Tick Safety

I use Deep Woods Off that is 25% DEET. Skin contact can be a concern with small kids, so what you'd do is have him wear long sleeves and pants, tucking the ends into his socks, then spraying his clothing.

Here is a list with photos of some ticks and the diseases they carry, with grographical regions marked. http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/geographic_distribution.html

Christy Lee is exactly right about how to remove a tick. You never want to yank it out or cover it with oil, Vaseline etc..

I want to add: KEEP the tick! Place it immediately into a ziplock plastic bag. Don't smash it. Take it, and your son, to the doctor right away and tell the doctor to send the tick for testing. (If it's too late for this time and you alredy got rid of the ticks from yesterday I'd still let the doctor know your son was bitten.)

Labs can test ticks for Lyme and other diseases. If you keep the tick and get it tested promptly, the doctor can start medication for a bitten child much sooner than simply waiting to see if a rash or symptoms appear! Sick tick means start meds. Waiting for symptoms in a child means a delay in getting that treatment started.

Also, DEET is truly the best preventative as others note. And long pants are frankly a must -- ticks love warm, moist, dark spots and that means groins and armpits as well as in the hair, and shorts are a recipe for ticks to reach the groin area. A friend kept finding ticks on both her sons' groins all summer since her ex had a farm and didn't "believe" in protecting the boys from ticks there or inspecting them before he sent them home to mom. So always inspect the whole body including groin and genitals.

There is a substance called permethrin that you can buy at outfitter shops (REI, Hudson Trail Outfitters etc.) It repels ticks etc. from clothing and sleepng bags and tents. It's only for use on fabrics, not on humans, but once it's on the fabric and dried, your son would have to pretty much try to mouth the fabric or bury his face in it and rub in order to pick it up. You might have a pair of "hike pants" for him that are lightweight long pants sprayed with permethrin, as well as hike socks that are also sprayed and cover his ankles up to about halfway up the shin.

Hats, vital. You can spray hats with permethrin or just with your DEET-based skin spray but the latter would have to be done each time.

I have not heard the 48-hour rule. Ask your pediatrician. But be aware that the famed "bullseye shaped rash" that is typical of Lyme disease does not always appear! My friend's child got Lyme and they never saw any rash at all, and never even knew she'd been bitten. The doctor told them that the rash is not always there. If your son has cold- or flu-like symptoms, fatigue, etc. that he can't shake, even a few months from now, that can be Lyme --that's how this family (and a very sharp grandma who realized the cold-like symptoms could instead be Lyme) found out this girl had it. She was put on a long course of antibiotics and has been perfectly fine for years, because her family was alert.

1. Use Backwoods OFF with DEET on clothing, and the family friendly type for skin. Ensure that he gets a bath that evening to remove the DEET from his skin. Know that on long excursions, the bug sprays lose their effectiveness, so stop and reapply after 30 minutes or so. Especially in infested areas.

2. When an embedded tick is found, do NOT put anything on it to make it back out. Suffocating the tick with soap, nail polish or any other chemical will cause it to regurgitate the contents of its stomach into the skin, which increases the chances of infection or disease. Instead, grasp the tick gently (but securely) with blunt tweezers or fingers right against the skin, behind the head, and pull with consistent pressure until the tick lets go with its mouthparts. Do not yank suddenly or the head will be left under the skin. Clean the area well with soap and water.

I put tea tree oil in our body wash and shampoo. I also put a few drops undiluted on our hats. We wear long pants, and t-shirts that come over the waistband of our pants. (no tank tops)

We do this for everyday use, as we live in an area where we are exposed to the possibility of ticks on an almost daily basis, and I hate the idea of dousing ourselves in so many chemicals daily. We just check for ticks before bath time.

We DO use Deet sprays (in addition to the oil) if we are going deeper into the woods, (like hiking, riding, or camping) and check for ticks a lot more thoroughly and frequently.

another vote for pulling the tick out without using anything on it. If you get a stubborn one, you can gently twist it back and forth but only a teensy bit... Twisting too much will twist the head off. Lol.

