Mom, Beka Setzer, is sharing an old post from last year to remind other parents to be vigilant when kids are playing outdoors this summer.
Last year, her 3-year-old Emmalee had spent the afternoon playing outside before heading inside for her nap. While changing her little one, Emmalee’s mom noticed hundreds of black dots all over her daughter’s body. She initially tried to brush them off but they seemed stuck. That's when she came to the horrifying realization that each tiny black dot was a tick.
They were seed ticks, or which required months of medicine and years of testing for Lyme disease.
She guessed her daughter must've been playing somewhere near a nest to get so covered.
Seed ticks are the larval form of ticks or, ticks in their juvenile state and are so small that they are hard to spot at first.
If you do find a tick on you or your child, experts recommend using tweezers and grasping the tick’s body as close to the skin’s surface as possible then pulling upward with a steady, even pressure.
Try to stay patient as seed ticks are even smaller than the average adult tick and you don’t want to twist or jerk one and end up leaving the mouthparts in the skin.
Once you’ve removed the tick, stick it in rubbing alcohol and clean the bite area with soap and water, an iodine scrub, or rubbing alcohol.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, ticks are most active between April and September.
To avoid a tick bite, the CDC recommends that you stay away from wooded and brushy areas that have high grass and leaf litter, stay in the center of marked trails on walks or hikes, and wear bug repellent on your skin and clothing that has 20 percent or more DEET, picaridin, or IR3535. Regarding the repellent, the CDC issued this disclaimer: “Parents should apply this product to their children, avoiding hands, eyes, and mouth. Use products that contain permethrin on clothing.”