Bed bug bite on the body of a child: symptoms, what to ointment with

Our children are delicate creatures with thin, sensitive skin. This is precisely what attracts various blood-sucking parasites, which do not have to strain themselves to experience saturation. Bedbug bites in children are almost as common as mosquito bites. And worried parents see new results of the insects' "labor" on the body of their beloved baby every day. In order to alleviate the baby's condition and, if possible, prevent repeated insect attacks, it is important to figure out with which of them you have to share your home, and perhaps even your bed.

Getting to know the new "neighbor"

Well, we have long been accustomed to mosquitoes, especially in the autumn-summer period. And knowing the enemy "in person", we have learned to fight it effectively. Another thing is bedbugs, about the existence of which indoors not everyone even knows. After all, bedbugs are classified as night predators, you can't even see them during the day.

Bedbugs, like mosquitoes, are considered insects that feed on blood, obtaining it by piercing the skin of the host. At the site of the bite, a specific mark remains. Bedbugs that live in residential premises are also called bedbugs. They are often the cause of anxiety and even illness in children.

The insect itself is small in size. The length of adults ranges from 4-8 mm, their larvae are even smaller. The color can be from light yellow in larvae to dark brown in older insects.

Unlike mosquitoes, bedbugs do not have wings, and are considered to be land "troops". They can successfully move along both horizontal and vertical surfaces, including ceilings, from which insects sometimes fall into a child's bed, and then in the morning parents discover bedbug bites on their children's bodies.

But the insect's shape is unusual, prone to change depending on the degree of saturation of the bug. A hungry bug has rounded sides and a flat back, but a well-fed one somehow turns into an elongated insect with a curved back. After eating, the bug is very similar to a cockroach or a Prussian, but has small differences that can only be seen under a microscope.

Causes of bed bug bites on a child

There is one reason why bedbugs bite children, and it is the easy opportunity to satisfy the bedbug's hunger, which intensifies every 5-10 days. At the same time, it can drink more blood than it weighs (somewhere around 5-7 ml), "eating" for half an hour.

While they may bother children and adults with delicate skin, bedbugs are actually quite peaceful insects. They do not bother other whiskered residents of the apartment, but are subject to attacks from cockroaches, house ants and centipedes. However, breeding other living creatures in the room to combat bedbugs is impractical and unhygienic.

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Risk factors

The bedbug is attracted by the smell of the baby's body, which is not mixed with foreign smells, such as alcohol, nicotine, etc., typical of men. For this reason, bedbugs prefer small children, and not adult uncles, who also have much coarser skin.

But insects love women almost as much as children. They are attracted to delicate female skin, through which it is easy to get what they want.

Unlike mosquitoes, which leave traces of their presence mainly on open areas of the body not protected by clothing or bed linen, bedbugs can crawl under the blanket. They are unable to bite through fabric, so they look for ways to crawl under children's pajamas or nightgowns, where the blood pulsation is felt best.

At the site of the bites, you can see either a cluster of red dots or areas with irritated, painful to the touch, but terribly itchy skin. The latter may indicate the development of an allergic inflammatory reaction, the risk factors of which are increased skin sensitivity, as well as unfavorable living conditions and environmental factors, failure to comply with hygiene standards. In this case, the allergen is the insect's saliva.

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Pathogenesis

So, the feeling of hunger pushes the bedbug to commit a "crime". In order for it to be able to feed on blood, extracting it from under the human skin, the insect has a special two-channel proboscis. One channel of the proboscis delivers the insect's saliva to the bite site, which serves as an anesthetic, and the other delivers blood to the bedbug's body.

Perfectly feeling the places of blood pulsation, bedbugs unmistakably determine the appropriate capillary, in which they make a puncture. Having drunk a certain amount of blood, the insect moves on, making bites. During a single meal, a bedbug can make from 3 to 6 punctures. Therefore, bedbug bites in children and adults look like a kind of chain of their red itchy dots, and not in the form of single pimples, as in the case of mosquitoes.

