my campers!
It hasn’t been a good summer for the mosquitoes, but the deerflies have been revelling in the sun and heat.
Our family went camping with friends at Bon Echo Provincial Park over the August long weekend, and my daughter got everyone’s share of bites. I confess, I just thought there weren’t any bugs around because I didn’t see any, nor did I get bitten more than once or twice. However I soon realized, with that familiar pang of Mother-Guilt, it was because all the bugs were feasting on my 4 year old!
I had some homeopathic Ledum in my first aid kit, which is helpful for many types of bites and stings, but this time it didn’t relieve the itching. Ledum has helped her heal up from some very nasty bites before, but this remedy works best for the specific symptoms that come on when infection is looming – the bite takes on a bluish tinge, feels cold, but is better from cold applications.
The most common natural remedy is the tried and true baking soda paste. You can also add it to the bath, and it does relieve itching temporarily. We didn’t bring any.
We had brought along some ‘booboo icepacks’ with princesses on them, and those worked well at home, as a bit of cold takes away the itch nicely too. (At least I think it’s the cold that helps, but honestly, it might just be the glitter bespangled princesses that seem comforting) Icepacks, however, don’t really work well when camping, as we just couldn’t keep them cold enough.
Another thing to try is the oatmeal bath, which is very soothing and also good if what you have isn’t actually a lot of bug bites, but swimmer’s itch, which starts out looking the same!
We realized this after Dad came down with a whole bunch of ‘mosquito bites’ that arrived the day after we got home….
