Hawaii Babies
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Treating bug bites
Any recs for ointments to put on bug bites, specifically mosquito bites?
A reacts terribly to them -- he gets big, bright red welts that last for a couple days. He doesn't seem to scratch or pick at them, but they look awful and I'm hoping to find something to reduce the redness and swelling.
I've been using the citronella and Skin So Soft repellents, but he still gets bitten sometimes.
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Re: Treating bug bites
i'm super sensitive to bites - i get *huge* amounts of swelling and redness. turns out i'm allergic - i took an allegra once, and the grapefruit-diameter swollen bullseye looking circle on my thigh shrank in like, minutes, to a normal-person's bite - maybe the same diameter as a nickel.
i don't even know what it was that bit me - but i was in hawaii, heh.
i don't know how safe this is for sensitive baby skin, but one thing that worked decently well for me when i was younger is after bite. you have to get it on *right away* though, or it doesn't help. looks like there's a kids version, but not sure if it's any good. when it was really bad, i took benadryl.
now that i know it's allergies though, i keep some zyrtec handy if i think i might get bit.
He sounds like me - I react REALLY badly to bug bites, especially mosquitoes (it doesn't help that they looooove me, to the point where they will ignore everyone else outside and swarm me).
This will sound weird, and it's a bit messy, but baking soda works well for me. It's a trick that someone told me about when I was a teen, and I've been doing it ever since. Mix up a paste of baking soda and water - you want it to be fairly thick, wet enough so it's spreadable and not clumpy, but not so wet it's runny - and slather it on the bite. I don't know what it does but it helps relieve the itching and also keeps me from getting actual welts (although I still get a raised red mark for some hours). It does get messy as the paste dries though, since it flakes off - but at least baking soda washes off things pretty easily!