The bites of adult insects are usually not felt by the victims immediately due to the secretion of special saliva. However, the bite of an insect larva, which requires food every day, is quite sensitive and is accompanied by pain when the skin is pierced.

Symptoms of bed bug bites on a child

For parents who are not well-versed in these matters, bedbug bites on children may remain a mystery for a long time. They may attribute the marks on the baby's skin to ubiquitous mosquitoes and fleas or take them for manifestations of a common childhood pathology - allergic dermatitis.

There is nothing surprising about this. Itchy skin irritation in the form of swelling or redness can indicate both. But these same symptoms are also characteristic of bedbug bites.

To understand the cause of the above symptoms, it is important to know what a bedbug bite looks like on a child.

Externally, it is not so easy to distinguish between single mosquito, flea and bedbug bites. At the site of the skin puncture, small swollen bumps are most often formed, which subsequently turn red or red dots. The sizes of the bumps are almost the same, only flea bites are marked by smaller marks. In all cases, there is a strong itch.

What an insect bite will look like depends largely not on its type, but on the individual characteristics of the victim's body, in this case a child. In some children, skin punctures are marked only by small red dots, while in others, if there is an allergy to the analgesic in the bedbug's saliva, islands of swollen skin up to 5 cm in size are formed. A small abscess may even form at the site of the larval bite.

An allergic reaction to a bedbug bite in a child and some adults is quite persistent, and can last even more than a week, causing anxiety in the child and worry in the parents. In this case, you cannot do without antihistamines.

A flea bite is usually characterized by small red dots that are located relatively close to each other in different parts of the body. They usually do not cause a violent allergic reaction.

A mosquito bite, like a bedbug bite, can cause a strong allergic reaction, or it can remain almost unnoticeable on the skin. But usually these are 1 or 2 bumps located in close proximity, the rest will be at a distance, but bedbug bites are located in groups of 3-5 punctures.

If it is difficult for parents to determine who bit their child based on the appearance of the wounds, they can try to find some traces of the insect's presence or even catch it at the scene of the "crime", which, however, is more difficult to do due to the nocturnal nature of the bug's hunt, while during the day it carefully camouflages itself. But it is still worth trying.

So, the first signs that there are bedbugs in the room, and not mosquitoes or fleas, are the following:

• The appearance of an unusual smell in the room, associated not so much with the insect itself, but with the lubricant that the females secrete to attach the eggs of the larvae to surfaces. This is not the most pleasant and not typical for a baby's bedroom almond aroma, somewhat reminiscent of a slightly sour berry (rather even raspberry) or cognac.
• Small blood spots can be found on the child's bed. The bug, piercing the skin in search of a food source, does not care about the blood clotting. Blood appears at the bite site, which then gets on the baby's bed.
• A fairly large blood stain on the bed may indicate that the child simply crushed an insect.
• The presence of black dots in the baby's bed, resembling fine dirt, most likely indicates the presence of bedbugs in the room. And dirt is nothing more than the excrement of bedbugs, for which the "dining room" and "toilet" are inseparable.

Since bedbugs are nocturnal, you can only catch them at work at night. It is best to do this at the peak of their activity, which is between 2 and 4 a.m. If you turn on the light at such a time, there is a high probability of seeing the insects hastily hiding. But bedbug larvae can be seen even during the daytime.

Complications and consequences

If the bedbug bite is not accompanied by a pronounced allergic reaction, there is no need to worry about the health and condition of the child, although you will have to fight the insects in any case, so as not to expose the baby to repeated attacks of the mustachioed "troops". The danger in this situation lies in the high probability of the baby scratching the itchy spots until they bleed and introducing an infection from the outside, which results in abscesses on the skin at the bite sites, which are difficult to treat.

The appearance of an allergic reaction to bedbug bites in children should alert parents, because the matter is not always limited to external manifestations. Some children may experience:

• the appearance of heat against the background of an increase in temperature,
• allergic rhinitis,
• headaches,
• abdominal pain, etc.

