Bugbite Balboa
May 23, 2012
Mornin' Ezra, why are you rubbing your eye and ear so much? Is everything oka...
...OH DEAR GOD.
(And also: ADDDDDDDRIAAAAAANNNNNN!)
Ugh! This again. The dreaded I-swear-I-am-not-making-this-up Skeeter Syndrome. Still hasn't outgrown it, though I was hopeful this would be the year. Alas, it looks like we're in for another long summer with a perpetually disfigured (and/or coked-up-on-Benadryl) child.
The worst part is that the mosquitoes just fucking LOVE Ezra so much. They swarm to him, especially his poor, sweet little face. (Though he also has about five gigantic welts on his legs, all hot and angry with oozy blistering centers.) If you send 10 kids outside to play for five minutes, Ezra will come inside with more bites than the rest of them combined. Sometimes he's the ONLY one bit, probably because he's a literal mosquito magnet. And then BOOM. Quasimodo realness.
He's like reverse citronella: Want to drive mosquitos out of your backyard? Here's Ezra. Just toss him over the fence. Problem solved, Pied Piper style.
"Don't worry, Mommy," he told me this morning, right after my initial real-life OH MY GOD reaction to the swelling, "My mosquito bites will get better on Friday."
(Also happening on Friday, according to Ezra: cooking camp [it's over, actually], swimming lessons [no], watching Star Trek [what?], washing his hands, eating his carrots, and putting on pajamas. He's got a jam-packed schedule, all right.)
Old remedy to prevent bites--old fashioned Listerine (the original yellow colored one), pour it in a spray bottle and squirt away.
That's funny--for my almost-3-yr-old everything is going to happen on "Thursday."
A scene straight out of "Hitch".
Poor sweet boy:(
Poor Ezra :(
I used to be like that. Then one day mom repainted the bedroom walls, and will you look at that, apparently insects flee from new paint. Won't do anything when he's outdoors (thought I'd mention), but it might give him a respite at night?
Lemon Balm. Just pull a few leaves and rub them on his skin. You would need to do a small patch test first to make sure he isn't allergic or sensitive to it. Works fabulously well. And makes you smell good too!
Okay....so....if you find some sort of magic commenter solution or anything that is remotely helpful for this, could you please post about it. My little guy (3) has the same thing, although I had no clue it was an actual 'thing.' Right down to the bugs like him more than anyone else. Blistery centers...yes. They swell and gape open and ooze, and I feel so bad for him. We live in the mountains of upstate NY, which means, lots of bugs. We call spring 'bug season.' Okay, so yeah. Please pass along any magic remedies you discover. Much obliged.
I just read somewhere that used dryer sheets repell mosquitoes. You are supposed to rub them on the skin, and I might just stick one in his shorts pocket for good measure. It also said to use them in stinky sneakers!!
Ugh, my sister and I are like this too! I have the same photo, me, in the summer, GIANT eye! I still get big, swollen, hot bug bites. They love me too. SUCKS. S'cuse me while I go scour the comments for bug bite remedies.