Do you discover a tick bite on your child, partner or yourself? Please remove it as soon as possible, in any case within 24 hours. Tick ​​bites are often harmless, but tick bites can make your child or yourself very sick. Check your child or yourself regularly for ticks, especially in the spring and summer, especially if they have played a lot in nature. Did you find a tick? Then you can easily remove it yourself.

IN'S AND OUT'S ABOUT SIGN

A tick looks like a spider with a diameter of 1 to 3 mm. They mainly occur in nature, such as forests, dunes, heathlands, meadows, parks and even your own garden. Especially in areas where the grass or bushes reach a height of one and a half meters. There is a chance that the ticks will climb up in the grass or undergrowth and end up on you or your child. Ticks live on blood and like warm moist places. Therefore, always check the groin, the back of the knees, but also on the head and behind the ears. When you discover a tick that has been there for a little longer, you will see that they have swollen into a kind of ball.

Your child or yourself often does not notice a tick bite at all. That is why regular checking is not an unnecessary luxury. Most tick bites are harmless, but always note in your diary when and where you were bitten. Ticks can be infected with the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, which can cause Lyme disease.

ARE CHILDREN EXTRA VULNERABLE?

Many children play in nature and therefore have a greater chance of a tick bite. In addition, children are often smaller and ticks can easily climb on your child's head. You can never prevent it, but wearing long pants and a shirt with long sleeves can make a big difference. Applying DEET not only prevents insect bites, but can also prevent tick bites. But it is also wise to check your child regularly after applying DEET.

In brief

• Remove the tick from your child as soon as possible, in any case within 24 hours! This is the most important thing.
• Do not use alcohol, iodine, oil or other substances before removing the tick. This has no effect on the deletion.
• Take a pair of tweezers that allow you to grip the tick well, such as pointed tweezers. There are also special products for sale to remove ticks, for example the tick tweezers.
• Grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible and pull it out slowly. If a piece of the mouthparts of the tick remains in the skin, it is harmless. It will come out on its own, just like a splinter.
• Disinfect the bite wound with 70% alcohol or iodine.
• Make a note of the date your child was bitten in your diary.
• Keep an eye on the skin around the bite for up to three months after the tick bite. Watch for the development of a red, ring-shaped skin rash and flu symptoms such as fever, headache and joint pain.
• See your doctor if the red ring on the skin gets bigger or if your child has one of the complaints mentioned. Tell the doctor the date on which your child was bitten.

LYME DISEASE

Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. The bacteria can enter the body through a tick bite. After three days to three months (on average 16 days), a red ring may appear on the skin around the site of the tick bite. However, that does not always happen, even without the appearance of the red ring you can get Lyme disease.

Another symptom is a flu-like feeling with, for example, fever, headache and joint pain. At a later stage of the disease there is a risk of paralysis of facial muscles, severe pain in an arm or leg, double vision, loss of strength in the legs, painful or swollen joints, a tendency to faint and heart complaints. Lyme disease can be treated well with antibiotics. The sooner you are there, the better and faster it can be treated.

After a tick bite, a red spot often appears on the skin. That is a normal skin irritation from the tick bite. If that spot doesn't get bigger and disappears within a few days, the chance that the spot is a symptom of Lyme disease is almost zero. See your doctor if you have found a red ring on your skin and if this ring gets bigger in a few days. This also applies if your child develops the aforementioned flu-like symptoms or one of the other complaints mentioned after a bite.