June 4th Allergic Reaction from SunBlock

Vacation. We've been driving for 5 hours through parts of the country time has forgotten. I have never been more scared to run out of gas in my life. We finally made it to the hotel, got checked in, and decided early dinner was for old people, we were ready for the beach. I suited Kelby up in her new SPF 50 suit, hat, and shoes. I also greased her arms, legs, and face with infant sunblock. Of course she wouldn't keep her hat on, but it was a little bit too big for her. On to the beach, into the water, one wave in the face, and it was all over. She had some sand on her hands when she tried to rub the saltwater from her eyes. A few minutes later, her eye was red. Then her forehead was red, and her eye was puffy. A few more minutes the white of her eye was red, her puffy eye was purple and swelling shut, and the entire right side of her forehead was bright red. Thought it might be the saltwater, so we took her up to the hotel pool and rinsed her off. We put her in her little floaty frog so she could still hang out in the water, when she started laying her face in the water. She just seemed really lethargic. She couldn't hold her head up and she didn't want to open her eyes. So, I ran her upstairs, put her in the tub, and called the doctor. Rinsing her off really seemed to help the most. I washed her body twice and her hair 4 times. Before getting out of the tub, she was almost back to her old self. She was happy and active, and her purple puffy eye was now just dark pink. The white of her eye was back to white. Then the after hours nurse said if it wasn't better in a few hours take her to the emergent care facility, and make sure to call the doctor the next day for a sunscreen recommendation. They recommended coppertone water babies because it was PABA free, but the stuff I had put on her was PABA and tear free. I used the bananna boat dry block because it came highly recommended in every baby magazine I had read. It doesn't contain zinc or titanium oxide, so maybe it was its chemical nature that bothered her so much. But, I must say, when I used a PABA free, tear free, sunblock with zinc oxide she still had the same reaction...it was just less severe (no swelling, just light redness in the upper right quadrant of her face). By the next morning, she was back to normal. All of our subsequent trips to the beach included not putting any sunblock on her face. Instead, we made her wear a hat and sunglasses. As long as we waited to be out in the sun, she would gladly keep her hat and sunglasses on! More at a later date about the vacation itself.