Poor Mr.P

While we were on vacation, there was one evening when Mr.P got attacked by a ton of chiggers. I don't know what we were thinking by not spraying him down before he played outside. It was a heavily wooded area and it was raining off and on, so it was pretty moist out. When we got back to my parents' house and he took his clothes off for his shower, I felt so bad! He had bites ALL OVER him, especially around the waist and groin area. I made sure to diligently apply Ivarest on them for the next several days.

A few days after we returned home, I went to the pool with a couple of friends. For whatever reason, we got on the subject of chiggers and I told them what had happened with Mr.P. My friend, Brandon, asked if we put clear fingernail polish on the bites. I gave him a blank look. He then explained to me that they inbed themselves and they either need to be suffocated or burned out. They do? We checked Mr.P's bites and they were still pretty red. When we walked in the house from the pool, I immediately got to work with the fingernail polish. By the next day and a half or so, the redness was gone in almost all of them and you couldn't even tell that there had been bites. Thank you, Brandon!!

Unfortunately, a few days later, Mr.P kept complaining that his stomach hurt on the outside whenever we would tickle him or even if someone brushed by. We checked it out and found one bite that was REALLY infected : ( There was a hard spot underneath and the area was very noticeably raised. Jeremy explained to him that he was going to have to take care of it. Within twenty minutes or so, Camri and I went racing up the stairs from watching tv in the media room because we could hear Mr.P screaming. I walked in the bathroom to find him biting down on a leather belt while Jeremy was pushing and squeezing the infected area. Mr.P has a pretty high pain tolerance and I've never heard him scream and cry like that. My poor baby boy!! All I could do is sit next to him and have him squeeze my hands while I tried to soothe him. Luckily, Daddy finished within a minute or two. (two very very long minutes for Mr.P, I'm sure) He cleaned it up, applied some ointment, and slapped on a band-aid. Poor Mr.P walked around sobbing for a long while after though. Not even a popsicle helped.

That was a couple of days ago. Today it looks pretty good. Jeremy said there was a ton of gunk built up in there that needed to come out, so even though it was agonizing, I'm glad he took care of it.

As for me, lessons learned: #1 - I can't forget to use the bug spray. I can't forget to use the bug spray. I can't forget to use the bug spray. #2 - Chiggers are not as polite as mosquitoes, who get their fill and move on. Chiggers try to set up shop and need to be rubbed out. Got it.