[earthmama369]

The bugs are out early this year, yikes, and dd's having reactions. At the end of the summer last year dd developed an allergic reaction to gnat bites after getting bitten on her face while sleeping during a camping trip. Her face swelled so much that a friend who's known her since birth didn't recognize her, and it took three days for her to stop swelling even more and over a week for the swelling to go down. She'd had a couple localized reactions to mosquito bites before (large blisters filled with clear fluid, like a cross between hives and a burn blister), but not consistently. This reaction seems to have tipped her over the edge into full blown allergies though and now she's reacting to gnat bites, mosquito bites, possibly other insects, cat dander, and possibly dog dander. *sigh* This sucks.

Anyway, we're making up three kits to have on hand to handle insect bites -- one for dh, one for me, one to keep in the house. Anyone else dealing with an insect bite allergy? What do you use? I'd love some suggestions.

We've got:
*epipen
*dye-free children's benadryl
*bug repellent with geranium essential oil (works better than lemongrass, catnip, or citronella for her)
*ledum palustre (homeopathic for insect bites)
*apis mellifica (homeopathic for swelling from insect bites or allergies)
*topical numbing ointment for bites since they can cause her moderate pain for 3+ days

 

[earthmama369]

Aaaaand right off the first page. Let's try this again.

 

[kjbrown92]

My DD2 gets enormous reactions to mosquito bites. Hard hot bumps that are huge. I've put sea breeze on them but that's about it. I'm trying to avoid the benadryl except where I really need it because of the corn. She hasn't reacted to the Benadryl yet but I'm saving it. We're not to the point of an epipen yet. Does that bug repellant have a name? where to buy? Or is it something you make yourself? I wonder if that's why my grandfather always had so many geraniums on the deck...

 

[earthmama369]

What's Sea Breeze?

I have a handful of different repellents that we've been trying out. Burt's Bees, a couple local WAHM/WAHD types, Armor Guard (? I think that's the name) from Whole Foods, etc. I look at the ingredients and see which ones are safe for kids and have the geranium oil in them, since that's working so much better for dd than the more common citronella and lemongrass blend.

 

[kjbrown92]

Sea Breeze used to be for sunburns and insect bites when I was growing up in the 70s. My grandmother always had a bottle and it took the sting out of everything. In the 80s they remarketed it as a skin cleanser, but it's the same ingredients. We still have it and use it for insect bites.

 

[kjbrown92]

I looked at the Armor Guard (All Terrain Armor Insect Repellent) and it has soybean oil and citric acid in it so I don't know if I want to put it on my soy intolerant/corn intolerant kids. I'll keep looking...