Healthy Tot

My daughter came in Sunday with a big mosquito bite on her forehead. With all the wet, humid days in the Northeast recently, we’ve had a burst of bug births, so I was frustrated but not surprised by its appearance. I had dressed her in long sleeves and pants, and we were outside only for a brief time, but that didn’t keep them from getting to her. After one day, the bite swelled up to a pretty impressive size, so I decided to take her to see her pediatrician. He said it wasn’t infected, just that she had a local reaction, and to watch it.

But during the appointment we got talking about bug repellants for kids, tots and babies. I told him we’ve been using California Baby Bug Repellant Lotion, and had pretty good results (although, not 100%). He said it’s OK, safer to use but not as effective as products with DEET. I winced, knowing it’s not too good for you. He agreed, but said it’s quite effective against mosquitos and said there might be times it’s necessary to use (when we are in a marshy area, when there has been heavy rains, standing water, and horses in the area, or illnesses like Triple-E and West Nile, etc.) He concurred that DEET is a potent chemical that can be harmful, esp. to children. It’s their disproportionate surface area to body weight ratio, this is the same reason that things like parabens, phthalates and BPA’s are potentially more harmful to babies and kids- their absorption is much greater than ours. These are still harmful to adults too, but more so to little ones.

He gave me some safety tips in using products with DEET:
• only use products that contain no more than 10% DEET on children
• spray it on their clothes, avoid getting it on their hands and on any cuts
• dress them in light colored, long sleeves and pants (avoid bright colors and flower patterns, too)
• avoid being out when it’s buggiest, dawn and dusk
• more prevention tips

He said I can stick to the all natural alternatives when bugginess is low to moderate. So here’s a DEET-Free Insect Repellant Shopping Guide with many great choices.
The Green Guide’s Insect and Mosquito Repellants overview
About.com Pediatric Advice about bug protection and repellant
HealthyTot Store with DEET-Free repellants
Click Here for a free sample of the Don’t Bite Me Patch