Checking for Ticks.

Tessa's birthday weekend was complete with a quick finale day trip to the lake. The kids played hard and parents continued to get all of our ducks in row for the summer to ensure lots of time lounging and imbibing. Anyways, about to toss Nate in to the shower last night and luckily my hand swept up the back of his neck cuz there was a blood-sucking tick hanging out, having a buffet on my little man. eeeeewwwwwwhhhh!! You'd think mom having nursing training would know exactly what to do but instead we decided to do what you are NOT supposed to do anymore. We broke out the matches and tried to burn the little sucker off of Nate' head...amidst all of his hair. A couple of tries, no luck and the scent of my son's seared hairs told me that this certainly is not the recommended way to get the tick out. So, while Troy tried to calm Nate and wipe his tears and nose between his blubbering of about a thousand questions about ticks, what they ate, where they live, why they latch on to people's heads and so on, I resorted to good ole Google. Nevertheless, the proper way to remove a tick is to grab it by the bootie with a pair of tweezers and pull it straight out. Nate was not down for this and confiscated the tweezers. He was also not down for leaving the thing burrowed into his head and sucking the blood out of him for dinner. Despite his fears and tears, Nate's creativity starting rolling and he suggested we make a concoction of oil, pepper and peanut butter and then hold the cup of tick lure up to his head and the tick would simply fall out. Hhhhmm? So Troy dutifully mixed the potion and held it up to Nate's head. With snot and tears covering his red face and cup against the back of his head, Nate held still and mom plucked the tick from his head...with tweezers as directed by dr. internet. Nate is convinced the potion worked sans tweezers and was quite proud of himself. Mom and Dad were especially happy that the tick was off of his head regardless of the method. So unless Nate tries to apply for a patent (to save him the embarrassment), oil, pepper and peanut butter will lure a tick's claws out of one's head. The pic below is the tick swimming in the tick lure.

Of course, Nate gets sent home from school the following day with a fever. So then we got to be paranoid that he'd contracted Lyme Disease. We decided not to self-treat this time, called the pediatrician, were given some symptoms to watch for and reassured that the fever was probably unrelated to the tick.

Summer recommendation: check for ticks. Keep peanut butter, oil and pepper on hand.