High Maintenance Mom

Summer is a great time for outdoor activities but also prime time for tick bites and poison ivy. Since we live in tick central, we have learned what they look like, how to do daily tick checks and how to remove them. We have already found several crawling on shirts, pants and socks but none on the body to date. I showed my 3 1/2 year old daughter a live one crawling on our deck so she knows that they look like. I also told her to show an adult if she ever sees one on her body or a friends body. I didn't scare her with the details of lyme disease but I found that a little bit of knowledge at this age can really help empower a child. I found that www.tickinfo.com has some good information on ticks, lyme disease and good pictures of ticks. Poison Ivy is a dreaded summer curse in my family. I grew up getting very serious cases and have been hospitalized too. When I get it now (my last case was this March, yes, March!) I am put on Prednisone, an oral steroid and a topical steroid. Just as I did with ticks, I taught my daughter about the poison ivy, oak and sumac plants. I showed her actual plants and showed her my outbreak. I also told her, when in doubt, stay clear of any plant. No need to figure out the hard way. The internet has great web sites for poison ivy and shows you what the leaves look like in the spring, summer and fall and what to do if you get it. I liked www.poisonivy.aesir.com for general info and pictures. I think what my daughter (and next summer my son too) will take away from this is that you dont have to touch everything to learn about it. Enjoy summer, do tick checks daily and stay away from the leaves of three!