What Should Kids Wear to the Beach?

It's one of those questions that seems simple until you're actually standing in the change room five minutes before you need to leave. Swimmers, obviously. But what goes over the top? A rashie? A t-shirt? Do you even need anything if you're slathering on sunscreen anyway?

If you've ever stood there weighing it up, you're definitely not the only one. Between the sunscreen, the hats, the water bottles and trying to get everyone out the door before the good parking spots are gone, working out what your kids should actually be wearing often ends up an afterthought.

So let's actually go through it properly.

Why sunscreen alone usually isn't enough

The short answer is that swimmers alone, even with sunscreen underneath, usually aren't quite enough for a full day at the beach. Sunscreen does an important job, but it has limits. It needs to be applied generously, it needs to go on every bit of exposed skin, and it needs to be reapplied roughly every two hours, more often if kids are in and out of the water. Realistically, with kids running around, swimming, drying off with a towel and then jumping straight back in, that reapplication schedule rarely happens the way it's supposed to.

That's where clothing comes in as the more consistent layer. A shirt that's rated UPF 50+ blocks around 98% of UV radiation from reaching the skin it covers, and it does that the whole time it's being worn, whether or not anyone remembered to reapply sunscreen an hour ago. It's not a replacement for sunscreen, but it takes a big chunk of the day's UV exposure off your plate without you having to think about it.

Where rashies fall short once the swimming stops

A lot of parents default to a rashie here, and there's nothing wrong with that for the actual swimming part of the day. Rashies do what they're designed to do in the water. The issue tends to show up once the swimming stops. A rashie that felt fine while wet in the ocean can feel tight, hot and uncomfortable once it's dry, and most kids will pull it off the second they're back on the towel, which rather defeats the purpose if they're then sitting shirtless in the sun for the next hour while you dig around for the sunscreen again.

This is really the gap that sunwear was designed to fill. Something that works just as well for the swim as it does for lunch on the sand, playing in the shallows, building a sandcastle or walking back to the car. Soft, breathable UPF 50+ fabric that doesn't need to come off the moment your child gets out of the water. We created Sol & Tide because we wanted our own kids in something they'd actually keep wearing for the whole day at the beach, not just the ten minutes they were in the surf.

Hats and sunglasses matter more than they get credit for

Beyond the shirt, a proper beach hat matters more than people often give it credit for. A cap protects the top of the head reasonably well, but it does very little for the ears, neck and the back of the head, all of which get a surprising amount of sun exposure, especially for younger kids who spend a lot of time looking down at sand and shells. A broader brim, whether that's a bucket hat or a legionnaire style with a back flap, covers a lot more ground.

Sunglasses are worth packing too, mostly because kids' eyes are more sensitive to UV than adults', and reflected glare off sand and water adds to the exposure. They don't need to be anything fancy, just something with real UV protection rather than a toy pair from the two-dollar shop.

Timing the trip makes a bigger difference than most people realise

And then there's the timing side of things, which honestly makes more difference than most of the clothing choices combined. UV in Australia peaks through the middle of the day, generally somewhere between 10am and 3pm depending on the season and location. A beach morning before ten, or a late afternoon session after three, means significantly less UV exposure for the same amount of time outside. If you can build your beach trips around those windows, you're doing a lot of the hard work before anyone's even applied sunscreen.

Shade matters here too, even though it's easy to underestimate. Sitting under an umbrella or a shade tent cuts down on a good portion of direct UV, though it's worth knowing that reflected UV off sand and water still reaches skin in the shade, so it's not a complete solution on its own. It's one more layer, not the whole plan.

Putting it all together

If you put it all together, a decent beach setup for kids ends up being layers rather than one single fix. A UPF 50+ shirt they can wear in and out of the water without wanting to rip it off. Sunscreen on whatever's still exposed, hands, feet, face. A broad-brimmed hat rather than just a cap. Sunglasses if they'll tolerate them. And where possible, timing the trip around the cooler, lower-UV parts of the day.

None of this needs to turn a simple beach day into a production. Once you've got a shirt that your child will actually keep wearing, sunscreen becomes something you're only reapplying on smaller areas, which makes the whole day easier to manage, particularly if you've got more than one kid to keep track of.

That's really the whole idea behind Sol & Tide. We're an Australian sunwear brand making soft, breathable UPF 50+ sun shirts for kids and women, built for the kind of ordinary outdoor days Australian families actually have, beach mornings, backyard play, school sport, weekends away. The goal was never to create something that looks like technical swim gear. It was to make sun protection feel like normal clothing, so kids wear it because it's comfortable, not because they've been told to.

For mums, that ends up being the real benefit. One less thing to manage at the beach, one less argument about taking a shirt off, and a bit more time actually enjoying the day instead of chasing kids around with a sunscreen bottle.