Dealing with a sun burn

HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) - With all the sun we had this weekend, you might have spent too much time outside.

As much as you try to protect yourself, sometimes sun burns happen, but treatment doesn't stop once the pain starts.

Now that pools and spray pads are open for the summer, you might be thinking more about cooling off instead of protecting your skin. That could give you a nasty sun burn.

“You know usually it's the back because you forget it, especially if you're on the beach and you face this way it gets a lot on the back if you forget it. So make sure you put a lot on the back, as much lotion as you can, and the face too and the top of the shoulders,” said Iwona Ochab of Chicopee.

Typical signs of a common sun burn are reddish, warm skin which stings especially when touched.

A good course of action once you recognize that you have sunburn is to just get out of the sun, however there are types of sunburns that you should go to the hospital for.

"When you're exposed to sun, there's a lot of inflammation under [the skin], produces a lot of fluid, and this fluid will show in the form of blister…once we start to have blistering on the skin that's the second stage up and that's when you need to seek medical attention," said Dr. Ahmed Elmogy of Holyoke Medical Center.

Keeping a sun burn cool and moist is the fastest way to heal. Soothing creams like aloe can reduce the pain and shorten the duration of the burn

It may take a day or so for you to feel the full pain of a sun burn, if cooling creams don't help the pain, appropriate use of over the counter pain medication could help.