Drink lots - make sure children drink little and often, its hard to give them too much (they just wee more!) but its easy to give them too little especially in the summer time. Water is the best way to keep them hydrated.

Sun cream - obvious really but easy to forget. Get into a routine for going out in the sun, choose the right factor, play safe - its better to put too higher factor on rather than risk it. Make sure it gets re-applied as per the instructions, sand and water will rub the cream off. You need to be particularly careful if your child very young has fair skin, a skin condition such as eczema or with a sensitivity to sunlight.

In the UK most professionals agree that for children, an SPF50 cream for the first few days followed by an SPF of 25 is ideal for Northern European climates. If further afield in the Med or further still, an SPF of 50 is recommended.

Dress properly - hats, sun suits and breathable garments will help keep sun stroke and sun burn at bay. Make sure they understand why they have to wear the clothes and maybe get them involved in choosing some of the items to get their buy in. There is a great choice of sun protection clothing now...and it doesn't have to look terrible either!

Heat exhaustion / Heat stroke - basically caused by too much exposure to the sun. Heat exhaustion is characterised by dizziness, headache, pale sweaty skin, nausea and cramps in the limbs. Heat stroke is far more serious and is identified by dizziness, headache, confusion, dry skin, non responsiveness (ultimately unconsciousness) and bounding pulse.

Best way to avoid heat problems is to limit the amount of time in the sun so children (and adults) can cool down, drink lots, wear protective clothing (hats, suits etc) and keep and eye on each other.

Watch the time - be careful to avoid the hottest parts of the day, typically between 12pm and 3pm. Don't stay out for too long, its always better to come back later and have a rest from the sun for an hour than to stay out for an extra hour.

Know your child - most of us know our children and learn to spot signs of tiredness or hunger and its when we go to a different environment say on the beach that we often don't spot the tell tale signs as we are not used to applying cream every hour or getting them to drink litres and litres of water.