Spring Advisory

Care Against Pollens:

1. Pollens on skin, hair, and clothes cause the allergies.
2. Prevent allergies by washing hands, face, and if possible hair after a child comes home after play time. Change clothes after playtime.
3. Keep windows and doors closed when the pollen count is high.
4. Those who get hay-fever may start their medications four (4) weeks prior to spring.
5. If a child is asthmatic and gets worse in spring, the child should start preventive inhaler or oral medicine as prescribed by your Physician four (4) weeks before the season begins.

Bee Sting:

(Applicable in Spring, Summer & Fall)
Symptoms vary from local reactions of pain, redness at the sting site, and formation of a welt (raised bump usually pale in color). Localized itching is common and redness in the first 24 hours can become large. These reactions are initially scary promoting people to seek medical attention.

Systemic severe reactions can occur in a few minutes to one hour, which are difficulty breathing and chest pain. This can be fatal, & needs immediate medical care. If initial signs and symptoms occur of systemic reactions, epinephrine should be administered – Epipen dose as prescribed by your doctor.

Treatment and Prevention:

Questions have been posed about the EpiPen use: Should children on boy-scout outings have them if they have never had an allergic reaction? Yes, we do not know and cannot predict allergic reactions, specifically anaphylactic reactions. All scout leaders and adults should have at least one in their medical kit before trips to the outdoors. These can be prescribed by your healthcare provider. The ABCs – Airway, Breathing, and Circulation – must be adhered to in that order in treatment.

Here are the steps to take when stung by a bee or wasp:

If a severe allergic reaction occurs, you must transport immediately to an emergency care facility and resort to basic life support after giving EpiPen Injection.

If the reaction is not severe,

1. Pull stinger out: Previous recommendation was to scrape with a credit card to avoid squeezing the stinger. The current recommendation is that you can scrape out the stinger gently with a needle, or pull with fingers if possible. The fear is that squeezing may liberate venom in the sac and could worsen the reaction.
2. Apply cool compresses or ice.
3. Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) should be given to minimize allergic reactions.
4. In addition to Benadryl, it has been shown that Zyrtec can also help decrease the allergic reaction.

Insect Bites:

1. Prevention of Insect Bites and/or Contact with mosquitoes, flies, ticks, fleas, honey bees, yellow jackets, ants, spider, etc.
2. Insect repellent helps reduce your exposure to mosquito bites that may carry West Nile virus or other diseases.
3. Use a mosquito repellant containing DEET. This product protects against mosquitoes, flies, ticks that cause Lyme disease, fleas.
4. For children from 2 months to 12 years use repellents containing up to 10% DEET.
5. Do not put DEET on children’s hand or feet.
6. Do not use DEET for children under 2 months.
7. Honeybees and yellow jackets are attracted to perfumes and bright colors (e.g., yellow). So avoid these when outside.
8. Wear clothing with long pants and long sleeves while outdoors. Apply permethrin or another EPA-registered repellent to clothing, as mosquitoes may bite through thin fabric. (Remember: don’t use permethrin on skin.)
9. Use mosquito netting over infant carriers.
10. Reduce the number of mosquitoes in your area by getting rid of containers with standing water that provide breeding places for the mosquitoes.