I hate ticks and we have loads of them this year in MN! First though, what kind of ticks were they? If they are the larger "ordinary" wood ticks (sometimes I think called "dog ticks") then they don't carry Lyme disease. The ones that carry Lyme are very tiny deer ticks, sometimes too small to really even see or distinguish as a tick, which is the scary part. Google a photo--they also have a different shape. I think the rule is they have to be attached for 24 hours to spread the Lyme bacteria. However, to be on the safe side, I would probably go in or take a child to the doctor anytime I found an attached deer tick. My dad had Lyme disease (thankfully treated successfully) and both my brother and I have been on preventative antibiotics for attached deer ticks.

Regarding prevention, it is recommended to wear long pants, socks and shoes anytime you are in a grassy or wooded area. I know that's easier said than done during the hot humid months. Bug spray with DEET is also effective, but I would check the labels regarding use in young children. There are family versions of bug spray that contain lower levels of DEET for children. I know many people don't like using DEET at all, but I use it sparingly and only when needed. It is effective and I believe in moderate use. I don't know of any "natural" products that deter ticks, but I will be following this post in case there are suggestions.

Check with the pedi to see what's acceptable on kids your child's age. Then use light colored clothing, tucking pants into socks, etc. Use a white hat. Look him over carefully when you get home, as you have done.

But everyone's vulnerable - no matter how tall we are, our feet are on the ground and ticks are in the grass and on bushes - we brush by and they grab on, then they climb upwards and usually look for a good hiding place. In the hair is a classic one, but so is in the ear, in the crevices of the body, and so on. It does take them a little time to find a good spot and bite, so quick action, as you have seen is a good thing. And clothing gets taken off in the laundry room and dumped in the washer, or rinsed in the bottom of the tub/shower before going into the laundry.

I saw something posted which may or may not work, but it's worth a try. It said to use those white lint rollers (with the sticky paper) to go over body surfaces and pick up tiny ticks.

And remember, not all ticks have Lyme disease and babesiosis. But the problem ones are the tiny deer ticks that are harder to see than dog ticks.

There are also a lot of gimmicks for removing ticks - and not all of them work. One popular remedy that isn't a good idea, for example, is soaking the tick in dish soap so it "lets go" - the problem is, the tick remains attached for too long and whatever disease it's carrying has more time to be transferred. So get some reliable info from the CDC on exactly what should be done when a tick is found attached - don't follow every little thing that people post on Facebook! They sound reliable and clever but they are not, often.

My daughter always jokes that they should have flea and tick treatment for kids like they have for dogs and cats. We haven't found anything that works other than checking them head to toe at the end of the day. So far none of the grandkids have gotten lyme (and we've taken a ton of ticks off them). You have to be careful to watch for those little deer ticks which can look like a freckle.

I just heard about a tick key: tickkey.com. You might want to get one to carry in case he does get bitten.

Kudos to you for being cautious and watchful!

My granddaughter popped up with a bite on her arm a couple of weeks ago.... we had no idea what it was... a hard, warm, red spot about the size of a 50c piece..... it was Saturday, so my daughter chose to circle it with a permanent marker (to watch for spread, which it did) and watch until Monday. (At that point, we were thinking it was a scorpion (very common in our area), or a brown recluse spider.)

By Sunday night, it had gotten the classic bulls-eye rash.... and Monday was Labor Day, so her doctor's office was closed... she took her in, and by then, she also had an all-over rash, too...

The doctor diagnosed it as Lyme... (my granddaughter is only about 22 months old... scary!). My daughter had not seen a tick on her at all..... no idea when she got it! It was on her upper arm, which should have been fairly easy to see a tick there..... They do live right by a very "wild" park... high grasses, shrubs, trees, and wildlife all over the place......

Anyway, she is on antibiotics for 21 days, and goes back to the doctor in about 10 days for a re-check and blood work.

She keeps getting different looking rashes, which we see (in our research) can be very common with Lyme disease.

Nothing to play around with, that's for sure! We are hopeful for a full recovery with no future complications.