Such manifestations usually pass quickly, leaving no trace. However, similar symptoms can also occur with other pathologies, so if in doubt, you should definitely show the child to a doctor.

In some cases, you can see more severe consequences and complications of a bedbug bite, in which case you cannot do without the help of a specialist. Symptoms such as difficulty breathing in a child, swelling of the eyelids, lips, tongue or larynx, anaphylactic shock, accompanied by loss of consciousness and a decrease in blood pressure, are a reason to seek emergency care and subsequent treatment from a doctor, because self-medication in this case can result in even more severe consequences.

Severe swelling at the site of the bite, accompanied by unbearable itching and fever due to an active inflammatory reaction, the appearance of a general allergic reaction in the form of urticaria, and the development of anemia due to nightly blood loss are also dangerous. Such reactions require immediate medical attention, although they are not a reason for hospitalizing the child.

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Diagnostics of bed bug bites on a child

The reaction to bedbug bites in children is usually more severe than in adults. This is due to the insufficient development of the baby's immune system. In the absence of an obvious allergic reaction and the detection of obvious signs of the presence of bedbugs in the room, it is enough to simply treat the bite site with an antiseptic and take measures to prevent repeated attacks by insects, since repeated bites can be more severe.

If there is severe inflammation, pronounced local and general allergic reactions and other manifestations that are dangerous to the life and health of the baby, you must seek help from a medical institution. For consultation and diagnosis, you can contact an allergist, immunologist or even a dermatologist. Or, for starters, a pediatrician who will refer you to the right specialist.

Diagnosis of bedbug bites in children is usually limited to collecting anamnesis, in which the external examination of the little patient and complaints of the parents play a decisive role. The purpose of diagnosis is to identify an allergy to an insect bite. For this purpose, skin tests and blood tests for antibodies are also prescribed.

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Differential diagnosis

When any allergic reactions occur, differential diagnostics is an important point in making a diagnosis, designed to distinguish an allergic reaction to insect bites from a common allergy and rashes characteristic of some pathologies. After all, blisters on the body, redness and itching are not specific symptoms indicating a bedbug bite in children. An insect bite is only one of the reasons for a pronounced response of the immune system.

The appearance of itchy blisters is typical of the same urticaria, which appears as a result of hypersensitivity to some components of medicines or food products. They can also be a manifestation of contact allergy to household chemicals, skin care products, some materials used to make clothes and bed linen.

Such rashes may be a symptom of:

• some autoimmune diseases,
• poisoning, including food poisoning,
• liver damage.

Mycoses and pustular skin lesions can also manifest themselves in the same way.

Sometimes allergies can be caused not so much by the bugs themselves and contact with them, but by insecticides designed to fight insects. This point should also be taken into account when diagnosing.

As we can see, there are a great many reasons for the appearance of a rash on the skin similar to bedbug bites, which is why it is so important to conduct special tests that allow us to determine the main factor in the development of such a reaction in order to prescribe effective treatment in the future.

Treatment of bed bug bites on a child

Bedbug bites in children are often quite severe, with severe itching, swelling, and other unpleasant symptoms. However, the child's body's reaction to the introduction of an analgesic in the saliva of a bedbug may vary. Treatment of bedbug bites in children is carried out depending on the severity of this reaction.

If after a bedbug bite the child does not show obvious signs of developing an allergy, you can limit yourself to disinfecting the damaged area of skin by washing with a cool soap solution. After that, you can apply a product suitable for the baby that helps the wound heal faster and relieves inflammation. Such products include creams such as "Rescuer", ointment "Levomekol", etc.

A warm bath will also help reduce the unpleasant symptoms of insect bites. However, if your baby has a high temperature, you will have to give it up and resort to antipyretic drugs.

If we are talking about an allergic reaction in a child to a bedbug bite, then you cannot do without antihistamines. The choice of antiallergic drugs depends on how it manifests itself and the area it covers.

