Two months ago, my wildly rambunctious three-year-old fell ill. He complained of stomach pain and ran a sporadic high fever for two days. Fearful that we were dealing with appendicitis, my husband took our son to the ER after his pain intensified suddenly on a Sunday night.
An x-ray ruled out appendicitis, so we took our little guy back home and followed up with his normal doctor in the morning. Still nothing out of the ordinary could be found. The doctor sent him home and had us monitor hydration closely since he hadn’t been eating.
Tuesday brought no improvement, so we decided to explore blood testing, which revealed a severe infection with elevated blood cell counts. My sweet munchkin was admitted to the hospital, my husband by his side, and I remained at home with our other little people and nursing baby.
A few agonizing days passed. No one knew what was wrong. Doctor after doctor analyzed our now lethargic and frail little man. They pumped him with fluids and attempted to control his pain, nausea, and fever — but that was all they could seem to do. After two full days at our county hospital, the doctor said her concern warranted a transfer to the Children’s Hospital in the city.
An ambulance soon carried our son to yet another set of doctors, sterility, and bright lights. But after a long first night at the second hospital, the team of doctors concluded that our son had some sort of tick-borne illness and started him on immediate treatment.
For a few days, the roller coaster ride of his illness continued with extremely high fevers, lack of food consumption, and overall listlessness. But then one night, the fever subsided a bit, and with the morning light, a bit of color flashed upon his pale, sunken cheeks.
A little bite from the mouth of a wretched tick brought about this entire ordeal. Yet today, two months later, because of God’s providence, I have the privilege of watching our rascally, curly-haired boy running around in our fields once again, chasing fireflies and trying with every breath to catch the terrified barn kittens.
By the grace of God, he has recovered with no long term effects so far — besides the emotional impact of the experience in his little three-year-old mind.
We live in the country amongst the ticks, bugs, spiders, and many other things, seen and unseen. Do I panic every time I see a tick now? Am I led to use DEET or another harsh chemical to prevent this from happening again?
No. There are no guarantees with even DEET, and this type of illness is rare to begin with. I am, however, much more proactive now. When we notice an increase in ticks, we perform our bedtime ritual of “tick checks”. In addition to our tick checks, I have also been busy finding a great natural tick repellant for my family.
I have come across many different recipes and secrets so far, but I haven’t decided which one is best yet — not enough time has elapsed. But here are a few of my favorites, based upon ingredients I have on hand and usability for my family. Ages range from parents all the way down to babies.
- Vinegar of the Four Thieves Insect Repellent from Wellness Mama
- Homemade Tick Spray from Primally Inspired
- Natural Tick Repellent Recipe from Mommypotamus
I also add almond oil to all of the above recipes, since it is rumored by the folks here in Tennessee that ticks do not like the sweetness or sulphuric properties of this oil.
I look forward to sharing our results with these concoctions after a full summer of experimentation.
Have you had any success with natural tick-fighting repellants?
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Glad to hear that you were fortunate to have your little one’s illness diagnosed so quickly. There is a lot of ignorance and misunderstanding of tick-borne illnesses by the conventional medical establishment and they are not well understood. I’m curious how long your son was treated as most Lyme-literate docs. recommend a minimum of 4-6 weeks of antibiotics at a minimum and then an assessment based on symptoms.
Thanks for raising awareness about this important issue and also for the all-natural recipes.
Hello Nancy,
Thanks for your comments! My little guy was diagnosed with either Erhliciosis or Rocky Mountain Spotted fever- it was not distinguishable in the test, but all of his symptoms pointed to these. The doctors did not think Lyme’s would result, but we are waiting….. and praying! He was on medicine for 8 days. I have since learned of a high dose of Vitamin C treatment for this disease, but at the time, we were not aware of this.
I hope that helps to explain a bit more. : )
I am so wary of ticks now! We also live in the (sort of) country, and our backyard is, well, just woods. My now 13 month old had a tick right under her eye a few months back, and it was there for a few days before we realized what it was. It was disguised by her (long!) lower lashes and looked just like the scabbed scratch her sharp baby fingernails had given her just a few days before on the other side. Once we realized what it was, I freaked! I felt like the worst mom in the world. Thankfully, she was fine other than a small infection where the tick was removed. I am trying to be so vigilant now! I am going to have to try some of these remedies, though. She is getting too big to keep wrapped up tightly!
