chiggers...in A Bad Place..

Hi,
You might be able to try either Epson salt sitz bath or oatmeal bath. Both should be sensitive enough for her and the oatmeal if I am not mistaken should dry up those infected areas. You might also try a dab of hemmohroid cream to reduce pain or even A& D ointment. Also, straight zinc( which you can buy at a whole foods or organic foods store might work) Good Luck.

Use - "Preparation H" - apply as soon as you notice chigger bites. I read about this - and it does work!

Chiggers aren't what you think they are. The insect is NOT still there it's their bite she has.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/poison-ivy/SN00022&s...

I know you can prevent the prob in the first place by spraying ankles w/ OFF or some other brand! But if your little one is sitting in the grass, etc, the only thing I could think of is a capful of bleach diluted into her bath. READ about doing this first!!! I know that will kill chiggers or ticks. Just in case y'all go again & someone gets into poison ivy...here's the cure:

make a paste w/ Borax powder detergent and a little water.
scrub blisters till they break
rinse/pat dry
rub area w/ roll on deoderant

deter separates the oil that causes the blisters & keeps it from spreading. The roll-on dries up the blisters.

Happy camping! And make sure all contaminated clothes/sheets get washed or stored separately from other laundry...those chiggers spread!!!

Hi J.,

We love, love, love the out doors. And the chiggers love us. And all of our moist parts. (under arms, back of knees, and both the girly and boyish parts.)

Here is what we do: we take a lukewarm sitz bath with two cups of bleach. just soak in the water for about 20min. or so. Then we keep on hand a cream over the counter med. called ChiggerX. It is a white jar type container with a red lid. Sold at most stores that have OTC drugs and creams. Like Wal-Mart, Walgreen's, CVS, etc... Just put this cream on twice a day or more if you notice your child wanting to scratch. This helps us out faster than anything we tried when we were younger and didn't know about this stuff.

We did the clear nail polish trick also, it helped suffocate the chiggers but it realy took a while to work (weeks). And this cream seems to help us in a day or two.

Good luck. Chiggers are miserable.

Oh here is a trick for mosquitoes bites: put Orajel, or Ambasol on the bit and the itching stops imideatly.

Whenever we have been around chiggers, we always strip down and spray our entire body with OFF (or another bugspray), wait 10 minutes and then shower off with very warm water. Works every time.

Hi,

I am originally from the east coast and never experienced chiggers until I came to Texas. I live in the hill country, right outside of Austin, and have chiggers in my yard. I learned the hard way what chiggers do and thus, spent a lot of time researching them so my family will be spared as much as possible from their bites. My husband and I have two daughters, 7 and 3, and take precautions all the time when we go out to either play or work in the yard.

Unfortunately, you can't get rid of a chigger bite. Contrary to popular belief,a chigger doesn't burrow into the skin. Instead, they attach themselves to your skin, inject saliva with digestive enzymes that helps to break down your skin cells, which the chigger drinks. It is these enzymes that cause the itchy rash. They will stay on your body until you get rid of them.

The best thing to do to get rid of any leftover chiggers is to take a warm bath or shower as soon as possible to wash them off your body. If you can't get to a bath or shower immediately after being exposed out in the yard or woods, spray rubbing alcohol on your legs ASAP and this will kill any that are still on your legs (before they reach the areas with a band, such as underwear, diapers, etc.).

The best remedy that I found to relieve the itching from the bites is topical Benadryl. Works like a charm and it takes the itch away fast! I use it on myself and my kids. Forget the nail polish advice...

For future reference, spray insect repellant on your shoes, socks, legs, etc. before going out. When I go out in the yard to do any yard work, I spray enough repellent (like Off) on my shoes and socks until they are somewhat wet. For my kids, I use an Avon insect repellent that doesn't contain DEET. The other thing you can do is to dust your shoes and socks with powder sulphur, which I find at a my local "Natural Garden" store. I buy this in big bags. My husband spreads this sulphur powder around the main areas of our yard and walkway to keep the chiggers under control in those areas. This powder sulphur is safe for people and pets.