In case of a local allergic reaction, you can limit yourself to the drug for external use "Fenistil-gel", which is a mandatory attribute of many home medicine cabinets. In case of more serious reactions, it may be necessary to take drugs intended for internal use. The same "Fenistil" in the form of drops, "Suprastin", "Cetirizine DS".

If allergic rhinitis occurs, you can use drops and sprays used in connection with allergies: Vibrocil, Sanorin, Allergodil, etc.

It is better to leave the choice of drugs to a specialist who will select a medicine taking into account the individual characteristics and age of the baby, and also prescribe an effective and safe dosage. You can also consult with a doctor about the safety of insecticides that are planned to be used to combat bedbugs in the baby's room and other rooms of the apartment.

Medications for bedbug bites in children

The number one choice for treating bedbug bites in children is considered to be the drug "Fenistil", which can be found on pharmacy shelves in the form of drops or gel for external use. The drug is useful for any inflammatory reactions, including those caused by allergies to food products and insect bites. It effectively relieves itching and swelling at the site of the lesion.

When the question arises of what is the best way to treat bedbug bites in children, many mothers unanimously claim that the best drug in this regard is Fenistil gel, and if you don’t have it, you can use other balms and ointments that relieve inflammation and various irritations on the skin.

Method of administration and dosage. The preparation in the form of a gel is used only for external treatment of the bite site, applying it 2 to 4 times a day. If the wounds are relatively small, this will be enough. In the case of large, very itchy wounds, the preparation in the form of drops is additionally prescribed.

The dosage of the drug in this case is determined by the age of the small patient. So for infants, a single dose can be from 3 to 10 drops, for children aged 1-3 years - from 10 to 15 drops, for children under 12 years - about 15-20 drops.

It is recommended to take the drug in the form of drops intended for internal use three times a day. It is recommended to add the drops to compote, tea or a bottle of water.

Contraindications to the use of this medicine may be the patient's age. The medicine is not intended for the treatment of newborns, who may develop life-threatening reactions. In children over 1 month old, both drops and gel are applicable.

The drug in the form of drops is not prescribed to small patients with bronchial asthma. Caution is also observed when prescribing liquid medicine to children with obstructive lung lesions.

If the drug is given to a child orally, in some cases the following side effects may be observed: increased drowsiness, headaches and dizziness, severe agitation, nausea, a feeling of dryness in the mouth and throat, swelling and rashes on the skin, muscle spasms, breathing problems. When applying the drug in the form of a gel to the skin, the child may feel a burning sensation and itching.

The best analogue of the drug "Fenistil-gel" is "Zirtek" in the same form of release. It can be used in the therapy of children over 6 months. In children aged one year and older, "Fenistil" can be replaced with "Ketocin" ointment if necessary. If the child is 2 years old or older, the use of the medicinal ointment "Dermadrin" is permissible.

As an antiallergic drug for children over 6 years old, tablets "Zyrtec", "Zodak", "Cetirizine" and others based on cetirizine dihydrochloride can be prescribed. The same drugs in the form of drops can be used in the therapy of children over six months. The drug "Cetirizine DS" according to indications and under the supervision of a doctor in a dosage determined by him can be given even to the smallest patients.

"Cetirizine DS" is a drug intended for the treatment of allergies in adults and children, including those caused by bedbug bites. It has relatively few contraindications. These include renal insufficiency or hypersensitivity to cetirizine in young patients. The drug is used with particular caution in the treatment of infants.

"Cetirizine" is an inexpensive drug, but quite an effective drug. It is produced in the form of tablets. The dosage of the drug is directly dependent on the patient's age and is prescribed by the doctor individually. So, for children from 2 to 6 years old, the effective daily dose is 5 mg, and for adolescents over 12 years old, the dosage becomes 2 times more. In case of kidney pathologies, it may be necessary to reduce the prescribed dose. The frequency of taking the drug is 1 or 2 times a day.