Ugh….I cannot stand the things and I am sorry this happened. They are such sneaky, invasive little creatures. In our case, our son was very sick within a week or so of the bite and there was a rash, however it went away before the symptoms appeared.
I have to constantly remind myself that fear is not of the Lord. : )
Blessings to you and your family.
Tracey, conventional docs. are not well informed about Lyme Disease. I’d encourage you to watch your son very, very carefully as early treatment is essential. If he shows ANY abnormal signs, you’ll want to find a doc. (preferrably one who is Lyme-literate) and get him started on antibiotics.
I have Chronic Lyme. Trust me, it is nothing you ever want to happen to you or your loved ones.
Hi Ladies,
I also have chronic Lymes. I was diagnosed 7 months ago and as we pour over my medical history it’s quite possible I contracted it 20 years ago.
I have to agree with Nancy. Unfortunately our doctors are not well versed in the treatment of Lyme. I don’t think I would wait for symptoms to appear with my little one if they had gone through what yours has. I would find a Lyme literate doctor ASAP to be absolutely sure that all is well.
I don’t want to cause worry for you, however, I would feel horrible if I stay silent and then read later that your beautiful son has chronic Lyme.
Praying for his complete healing & wisdom as you go through this journey.
Blessings,
Debi
Sorry to hear that you too are suffering from Chronic Lyme, Debi. I have to agree with Debi’s comments though and urge you to at least have your son evaluated for tick-borne illnesses by a Lyme-literate doc.
Thank you, Debi and Nancy! We actually met with a LLMD and feel now even a bit more confident about his long term prognosis. Because it was caught so early and treated aggressively, along with being mainly asymptomatic since, the LLMD was confident that he should not have anything chronic. We will continue to watch and pray though. May the Lord heal you on this journey.
I am so glad that you had doctors that were finally able to recognize his symptoms and give him treatment. I hope that your son will completely heal and never deal with Lyme again. Tick-borne illnesses are not rare, even the CDC admits that over 300,000 people, annually, contract Lyme disease and that doesn’t account for patients that didn’t have a doctor that recognized Lyme as a possibility. If you live outside of well known Lyme areas your chances of being diagnosed go down and can average 2-3 years before diagnosis, some have suffered for much longer. You can contract a tick-borne illness in any and every state or country. Not all Lyme sufferers will have a bullseye rash, an atypical rash or any rash at all.
Hello Carla,
Thank you for your thoughts on this. I often hear or come across stories about people contracting Lyme’s and how horribly debilitating it is. By the grace of God, my son did not have Lyme’s, at least not now, but a tick induced bacterial infection that caused extremely high fever (104-105), stomach pain, dehydration, rash, and muscle pain/weakness. We are told that he should not have long term effects from this (i.e. Lyme’s disease) but will wait, see, and pray.
He did have a rash about 1-2 weeks before any symptoms appeared, but we never saw the tick that caused it and the rash cleared up with some GSE. It was not until he was laying listless in the hospital that it dawned on us that the rash could have been a tick.
My eyes are a bit more open now to the horrible effects of these pesky little creatures. I hope this helps to bring a bit more awareness to the gamut of of diseases they can induce- whether it be Lyme’s or an infection such as my son had.
God bless you,
Tracey
So I didn’t see you specify in the article, does your son have Lyme’s disease or Alpha-gal?
Hi Rachael,
I have not heard of Alpha-gal, but I will now look that up. The doctors suspect that he had either Rocky Mountain spotted fever or Ehrlichiosis. The tests were inconclusive, but all of the symptoms were characteristic of both.
Blessings to you ~
I would encourage you to check out the Lyme protocol that Joette Calabrese recommends on her website. Even though Lyme wasn’t diagnosed, I would look at this and consider it. Or better yet, a consult w/ Joette. We have handled all tick bites in this manner, and nothing has ever developed.
