Babies and mosquitos
Question:
Hi all, My wife and I are going to be vacationing on the Olympic Penninsula with our two 18-month old kids in a couple weeks. I’m wondering if anybody has any suggestions on how to help the kids deal with mosquitos. I’m somewhat loathe to put any sort of high concentration DEET on them, but i am skeptical about the effectiveness of some of the natural citronella-based products. I do figure we can drape mosquito netting over the sunshields on the baby backpacks when we’re out and about, but I don’t really know what to do while we’re in camp. Does anybody have any experience with this? I imagine the bugs could be pretty bad on parts of the OP. TIA, -m.
Response:
Well Mark… you’ve got a situation on your hands! First off, I would suggest talking to the kids’ pediatrician and see what he/she can recommend to use or even better… see what they recommend to AVOID. … Caveat here… I don’t have kids, have never camped with kids and barely remember "technical details" of my own childhood camping (and none of it was when I was that young to begin with!) mom and dad dealt with that. That being said… I would imagine that the rules that apply to adults would apply to small children. Avoid BRIGHT clothing. Dress those kiddies up in nice drab earthy colors. This may be tough! Children’s clothing always seems to be so brightly colored, but bright colors attract many types of insects, especially the stinging kind! Avoid using sweet smelling lotions and soaps on them. Again, probably going to be tough! Baby lotions & soaps seem to smell very perfumy to me. Many biting/stinging insects are attracted by food, especially meats & fruits. Maybe it would be wise to invest in a screen-tent for the purposes of eating in it. Likewise, as soon as one of the little darlings is done eating, wash them up right away! Remove the food scents from them! Many people claim that Avon’s Skin So Soft repels mosquitos and this may very well be true. However, there seem to be a few anti-mosquito products on the market made with children in mind. Peruse your local grocery’s shelves. Likewise, many people claim that eating garlic or taking garlic tablets/capsules helps ward off insects. Ask your doctor about this. Don’t know how a garlic capsule would affect a small child’s digestive tract. I have had moderate success in warding off camp-insects by burning citronella candles / incense at the campsite, but the effort can be for naught if there’s any kind of wind. Hope I’ve given you some ideas. Good luck! – T. > Hi all, > My wife and I are going to be vacationing on the Olympic Penninsula with our > two 18-month old kids in a couple weeks. I’m wondering if anybody has any > suggestions on how to help the kids deal with mosquitos. I’m somewhat loathe > to put any sort of high concentration DEET on them, but i am skeptical about > the effectiveness of some of the natural citronella-based products. I do > figure we can drape mosquito netting over the sunshields on the baby backpacks > when we’re out and about, but I don’t really know what to do while we’re
in camp.
Response:
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