Side effects of the drug may include dry mouth, headache and dizziness, severe drowsiness in the baby, dyspepsia, muscle weakness, and the appearance of external allergic reactions.

To treat bedbug bite allergies in the youngest patients, with the exception of newborns, you can use the popular drug "Suprastin", which is available in the form of tablets and injection solution. It is effective both for fairly mild manifestations of allergies and as emergency aid for Quincke's edema.

Method of administration and dosage. Suprastin tablets are intended for oral administration. They should be taken whole, without crushing, during meals. It is recommended to wash down the tablet with water in the amount of 1/2 glass. To treat bedbug bites in infants, the tablets are ground into powder and added to baby food mixtures.

1 tablet contains 25 mg of chloropyramine hydrochloride. A single dose for children under 1 year is a quarter of a tablet, for children from 1 to 6 years old, depending on the condition and frequency of administration, the dose can vary from a quarter to half a tablet. Children over 6 years old are usually prescribed half a tablet at a time. The frequency of administration is from 2 to 3 times a day as prescribed by a doctor.

The maximum dose of the drug should not exceed 2 mg per kilogram of the patient's weight. That is, if a child weighs 20 kg, the daily dosage should not exceed 40 mg (about 1.5 tablets).

The solution "Suprastin" is used for intramuscular or intravenous administration of the drug. The latter is applicable only in severe cases when there is a danger to the patient's life, subsequent treatment is carried out using tablets and intramuscular injections.

The dosage for children under one year of age is 0.25 ml (1 ampoule - 20 mg chloropyramine hydrochloride, or 1 ml of its aqueous solution). Children under 6 years of age are given 0.5 ml of the solution. The dosage for children and adolescents can range from 0.5 to 1 ml of the solution.

The drug is not used if the child has acute attacks of bronchial asthma or hypersensitivity to the components of the drug. Small patients with liver or kidney dysfunction should be given the drug under the supervision of a doctor.

The side effects of the drug are identical to those described in the instructions for Fenistil and Cetirizine. But there are also specific effects that are unique to Suprastin.

Thus, some patients, while taking the drug, experience changes in blood composition, severe fatigue and lethargy, abnormal heart rhythms, diarrhea or constipation, vomiting, changes in appetite, stomach pain, problems with urination, and increased sensitivity to sunlight.

If a child has not only a local but also a general allergic reaction to a bedbug bite, as indicated by the appearance of a seemingly causeless runny nose, you will have to fight this symptom with the help of nasal drops and sprays.

"Vibrocil" is a drug that doctors very often prescribe when allergic rhinitis (runny nose) is suspected in children. The drug, which is produced in the form of a gel, spray and nasal drops, has a vasoconstrictor and antihistamine effect.

The drug in the form of drops is intended for the treatment of adults and children over 1 year old. It is administered into each of the nasal passages, 1-2 drops for children under 6 years of age and 3-4 drops for older children and teenagers. The nose should be instilled 3 or 4 times a day, after clearing the nasal passages of mucus. After instillation, you need to hold the child's head tilted back for some time.

The spray can be used only from the age of 6. For a therapeutic effect, 1-2 injections into each of the nasal passages are enough. The procedure should be carried out 3-4 times a day.

The preparation in the form of a gel is used for severe dryness of the nasal mucosa, the presence of crusts in it, as well as for injuries to the nose. It should be applied deep into each nasal passage 3 or 4 times a day.

The therapeutic course should not exceed 7 days. Otherwise, a rebound effect occurs with repeated episodes of nasal congestion.

Contraindications to the use of the drug include atrophic rhinitis and parallel use of MAO inhibitors. The drug should not be used for 2 weeks after discontinuing the above-mentioned medications, as well as in case of hypersensitivity to its components.

The drug should be used with caution in cases of diabetes mellitus, epilepsy, hyperthyroidism, heart disease, and also if the small patient has a pronounced reaction to sympathomimetics.

