Springtime is here in Oklahoma, and along with the nicer weather and longer days comes an onslaught of bugs.
Most are merely irritating, but ticks and mosquitos can carry disease.
Kids need to be outdoors so they can get some exercise, learn about nature and explore, but how do we protect them from the bugs?
First, use protective clothing – long sleeves, long pants and hats when bugs are likely.
Put insect repellent directly on the clothing and also on exposed skin. For young children, don’t use it on their hands. To apply to the face, spray into your hand and rub on the cheeks, chin and forehead, staying away from the eyes and mouth. DEET (in concentrations of 30 percent or less only in children over two months old), picaridin (also known as P-methane diol or PMD), IR-3535, and oil of lemon eucalyptus (only for children over 3 years of age) have been shown to be effective.
After being outside, shower or bathe your child as soon as possible.
Thoroughly check for ticks at that time and at least once a day during tick season. Not only does showering improve your chances of finding a tick (often even before it attaches), it also helps to wash off chiggers and the oil from poison ivy before they cause itching.
If you do find a tick attached, it should be removed as soon as it is found. The sooner it is removed, the less likely it is to cause disease.
Stay calm so your child will too. For a small or scared child, it helps to have another adult to make sure the child doesn’t move while you’re removing the tick.
It doesn’t hurt, but kids get scared. Grasp the tick with tweezers as close to the skin as possible and pull gently and steadily until the tick releases. A little piece of dead skin may come off with the tick – that’s GOOD! It means you completely removed the head and mouthparts.
Wash the area with soap and water. The bite may get red and itchy
Concerning Kids
over the next few days, but unless it gets bigger than a quarter or is rapidly worsening, that’s OK. It might take days to weeks to completely heal.
Most tick and mosquito bites don’t cause anything worse than itching, but when they do they need attention. The most common tick borne disease in Oklahoma is Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, which usually occurs a week or two after a tick bite, with fever, rash and headache being the common symptoms.
It usually responds very well to appropriate antibiotics when treated early after symptoms appear. We hear a lot about Lyme Disease, but the Oklahoma State Department of Health reports that there has never been a proven case of human Lyme disease in either Oklahoma or any southern state. Another newly recognized tick-borne illness, called Southern Tick Associated Rash Illness (STARI) is similar to Lyme disease but does not seem to cause the long term ill effects of Lyme disease.
Mosquito bites can carry West Nile virus, which usually only causes a mild illness, but in rare cases it can cause severe disease which is hard to treat. It is most common in later summer.
Take the above measures to protect your children from mosquito and tick bites as much as possible, but don’t panic when your child is bitten: most bites won’t cause any problems. For more information go to healthychildren.org, the American Academy of Pediatrics website for parents.
Susan Bullard, M.D., retired pediatrician who practiced 29 years in Stillwater, member of the Early Childhood Coalition here in Payne County and an initiator of the Healthy Steps program at SMC Pediatrics