Need Help! 3 yr old covered in tiny ticks! (x-posted)

[StrongBeliever]

I posted this in "country living" also... Thought I would double post, I'm in need of some serious help tonight!

Anyway, we are here visiting my mom on her farm, and my three year old son keeps getting into ticks... The teensy weensy barely visible kind. The first time I managed with tweezers, but now he is traumatized(I need glasses and he got pinched once or twice). The second time he only had one and I got it to fall off on it's own by putting lots of rubbing alcohol on it... I think that was just a fluke, because third time around it didn't work. He still has the tick from yesterday. NOW... He got into a whole mess of them and has probably four on his pieces, and more scattered about on the rest of him! How can I get these little buggers off of him without using toxic junk, and without resorting to the tweezers(he won't even let me near him with a q-tip after the alcohol, so tweezers are out)? He's got so many now, I am worried aobut him having an allergic reaction or something awful.

[I Fly]

duct tape! My dh walked through a nest one year, and had hundreds of tiny ticks on him. His rural-wise boss recommended putting duct tape over them, and pulling them off. Good luck.

[VisionQuest]

I read somewhere that you can make ticks easier to remove by smothering them in liquid hand soap.

[mightymoo]

You really aren't supposed to remove ticks by smothering them or putting chemicals on them. They are more likely to leave infected pieces of themselves behind. The duct tape sounds like a good idea. I would probably personally find whatever thing he loves most in the world (big bar of chocolate? Lollipop, etc), put on a video to distract him and give him that, have someone hold him and do my best to get them out with the tweezers.

Ticks and transmit lyme generally after 24 to 36 hours and so its important to not to leave them, lyme can be debilitating if not caught and treated early (and it is easy to miss the early signs).

Good luck.

[Twocoolboys]

I'd still use tweezers and do it when he's sleeping, though the duct tape idea seems like it'd be worth a try. Good luck.

[Marcee]

The duct tape might work but I would talk to his ped. Only because the teensy weensy ones are from what I have read are the main carriers of lyme disease. We have BIG tick here and DH just uses tweezers on them to get them off the dogs.

[Rebecca]

Those ticks are the most dangerous kind. They can carry not only lyme (which my son got and had to be on abx for a month), but rocky mountain spotted fever and erlichiosis (sp). Bad stuff. Check behind and inside his ear, in his hair, in all skin folds like backs of knees and between toes. They love groins and belly buttons too. Check yourself and your family members and pets. We had a cat who'd bring them into our house on his fur despite our using Frontline on him.

The best way to remove them is with a little device made just for that purpose... it's a spoon with a notch cut out of it. You scoop the tick into it and it pries it out, head and all. You can find them in any camping/outdoorsy type store like EMS or REI. Costs about $2. Don't try the old folk remedies of alcohol, nail polish, a match, etc to get them to pop out. They don't work.

Now you need to prevent them. I hate to tell you but herbal remedies don't work on deer ticks. You can use all the citronella, garlic oil, cedarwood and lemongrass in the world, and you'll only repel other people. Use DEET. Off, Cutter, any of those pose LESS health risk than the small chance of getting Lyme Disease and having it go untreated. Spray all exposed skin and his clothing every time. Deer ticks live in yards and playground mulch too, not just in the woods.

My son never got the bullseye rash or fever and we never saw the tick or its' bite. It manifested this winter as joint pain, so severe overnight that he couldn't lift his arm to dress himself or climb into his chair. We were worried it was juvenile rhumatoid arthritis or leukemia. Lyme was a nice surprise, sadly enough.

[Kleine Hexe]

I'd take my kid to the Dr. I'm freaked about lyme disease and such.

[VaMountainMomma]

Just wanted to say ((HUGS)) and I hope you can get the little buggers out. We live in the mountains and I HATE ticks. And I know how heartbreaking it is to have to hold down a little one to get them off.

[jtbuko]

EVERYWHERE I have read says to use tweezers. Also, FWIW. If you save the ticks I believe they can be tested for lyme.

[jennnk]

I worked at a summer camp in Maine one year, and every time the girls would leave the cabin, we'd first line them up and spray them with OFF! and sunscreen, assembly-line style. Clothes, skin, everywhere. When we found ticks (because nothing is 100%, not even 6-time daily applications of that stuff), I'd take them off with tweezers & clip the heads off with nail clippers. The EW factor of killing the bugs kept them enthralled. Of course, my cabin was the 8 & 9 year olds, so they're into that kind of thing.

How much does your son understand, verbally? Can you tell him "I know you're scared that I'm going to pinch you, but these bugs can make you very sick, so I need to take them off. I'll be as careful as I can." Maybe let him take a few off himself, or have him "practice" on you with grains of rice stuck to your skin? The video & snack idea is a good one, I think, just for the distraction factor. Do you have a magnifying glass, to make things easier to see? Maybe when they're off, you can show it to him through that, he might think it's neat.

[MissLotus]

If there's no other way, I would take him straight to the doctor...you're not supposed to leave ticks on him past 24 hours, I read. I live in an area where there are tons of deer and some people around here have gotten Lyme disease. Whether your child likes it or not, those things have got to come out now!

I have heard tweezers are the best way too, so you get the whole thing out.

[StrongBeliever]

Thanks for all the replies ladies... I did manage to get all of them off. Duct tape got the majority of the tiny ones, and I used some chapstick(no vaseline on hand) to smother the ones he wouldn't let me get with the duct tape. It was a bit of an adventure... I gave him a piece of tape, and he worked on himself and me while I did the dirty work. When it came time to get the ones off his pieces, he wouldn't let me get near 'em with the duct tape, so we used the chapstick.

I've been keeping an eye on him for the signs of Lyme, and he seems to be doing just fine. No rash or redness or any signs of fever. I'm very familiar with the problem... Had it myself when I was little, and my sister had it when she was in her early teens. In the area where my mom lives I believe the only ticks that are carriers of Lyme are deer ticks, which thankfully he didn't get bitten by. I'm also doubtful that the teeny tiniest of the ticks were even ticks at all... Did some checking online and I think they might be a kind of louse... They only had six legs versus the eight ticks have. *shrug* I'm just glad to be back in Knoxville where the only bugs in our yard are ants and grasshoppers.

[danaalex]

i hate to say this, but i think ticks can live anywhere.

we live in a subdivision with very few trees, there are no woods around us at all! in our yard we have exactly 3 trees that were planted when the house was, in 2000. so, they are SMALL trees at that. like i said, suburbia subdivision and my DH found a tick on my middle child. he managed to get it out, but now i have an odd rash that looks like a tick bite/ lyme rash on my right leg that is getting bigger.

so, i'm going in today to get it looked at.

i have never ever ever even seen a tick. i had NO CLUE they existed where WE live. but it seems as though they are EVERYWHERE!!! i honestly had NO CLUE. like you, i assumed we had the usual, bees, flies, crickets, ants, etc.

i hope all is well with your child.