Side effects of the drug are observed quite rarely. Usually it is a burning sensation on the nasal mucosa, a feeling of dryness and discomfort in the nose, sometimes nosebleeds.

When choosing an effective and convenient form of Vibrocil for your baby, you need to remember that in the treatment of children under 6 years of age, only nasal drops are used, while the spray and gel can be used starting from the age of 6.

Vitamin complexes do not play a decisive role in bedbug bites in children. Taking vitamins in this case is indicated to strengthen the baby's immunity. It is carried out in parallel with taking antihistamines.

Folk remedies for bedbug bites

First aid for bedbug bites in children consists of washing the puncture wound with a disinfectant solution to reduce the inflammatory process and using various means to reduce the allergic reaction caused by an inadequate immune response.

The following are used as a disinfectant solution in folk medicine:

• soap solution using baby or laundry soap,
• aqueous solution of ammonia (proportion 1:1),
• baking soda solution (as for gargling).

To relieve skin irritation, you can use compresses or lotions based on:

• solution prepared from 1 glass of water and 1 teaspoon of soda,
• oak decoction,
• chamomile infusion (1 tbsp. per glass of water, leave for half an hour, but if urgently needed, it can be used earlier),
• infusion of succession, which helps with various skin irritations in small children. For the infusion, take 1 liter of boiling water and 4 teaspoons of chopped grass. The mixture is infused for 20 minutes.

You can try wiping the bite sites with saliva or a cotton swab soaked in urine. This will relieve inflammation and skin itching.

Herbal treatment also plays an important role in the treatment of bedbug bites in children. Decoctions or infusions of succession and chamomile are useful for washing wounds and lotions. But clean mint leaves, which have a mild analgesic and relaxing effect, crushed dandelion flowers and leaves, parsley, bird cherry and plantain leaves are applied to irritated bite sites fresh. They can also be fixed on the wound with a bandage and left for a couple of hours, after which the wound is washed with a soda solution.

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Homeopathy for bedbug bites in children

The use of homeopathic preparations for bedbug bites in children is due to their relative safety for small patients. Even if they do not replace traditional medicines in their effectiveness in this situation, noticeable relief in children after taking them is observed in most cases.

The main homeopathic remedies for insect bites are considered to be Apis and Ledum palustre. True, they are more effective for bee and mosquito bites, but they can also relieve pain from larval bites and skin inflammation from bedbug bites.

They are effective if relief comes not from the effects of heat, but from cold. Otherwise, their use is pointless.

Apis is a kind of vaccine for insect bites for people with increased sensitivity and a tendency to allergies. To prevent an allergic reaction, it is enough to drink the drug for 4 days. After this, the reaction to insect bites usually becomes normal, without severe inflammation and itching.

For small patients, Apis is given in potency D6, 2-3 grains every hour. For older children, the dose is increased to 5 grains. The grains should be kept under the tongue until they dissolve. Ledum is used in 30 dilution according to the same scheme.

For very young children, Apis and Ledum are used in the form of drops.

External treatment of closed wounds can be done with arnica ointment, which will relieve pain and swelling. But it is better to use calendula tincture for this purpose, as a disinfectant and anti-inflammatory agent.

How to get rid of bedbugs?

It is easier to prevent any disease than to treat it later, even bedbug and other insect bites in children. What can I say, when it comes to our precious daughters and sons, what mother will calmly watch her child being offended. And the father will probably put his business aside to tidy up the baby's room, clearing it of uninvited guests.

There are many special preparations – insecticides – for exterminating harmful insects in residential premises. In particular, such products as “Dichlorvos”, “Karbozol”, “Karbofos” and others are suitable for fighting bedbugs, the main active ingredient of which is chlorpyrifos or karbofos.

Bedbug control products are available in the form of aerosols, gels, dusts and liquid preparations, which are considered the most effective in this regard (Karbofos, Tsifox, Chisty Dom, Minap-22, etc.). Special devices are also used to repel bedbugs (but not destroy them!): ultrasonic emitters, fumigators, steam generators, etc.

