Hot Times on the Mosquito Coast

Its a great time of year to be a kid- swimming, biking, hiking, camping,and exploring.  TVs, computers, phones, and other screens should be off when the sun is shining, and the kids should be outside playing and exercising.  With the summer rains, it is also a great time of year to be a mosquito. When kids and mosquitoes meet, itchy bumps result.  The problem with itching is that kids scratch.  Sometimes they scratch so much that they break the skin.  Then their dirty, germy hands drive bacteria under the broken skin, and infections begin.  The itching also just plain drives the child nuts.  They can't sleep, they whine, summer becomes less fun. The best way to take care of mosquito bites is to cut down on the kid's contact with the buggers.  Make sure your screen doors and windows are closed and don't have holes, so that the bugs don't get in to the house and attack at night.  Put mosquito repellent on before they go out to play, especially in the early evening when the weather is best but the mosquitoes are worst. When they do get bites, keep them clean!  Many kids don't like bathing if they don't have to, but washing hands and skin before bed prevents infections and soothes skin.  Keep fingernails cut short, so they don't tear skin as easily when scratching.  If your kid has particularly dry, itchy skin, put moisturizing lotion on after the bath, and be sure to use a moisturizing soap, like Dove or Caress. If your child does scratch a bite until they bleed, be sure to keep that bite clean, and covered.  After washing with soap and water, dress the bite with neosporin and a bandaid. Hydrocortisone or Benadryl cream can take the edge off the itch too.  Finally, ibuprofen and tylenol take the edge off itching, just like they take away pain.  Give some before bedtime if your kid is a ferocious scratcher- that might help them get to sleep. But of course, kids can't help themselves.  They'll scratch and scratch sometimes- good luck stopping them!- and get that bite infected.  Sometimes when infection takes, it spreads, gets deep, and causes an abscess.  An abscess, or boil, is a pocket of pus inside a shell of painful inflammation.  This is the body's attempt to wall in the infection and isolate it.  After the infection is isolated, the abscess comes to the skin surface, ruptures, and lets the infection out.  Myth buster: most abscesses are not caused by spiders.  The "spider bite" of legend is actually pretty rare compared to boils caused by kid-scratching. To prevent abscesses from forming, follow the advice above.  Keep skin clean and soft with daily cool showers or baths.  Use mild, moisturizing soap and moisturizing lotion.  Clean bites and scratches and keep them covered with neosporin and bandages.  Treat the itching with benadryl, hydrocortisone, ibuprofen, or tylenol. Gross-out Alert!  As I wrote the next paragraph, I realized that you, the reader, may be enjoying your Sunday morning coffee.  If you have a weak stomach about boils and pus, maybe go to the funnies page instead: Abscesses and mosquito bites are not emergencies.  As above, abscesses pretty much come to a head, rupture, and heal themselves.  Antibiotics are not needed for most abscesses.  They do hurt and occasionally need help to drain.  But often just scrubbing top of an abscess off with a wash cloth after it has "come to a head" (comes to the surface and the pus is visible through the skin) will help the abscess let go.  Be patient with boils.  It takes a few days for them to mature and rupture.  If you squeeze them over and over before they are ready, you may squeeze infection further into the surrounding tissue and spread it.  If they don't let go on their own in a few days, that is when to see your doctor. So let your kids play outdoors.  Heck, kick them out!  They need the time away from TVs, computers, video games, and phones, and they certainly need the exercise.  And when they meet mosquitoes and get the itchies, you know what to do.