Keep Mosquitoes Off Your Children
Now that the weather is a bit cooler, my children and I have headed outside more often. But being outside has come with a price. After half an hour of playing in the grassy lawn, all of us are covered in mosquito bites. Aside from being itchy and annoying, my one year old’s mosquito bites become hard knots that last for over a week. We needed mosquito help quick. Here are some mosquito bite facts to help you and your children.
The mosquitoes that bite are the females who need the protein in blood to nourish their eggs to hatch more mosquitoes. No research has suggested that keeping mosquitoes from biting us has reduced their population any, but it can provide some extra incentive to the war on mosquito bites.
Make sure there are no breeding grounds for mosquitoes on your property. I think in East Tennessee where we live, just the humid air and lush green grass is a breeding ground for mosquitoes, but do make sure that no containers that can catch and hold water are lying open. That includes your kids’ swimming pool. Swimming pool covers for kiddie pools are available and not expensive if, like me, you don’t like the idea of dumping and filling the pool every day.
Wear clothes that cover your body when possible. This sounds good, and it’s probably a good idea when hiking or spending time in the woods. But living in the South means wearing shorts and flip-flops to us, and ankles are prime mosquito biting spots. When we are in our own yard, we all tend to go barefoot, too, prompting even more mosquito bites.
Lighting citronella coils, candles or oil burners is another way to repel mosquitoes. I don’t care for the smell myself, but a lot of people don’t mind the mild, lemony odor. They prevent mosquito bites well enough while sitting on the deck, patio, or porch, but not for romping and playing in the backyard like my children enjoy doing.
I was a little apprehensive about using mosquito repellent. After all, DEET (the active ingredient in most mosquito repellents) has been credited with such side effects as: learning and memory dysfunction, and motor deficits. On the other hand, mosquitoes carry viruses such as West Nile virus, malaria, yellow fever and all kinds of other nasty things. In addition to that, they left nasty, itchy red bumps on my children.
Products containing DEET have been deemed safe by the American Academy of Pediatrics if the concentration is less than 30% for children two months and older. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) does offer the following precautions:
Apply the repellent to your own hands and rub on your child.
Do not apply repellent to your child’s hands. (Children tend to put their hands in their mouth.)
Do not allow children under ten years old to apply their own repellent. Do it for them.
In infants under two months, put mosquito netting over their carrier or keep them indoors.
Due to concerns about the safety of DEET, there are some natural products available. One is citronella, made from lemon grass. Natrapel and Herbal Armor are two repellents that use citronella, but they haven’t proved to be very effective at preventing mosquito bites in laboratory tests, and some people despise the odor.
Soybean oil is another concoction to repel mosquito bites. Bite Blocker For Kids is a product using soybean oil. Its effectiveness was better, lasting about an hour and a half. It is oily, and leaves the skin feeling greasy, but does prevent mosquito bites on children.
Products containing DEET (OFF! is a popular DEET-containing bug repellent ) works best if applied to the skin. When using this mosquito bite repellent on children, use the precautions above. Some trials were done using wristbands that contained DEET and they were not found to be very effective in preventing mosquito bites.
L.L. Bean has a line of clothing that is said to have mosquito repellent woven into the fabric. These might work very well for people in cooler climates, but they weren’t going to work for us due to our desire to wear shorts and sandals. The mosquito repellent is said to last through 25 washings, which for us would be about 3-4 months. Not worth it, in my opinion.
We have had good success with Avon’s Skin So Soft Bug Guard Plus containing IR3535. In laboratory tests, IR3535 was as effective as 25% DEET against mosquito and tick bites but for only up to 75 minutes. It smells good (the scent is called “gentle breeze”), is easy to apply, doesn’t feel oily and contains SPF 15 sunscreen, too. We used it when watching fireworks. For over an hour, we sat in the grass, watching mosquitoes hover and swarm in the air, and not one of us had a bite. Just like a DEET product, though, IR3535 needs to be applied well. Any uncovered skin is subject to mosquito bites, and reapplying every hour or so is a good idea, too.
Using a combination of these tips and preventives is helping us to enjoy the cooler days of fall without the mosquito bites.
