Home care
In most instances, insect bites can be treated by applying ice for a few minutes and then applying calamine lotion. À non-prescription antihistamine taken by mouth should relieve the itching and reduce the swelling. For a tick, the still-hot tip of a burned-out match touched to the protruding tip of the biting insect will usually cause the tick to fall off the skin without leaving the head in the wound.
Precautions
• Protect children with proper clothing, mosquito netting, and insect repellents.
• Learn to recognize the insects in your locale and to know their characteristics.
• If your child develops hives or difficulty with breathing, speaking, or swallowing after being bitten by a scorpion or spider or stung by a bee, a wasp or a hornet, take the child immediately to the nearest hospital.
Medical treatment
If the child has an allergic reaction to an insect bite or sting, the doctor will probably prescribe epinephrine, antihistamines, or steroids to inhibit the reaction. The doctor may advise that the allergic child be given a series of injections to reduce his or her sensitivity to the insect in question. The doctor may also teach you or the child how to treat a bite or sting at home.
Among diseases transmitted by insect bites in Australia are the following. Mosquito: dengue fever, viral encephalitis, epidemic arthritis. Larval mites: scrub typhus. Bush ticks: Q-fever. Flies: hepatitis, diarrhea, trachoma.
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