I have always wondered why God made chiggers...not sure what their real purpose in life is...

Hope this helps!
K.
Dripping Springs, TX

Pine-sol! It has something in it that kills them fast, and does not hurt the skin! just dip a Q-tip in the bottle of pine-sol and rub on the skin, they will heal very quickly, and the itch will go away almost immediately! I hate those little buggers! they seem to stick around forever, that's because they actually get under the skin and live there! good luck, trust the pine-sol!

chiggers cannot survive on humans for very long. The sores caused by them can last a while, though. Wash her 2-3 times a day for a week with soap and water in the affected area to ensure the bugs are gone. Then, use neosporin on the sores. They will get better in another week or two.
Take it from an experienced camper and chigger survivor!

There is a product called chigger X (it's a cream)- it's in a plastic jar white w/ red lettering; you can get it at any drug store/grocery store. My husband used it a few years ago, it seemed to work ok.

Hi J.,

I've heard that chiggers don't like Tea Tree Oil, although I don't know if it would be too strong for a sensitive area (you could always try a small amount on yourself first). You can get it at a health food store, Whole Foods, etc. Seems a lot healthier than nail polish and bleach, since our skin absorbs whatever we put on it. Please remember to do your best to prevent ticks (and this would mean at least spraying kids with "OFF for kids" plus shoes & socks, since they can cause nasty (and permanently damaging) diseases if not found within 24 hours. Always good to do a "body check" for each other each day, since they like difficult to see places. I once found a small one between my husband's toes! Good luck! jenifer

HEB sales a chiggers cream... i bought it for my husband because he works out in the fields a lot.

Hi,

I spoke with my husband and he said when he was in the army they had to use chig-away it is a lotion. I hope it helps.

Amie

Rub bacon grease on affected areas of skin. Itching will stop immediately and chigger bites will disappear in 2 or 3 days

A and D ointment Desitin would probably work also but it would be harder to wash off and a little smelly. Oh! Guess what? You can use it on your private areas!

The most gentle thing you can use is cortisone. I have found that the BEST remedy for chiggers is a product called Chiggerid. I am not sure I would put it on her sensitive girl parts, though. Just so you know, Chiggerid also stings--but only if the child has been scratching.

And next time you are in a place that has chiggers, Long pants don't help. Chiggers are tiny and get on you even if you are covered from head to toe. The preventative medicine is Sulfur Powder. You can buy it at a pharmacy. It's a yellow powder and you put it in a tube sock, knot it and bat it all over your ankles (and for a kid who is close to the ground, around her waistline too.) The sulfer repels the chiggers.

You don't actually have chiggers. They are long gone. It is an old wives tail that they are like ticks and stick in you or burrow into your skin. Look it up online and you will see that they just use their mandibles to bite off a hunk of skin and inject you with saliva...that makes the bump and red spot. The bugs themselves are actually gone. You can put some steroid cream like cortizone, or benedryl cream to relieve itching, otherwise they will go away. Good luck and check her well for ticks.

Avon makes a good solution. It is called Skin So Soft (or SSS) the plain one with the teal lid can be added to her bath water or directly onto the bites. We used it as kids at my grandmothers and it worked wonders. But if you put it into the bathwater be careful of her eyes. It might irritate them. I don't sell it, but I have used it to 25 years.

I would suggest that you check w/a pediatrician and perhaps check a website like Web MD, but would hesitate to use either of the suggested ways of treating such a sensitive area on the body.

I have heard that vanilla works for nats and cinnamon works for ants, maybe these will work for chiggers.

C.

Chiggerex- It's a creme(white plastic bottle with a red lid-at WalMart)
(This is also great for insect bites (Mosquitoes, ants, etc.)