The use of the latter is ineffective, since there is a high probability of the insects returning when the device's effect ends. And the use of aggressive chemicals (even if the instructions say that they are safe for people and animals) is fraught with consequences. The child and other family members may develop an allergy not to bedbugs and their bites, but to the disinfectant that was used in the room. Exposure to two allergens at once can cause a severe allergic reaction that is life-threatening for the child.

Some insecticides are downright toxic, which causes certain inconveniences in the form of the need for thorough and prolonged ventilation of the room after using bedbug control products (which is not so easy to do in the cold season) and even leaving your home for several days.

And if you use bedbug control products ineptly, you can only bring on new troubles without getting rid of the old ones. For this reason, it is better to leave the disinfection of the premises to specialists who will go around every corner of the house, so that the bedbugs will not have a single chance.

But these are all measures to combat an existing problem. But how can you make sure that bedbug bites never appear on children, as well as these insects themselves in your home?

Prevention

Preventing bedbugs from appearing in a living space is the key to our children's peaceful sleep. This means we must do everything to ensure that uninvited guests cannot share our home with us, offending our own children with impunity.

But cleaning the apartment alone will not do. Cleanliness or dirt in the apartment in no way affects the amount of blood that the bedbug can receive from the residents of the apartment or house where it has settled. And bedbugs can get into the house in a variety of ways: with used furniture and clothes bought "on hand", through various communications, moving from neighbors, arriving in a suitcase after a trip to another city or country, etc.

To prevent bedbugs from spreading in your apartment, you need to:

• periodically carry out repairs with the treatment of suspicious areas with insecticides for preventive purposes,
• regularly treat with liquid insecticides or chalk the places through which bedbugs can get to you from the neighboring apartment, if there is reason to suspect their presence there,
• Used furniture and clothing should be treated with steam and insecticides before the item is brought into the apartment. The same should be done with items brought back from a business trip if you had to spend some time in a room infested with insects.

To protect your child from bed bugs, parents need to:

• Make sure that the wooden crib is varnished and that the bed linen does not touch the floor. This will make it difficult for insects to get into the baby's bed.
• Periodically check your baby's bed at night for insects.
• Inspect the child's bed for excrement and other traces of bed bugs. The presence of brown spots should alert the child's parents.
• Raise the mattress in the crib from time to time to be able to inspect it from all sides.
• Pay attention to suspicious smells that are not typical for a child’s room, in particular the smell of almonds, which may indicate a bedbug infestation.

If you could not avoid bedbugs getting into your apartment and your children still have traces of bedbug bites on their delicate skin, you need to immediately begin fighting the blood-sucking insects.

First, you need to steam-treat wooden and fabric surfaces, including the baby cot, sofas, armchairs, carpets, bed linen and mattresses. It is recommended to do the same with pillows after each change, and they should be changed as often as possible.

The baby cot should be placed in such a way that it does not come into contact with other wooden furniture, especially with that which is not covered with varnish. It is recommended to treat the legs of the cot with a liquid remedy against bedbugs.

The bed linen in the crib should not hang down to the floor, because bedbugs can easily crawl into the baby’s crib through the fabric.

Forecast

The prognosis after a bedbug bite depends on many factors. Among them, we can highlight the individual characteristics of the child's body, which determine the immune response, as well as the effectiveness and timeliness of the measures taken to reduce the allergic reaction.

Bedbug bites in children are not considered a life-threatening phenomenon. But they still bring a certain discomfort to the life of a little person and his parents, who are worried about their child with all their hearts. Just the sight of a baby bitten by bedbugs can shock parents, because this is not a sight for the faint of heart. Red, swollen and very itchy spots deprive the baby of peace, who is eager to scratch them until they bleed, with a high probability of introducing an infection into the wound. But this is no longer safe, which means that the task of parents is to prevent bedbugs from getting into the child's bed, and better yet, into their home as a whole.

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