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Back-to-School Tips

How can I prevent Lyme disease?

If you live or work in a region where Lyme disease is a problem, or if you visit such an area, the following are ways to protect your family from the ticks that carry the disease:

• Avoid places where ticks live. Whenever possible, avoid shaded, moist areas likely to be infested with ticks.
• Cover arms and legs. Have your child wear a long-sleeved shirt and tuck his pants into his socks.
• Wear a hat to help keep ticks away from the scalp. Keep long hair pulled back.
• Wear light-colored clothing to make it easier to spot ticks.
• Wear enclosed shoes or boots. Avoid wearing sandals in an area where ticks may live.
• Use insect repellent. Products with DEET are effective against ticks and can be used on the skin. However, large amounts of DEET can be harmful to your child if it is absorbed through the skin. Look for products that contain no more than 30% DEET. Wash the DEET off with soap and water when your child returns indoors. Products with permethrin can be used on clothing, but cannot be applied to the skin.
• Stay on cleared trails whenever possible. Avoid wandering from a trail or brushing against overhanging branches or shrubs.
• After coming indoors, check for ticks. This will only take a couple minutes. Ticks often hide behind the ears or along the hairline. It usually takes more than 48 hours for a person to become infected with the bacteria, so removing any ticks soon after they have attached themselves is very effective for reducing the chances of becoming infected.

Keep in mind, ticks can be found right in your own backyard, depending on where you live. Keeping your yard clear of leaves, brush, and tall grass may reduce the number of ticks. Ask a licensed professional pest control expert about other steps you can take to reduce ticks in your yard.

Ticks and how to remove them

Ticks do not fly, jump, or drop from trees. They hide in long grass and small trees, bushes, or shrubs waiting for an animal or person to brush by. Then they attach themselves to the animal or person's skin. When a tick is found on a person or pet, try to remove as much of it as possible using the following steps:

Tick Removal: Try Soapy Cotton Ball First

• Apply liquid soap to a cotton ball until it's soaked.
• Cover the tick with the soap-soaked cotton ball.
• Let it stay on the tick for 30 seconds.
• The tick will usually be stuck to the cotton ball when you lift it away.

If this method does not work,  try to remove the tick with tweezers.

1. Grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible with fine-tipped tweezers. Be careful not to squeeze the tick's body.
2. Slowly pull the tick away from the skin.
3. After the tick is out, clean the bitten area with rubbing alcohol or other first aid ointment

Laundry detergent pods particularly dangerous for children

BY REYNA GOBEL

(Reuters Health) - A new study adds to evidence that laundry detergent pods are dangerous for little kids.

The pods are all-in-one packets – often brightly colored - containing detergent that’s released in the wash, so users don't have to measure detergent in a cup. They were introduced in the U.S. in 2012. The next year, U.S. poison control centers received more than 17,000 calls - or about one per hour - about children who'd been exposed to chemicals in laundry detergent pods, Reuters Health reported in 2014.

Now a new study, published in the journal Injury Prevention, has compared the dangers of laundry pods and standard laundry detergent and found that exposures to the pods are more likely to land a child in the hospital.

Researchers analyzed data collected in the National Electronic Surveillance System from 2012 to 2014 on 26,062 non-pod related laundry detergent exposures and 9,814 pod-related exposures in children under age 18.

The most common result of the pod-related cases was poisoning, which occurred in 71 percent of the children. The most common result of exposure to non-pod detergent was contact dermatitis, a skin disorder.

Thirteen percent of children in the pod-related cases needed hospitalization, compared to 3 percent of kids in the non-pod cases.

Small children were at particular risk for pod-related injuries, with 94 percent of these injuries occurring in children under 6. By contrast, only 72 percent of non-pod detergent emergency room visits were by kids under 6.

The study may have underestimated the problem because it looked at emergency room visits, the authors say. “Individuals who did not require treatment, sought treatment at a different type of facility or who self-treated, are not included,” they write.

“For families with young children, this study highlights the dangers of laundry (pod) products, and really confirms advice from medical and consumer product experts who’ve been saying ‘don’t buy these,’” Dr. Marcel J Casavant, Chief of Toxicology at Nationwide Children's Hospital told Reuters Health by email.

Casavant, who’s been hired to testify in a child poisoning case, suggests that if parents buy these products, they should store them “where the child can’t see it, can’t reach it, and can’t get into it.” Parents should never give a child an opportunity to grab one of these pods.

Lead author Thomas Swain of the University of Alabama at Birmingham agrees.“A greater effort should be made to appropriately educate the public about the dangers of laundry detergents, specifically pods,” he told Reuters Health by email. “While new regulations such as childproof containers, opaque packaging, and less appealing and colorful pods could reduce the number of pod-related emergency department visits for children, caregivers should store detergents, along with other chemicals, in a secure location where children cannot easily access them.”

Swain added, “Parents and caregivers should consider warnings from consumer safety groups; the current recommendation is pod detergent products should not be used in homes with children under 6.”