY treatments for sunburns include cold compresses and oatmeal baths.
To treat superficial burns, Lerner recommends applying bacitracin ointment or even just Vaseline. He adds that these options are preferable to Neosporin because people are more likely to be allergic to Neosporin, which contains three different types of antibiotics, two of which can cause allergies in certain people. (Bacitracin contains only one type of antibiotic.) With blistering sunburns, the larger concern is the higher risk of developing skin cancer in the future.
“While most of the sunburn is from so-called UVB, the UVA light is what’s predominantly responsible for skin aging,” Lerner says.
Using sunscreen on your face is essential to avoid the risk of developing skin cancers and preventing damage to your skin, which can lead to uneven skin tone, dark spots, premature aging and wrinkles. Incorporating sunscreen into your daily skin care routine — which can also be accomplished by using a moisturizer with SPF — ensures continuous protection, regardless of weather or season.
When selecting a sunscreen, dermatologists recommend ones that are:
— Broad spectrum: protects against UVA and UVB rays
— Water resistant or very water resistant: stays put with wet or sweaty skin
— SPF 30 or higher: protects better from sunburn
If you’re headed on a road trip, keeping car windows closed isn’t enough protection. A habitual driver’s left arm shows much more sun damage than the right, while a frequent passenger’s right arm may show more sun-aging effects. While car manufacturers offer car windows with UVA protection, you can wear long sleeves to provide some protection.
As kids shift from hours in the classroom to running around outdoors more often in the summer, it’s especially important to protect the whole family from the sun’s beating rays. For children older than 6 months, remember to reapply sunscreen for kids every two hours, keep them in the shade as much as possible and dressed in sun-protective clothing.
Newborns and babies younger than 6 months should be kept out of the sun as much as possible, as recommended by both the Food and Drug Administration and the American Academy of Pediatrics
“But even under 6 months, if we know that infants are going to be in direct sun, we still recommend zinc- or titanium-based sunscreen,” Burgert notes.
Chemical exposure is lower with these products than with other sunscreen lotions and sprays, she says, although those may be more convenient because they tend to absorb more quickly and don’t leave a thick, whitish residue.
If you can’t shield your baby from the sun entirely, always opt for baby-safe sunscreens made with gentle ingredients.
Athlete’s foot, swimmer’s ear and other infections
Swimming pools and public showers can be breeding grounds for infection. As such, it’s important to avoid swimming with an open wound. Waterproof adhesive bandages provide essential protection that allow you to still take part in aquatic activities with less risk of infection.
Even without jumping in the pool, the potential for getting athlete’s foot and nail fungus remains just from walking in the poolside environment, Lerner warns.
You can prevent athlete’s foot by wearing flip-flops or shower shoes to reduce exposure from pool decks or public shower floors, but in the event you become infected, OTC antifungal products for athlete’s foot — such as Lotrimin and Lamisil — can help.
For the avid swimmers, swimmers’ ear can be a perpetual problem in the summer. Wearing earplugs can help keep water out that can bring infectious agents into the ear, but you can also use ear drops after swimming to unclog and dry out the ears after swimming.
More from U.S. News
Surprising Factors That Increase Sun Sensitivity
Surprising Facts About Sunscreen
13 Questions to Ask Your Dermatologist
Best Products for Summer Health Hazards originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 06/27/25: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