Hi J., Please read, for I have some good information and I hope this helps... Chiggers are the larvae of harvest mites; their bites are very irritating and can take up to 2 weeks to heal, so I know it may be hard with her only being 1, but Don't let her scratch down there, as it may scrape off chigger larvae causing more irritation and result in a serious skin infection. Wash the affected area thoroughly with hot soapy water(or give her a bath in as hot of water as you think she can stand)this will help in the removal of the chiggers. After that, rub vaseline all over infected area, this will suffocate them... <<<Please Don't use Bleach, as it will eat/burn the skin severly and Don't use Clear finger nail polish, it's not advisable for sensitive skin or small children>>>... The bite will continue to itch for 1 or 2 days after the chigger is removed or finishes feeding and drops off, this is a reaction from the digestive juices injected into the skin where it has fed..... God Bless and Good Luck, T.

Hi J., I used clear nail polish, just 1 light swipe. I told my children it was medicine and they didn't see it was nail polish. Didn't want to set the example for That to be the place to polish! Plus, on my son, clear was invisible and not "girly". The polish will cause the chigger which is imbedded in the skin to "back out" and suffocate. It will flake off with the nail polish. Don't pull the chigger off. It leaves the tiny head under the skin to continue irritating. This works well on ticks, too. Within 24hrs, child is improved, critter is dead and flaked off. I'll be interested to see what natural remedy a mom might post. HTH

hi, there's some stuff at the drug or grocery srore called chigger-rid. it works pretty well and keep searching the internet, you never know what you might come up with

My grandfather told me when I was 11 how to get rid of them and it worked. A Salt water bath lots of salt. Cheap and easy and it worked. Good Luck

Soak a cottonball in dishwashing soap, lay it on the chigger for about 20-30 seconds. They say the chigger will back out and become stuck in the cottonball. I just got this helpful hint and have not tried it but it came from a school nurse who swears by it.

Good luck

Opps I think I gave you a tick removal methods, sorry

Since she is so young and the bites are where they are,I would call her Doc. or Pharmacy

you can call the pharmacy and ask the pharmacist will be able to help you Good luck
J.

nail polish is what we used but I don't know what to do about the sensitive areas. The only thing I can suggest is next time get the Off on the shoes and the pants in addition to the skin.

We have been there!
Go to the pharmacy, get "lice treatment". Put it on her skin, IMPORTANT--LET IT SET FOR 1 HOUR. Clean with soap and water.
A doctor would prescribe a cream that does the same thing.
Good luck.
S. (junglemom in Nicaragua)

Baby Oil and let her go without a diaper. You have to suffocate the chiggers or they will just dig in at a different spot and (take it from someone's that's allergic to chiggers) she will be totally miserable.

Give her a bath with baking soda in water. Or if you have an Amway dealer, get some LOC and give her a bath in that. It is a liquid organic compound with coconut oil as the basic ingredient so that will not hurt her. It is also good for sunburn when nothing else will help. I am a great-grandmother so have had a lot of experience with the chigger bit.

Dear J.,

I used to put my in girls in the bathtub with Aveno Oatmeal Bath Treatment that I got at Wal-Mart. It at least kept them
from scatching. I would leave them in as long as they wanted.
A friend of mine who lives in the country said she puts a little bit of Clorox in the bath water & soaks. She swears by
it but I've never tried it. Good luck!

C.

use chigger rid, it is clear and should do the trick. i would also inform the camp site and hope they spray for them.

I've had a lot of luck with Colgate's Octagon all-purpose Soap. I contacted a very bad case of chiggers when I was pregnant and this was the only thing that worked that wasn't chemical-based. It's pretty much a pure soap. You can call the Colgate-Palmolive company at 1-800-221-4607 to find out the ingredients and distributers in your area.

Vaseline will suffocate them, and watch... they will poke out their head for air and that is when you pluck them out. Nail Polish is also a good fix.... it does work. I grew up in the hill country and we went through this a lot....

Goodness no, do not put any abrasive chemicals on her fragile skin!! My kids go to camp every year and come home with chiggers. Our pediatrician told me that they are perfectly harmless and will go away on their own (no need to put anything on them) with just normal bathing and washing. If they are causing irritation, like itching, use a low dose cortisone cream (over the counter), but use it sparingly as it only takes a small amount every 4-6 hours. Be sure to rub it in well.
Good Luck.