Opps, sorry about not including the link. http://joettecalabrese.com/blog/protocol-lyme-disease-using-homeopathy/
What we do for every tick bite is Ledum 200c, at least once.
Thank you so much for your encouragement. We actually met with a LLMD today. We are hopeful that our little guy had the appropriate care early on and by the grace of God, based on that care, should not develop into something chronic.
All 3 of my children have gotten tick-sick, and we have not had any lingering symptoms or problems. My oldest, now 8, had lyme twice from 2 different ticks at age 2 then 3. We treated with homeopathics based on muscle testing. My daughter had an unknown tick borne illness that I cleared through prayer as soon as it was obvious, probably within 3 days of exposure, and my 1yo had something this summer that we treated with ‘lightning pearls’, a traditional chinese antibiotic herbal formula produced in the us under strict supervision for herb quality and safety, this was with the help of a skilled acupuncturist/ND. In all cases the symptoms worsened for 24-48 hours, the die off period, then cleared and have not resurfaced at all. We do sometimes several tick checks/day, and my older kids are very aware of the need to be alert as are most kids in our region. We have many alternative practitioners here who are well aware of the signs of tick-sicknesses, and many strategies for helping people in all phases of sickness. They are often much more helpful than conventional doctors, especially as the lyme blood tests are only 50% accurate anyway!! The sooner you get on it, the better. I always carry homeopathic ledum palustre with me in any potency and give a dose as soon as a tick is found attached to my kids, this is pretty much daily in the spring and fall. It specifically acts to avoid any contaminants from the tick becoming lodged in the body. Also we immediately apply a ‘spit-poultice’ of plaintain, which draws out the same before they go into blood or tissues. We only remove ticks with a twister; if they get squeezed at all by fingers or tweezers you run the risk of actually sickening that person as the spirochetes lodge in the tick’s belly and are not necessarily transmitted especially if the tick is only briefly attached. But you can squeeze them in. Where we live we have to use the tiniest twister available to be able to safely remove the tiny nymph ticks that are often smaller than a freckle. Where we live it is essential to be very vigilant, the ticks are constantly sending out new strains of virus with new symptoms. I think we will stick with lightning pearls from now on, this way we get the supreme potency of antibiotics in an entirely pro-health balanced herbal formulation. We can just use them at the first moment of questioning what are we dealing with here? But I know of no child under age 8 who has become chronically ill, it is certainly possible but I have not seen it yet and we know dozens of kids that have been exposed. Eating a traditional foods nutrient dense diet gives your family a huge advantage in terms of having a powerful immune system to ward off potential tick sickness and of course others. I have taken to gathering many varieties of wild mushrooms and adding them in my broth, this ensures that these immune potentizers go into my children daily. We had no one sick at all last winter, despite many severe illnesses burning through our community. Hope some of this helps!
Thank you so much for sharing your words of wisdom and thank the Lord for preserving your family. Are these lightning pearls only used under ND care? I have not heard of those.
Ticks are a terrible threat to rural (and sometimes city life) A former client was recovering from
Lyme’s she got from her own, very high dollar suburban home here on the Gulf Coast! I understand the old-timers kept
guinea hens on their properties because they love and consume ticks. A lot of good policing
for a small upkeep…and they are an excellent audible security system!
We’ve got the guineas- and are raising more this year. : )))) Yes, they are prevalent everywhere, even in the heart of Nashville they can be found. : )
All very good tips. We lived in a tent in a field with ticks and bugs for over a year. We did regular “tick checks” every night before bed. We used simple coconut oil every day and the ticks would not bite. (Coconut oil also has the same sulfuric properties as almond oil). And if by some chance we did get bit we immediately cleaned the wound with tea tree oil. My husband got really sick before we figured all of this out. Nobody has ever gotten sick since.
Was an update ever posted?
Thank you for all the good advice and recipes. I live in Michigan where we have an abundance of ticks and fleas and mosquitoes. I am going to try the recipes for ticks and bugs, again thank you for the advice.