Children and Lyme disease

Thansk for the forum. I had a question about Lmye disease and was trying to figure out where to post it. My children like playing in grass and woods and I recently found out that some other kid
got Lyme disease. What can you do to help prevent them from getting Lyme disease?

[savagek]

As I too have been concerned about this with my children, I would suggest you check out this link on Lyme Disease Prevention -

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/ld_prevent.htm

Thanks,

Rob

[MaxxAndrewAD]

well I know the only reason you should have to worry about it, is if your kid is around animals... zoos hunting trips just playing in the woods a cat that goes outside but even then... think of what lyme disease really is... its symptoms are kinda stupid, what youd expect to have throughout your normal life span anyways.
but still, it sucks to be labeled with a disease, just tell your kid about ticks lice bodily fluids and blood. Also tell them what happens to their lives if they are diagnosed with a disease besides being ill.

[MaxxAndrewAD]

the hardest thing tho is finding the tick... they prefer body hair, and a place they do not have to hang on to... mainly the back of the neck, or above the penis.
if they find a tick, if your a psycho you can treat it like a snake bite, bleeding it out, or you can just peroxide it.

[amk333]

I don't know what you mean...syptoms (symptoms) are not what normally happens in life...they are debilitating.  People can get lyme disease from being outside...period.  Which means, if your kids play outside, they can get lyme.  Try to keep them away from bushes, overgrowth, and wood piles.  Also, long sleeves and pants (lightly colored) will help you to spot a tick.

[amk333]

Also, do not "bleed it out" or just peroxide it.  Grab tick with tweezers as close to the skin as possible, and gently pull straight out.  Try to save live tick in a container with a blade of grass to bring to the doctor with you, so they can test it for lyme disease.  After removing tick, it would be a good idea to use an antiseptic on the bite area.  Keep an eye on area for swelling, and/or rash.  Check out lymenet.com for more info.

[1VT1yG1tl]

I looked at and am responding to this forum for a few reasons: 1) I have a friend who contracted Lyme's disease about 4 years ago, 2) I have kids, 3) I live in a country (The Netherlands) where people have been cautioned about their practices in forested areas because of the prevalence (I'm pretty sure I read like 25% of the ticks here carry it, if I read correctly) of Lyme's disease in the ticks here and 4) my experiences with the friend who has the disease and otherwise contradicts some of what I read above.  

My report is all anecdotal but here it is anyway:  My friend did indeed get the tick from a dog during a trip to Spain, but by NO MEANS were the symptoms run of the mill.  He was in the hospital for weeks, the disease had infected his brain through his nerves (his explanation of what the doctors told him).  He was VERY sick and reportedly was even not too far from losing his life.  I visited him one time in the hospital and he could barely talk to me because he had suffered nerve damage to his facial nerves.  For many months after his recovery through antibiotic treatment, he suffered from weakness, numbness and fatigue.  He STILL has some numbness in his face, but he can talk now and is more or less back to normal.  Not symptoms I would want to have as part of my ordinary course of life.  

I got a tick in my neck once when I was still living in the US and I got it through NO CONTACT with animals.  I was cleaning up trash in a local forest and stupidly I got myself really into some bushes.  I probably was also risking a rattlesnake bite but fortunately that didn't happen.  Anyway, no Lyme's disease from that.  

I read a newspaper article here and my recollection is that some association of some sort is recommending against taking school kids on trips to the forest because of the prevalence of ticks infected with Lyme's disease.  

My experience and what I've learned tells me Lyme's disease will change your life if you or somebody you know contracts it and that it's not impossible to contract either.

[cave76]

I'm sorry to respectively disagree with the notion that the ONLY way one can be infected with a TBI is by contact with pets or zoo animals or such.

Mice are everywhere.
You don't usually see them.
They may drop an engorged tick in the basement/walls or such of your house.
That female tick may lay thousands of eggs in your house.
Then another infected (with Bb) mouse come along and they will attach, feed and drop off. All inside your house or environs.

The next feeding of that tick might be you or your children.

I don't say this to freak anyone out! But it happens.

Do not 'peroxide' the tick off.

Do NOT take it to your M.D. He will most likely be clueless.

There are labs that will test that tick in the best way possible, but it's not cheap.

Your county lab MAY test the tick, but I don't believe they're the best. Just my opinion.

It's a lot of money. But it's a devastating disease. People don't try to save money on their cancer dx or treatment.

The same shoudl be true of this hidden. 'orphan' disease!!!

Beware of dis- and mis-information on the Web.

Go to www.ilads.org
www.canlyme.org
www.lymenet.org (but it has a fairly large woo-woo membership. :) So also beware there too. LOL

There's a yahoogroup--- eurolyme. It's free. and pretty good support.