Some of these chemicals like alcohol and bleach could be absorbed into your childs blood stream. Hospitals tell you not to put alsohol in your childs bath when they are with high fever because of that. I just wanted to warn you of the possible dangers of that and I really do not have any other advice sorry good luck dear!!!!!!!

Let her take lots of baths all day long! They won't hurt her. You just want to ease her itching. Cortisone creams, etc. I use Calomine lotion (Calodryl) since it lasts longer than the creams. It will stay on for hours once it dries.

Three words Skin SO Soft!! Get ahold of a avon rep in your area buy going to www.avon.com and make sure they have some on hand before you buy it or it takes a few days to order it. You can bathe in it or just rub it on the spots. Be careful when bathing it make very thing so slick. Good luck !!

go to wal-mart or a pharmacy and get some "chigger-rid" and that will do the trick. God bless.

This is what I found at ohioline.osu.edu:
Skin Care
After returning from a chigger-infested area, launder the field clothes in soapy, hot water (125°F.) for about half an hour. Infested clothes should not be worn again until they are properly laundered and/or exposed to hot sunshine. Unlaundered clothes or those laundered in cool water will contain the biting chiggers to again reinfest your skin. As soon as possible, take a good hot bath or shower and soap repeatedly. The chiggers may be dislodged, but you will still have the stylostomes, causing the severe itch. Scratching deep to remove stylostomes can cause secondary infections. For temporary relief of itching, apply ointments of benzocaine, hydrocortisone, calamine lotion, New Skin, After Bite, or others recommended by your pharmacist or medical doctor. Some use Vaseline, cold cream, baby oil, or fingernail polish. (The sooner the treatment, the better the results.)

Hi J., my parents live in the country, and we have to deal with chiggers all the time. The best thing is prevention. Off Spray, Deep Woods is the best in protection. But if you do get them, the best cure that we have found is an insect bite oinment, it's called Chigger-X, or something like that. The itching does get very bad, but using any kind of ointment that says something about insect bites, or even ointment that is for poison oak or the like, it should help. Last year my husband was attacked so bad that he wanted to go to the E.R., so I can imagine what it feels like to a child. Also giving the child benadryl will help with the itching. Hope this helps you. Good Luck.

Chiggers love me too.

Put a dab of fingernail polish on each bite.

Essential Oils really are amazing. My family is a living testimony on how oils can help you in a safe and natural way.
Each 15 ml. bottle goes a long way. There are approximately 250 drops of oil in each bottle. It usually only take a couple of drops per application.

Try checking out this website:

http://www.oil-testimonials.com/7532

Simply click on search and type in your question. When you find something you would like to try, you can contact me at:
www.youngliving.org/sherylhawkinson I will assist you in finding an oil that may be able to help.

Hi J.,
We do not use chemicals in our home at all, so I swear by Melaleuca's natural products. They're completely safe for children, which is a plus with your situation :)
Here's what we do for chiggers:

Wash with Antibacterial Liquid Soap & rub T36-C5 melaleuca oil (an extremely pure form of tea tree oil) on the bites each morning & evening. Then cover the bites with Triple Antibiotic Ointment (this will prevent a secondary infection). Or, for larger areas, you can also put her in a warm bath with Sol-U-Mel and 1 oz. of Renew Bath Oil. This might be easier considering the area that is affected. Either way, she'll feel better instantly and all signs will be gone in a few days.

I hope this helps!! If you need help finding Melaleuca's products, let me know!

~B.~
www.MyKidsMyFuture.com

The best remedy I know of is Chiggerid. It will still take a few days however.

Calamine lotion always wked for us. It's gonna be pink (unless they changed the color) but it works.

I definitely wouldn't use bleach, but clear nail polish should be fine. It will wear off on it's own and it shouldn't cause any skin irritation.