Last weekend we went camping and my 2 year old son got about 20 mosquito bites on his face, neck, arms, and legs. We didn't use insect repellant since we didn't know there were any skeets in the tent. Over the next couple of days the bites turned into huge hives with one or more blisters in the centers. Since he has such a severe reaction to the bites, I want to prevent this in the future. Does anyone know if it is OK to use a chemical such as DEET on someone as young as 2?
Some of the brands like OFF make "family" repellent which has less deet it in. these are okay for young kids to use. spraying on clothes can be effective.
I think it's best on clothing but I put some on my hands and patted my 1 year old face and it worked fine. My suggestion would be to wash it off as soon as you are done using it. You may want to call the doctor to make sure.
We just had our 18-mo appointment with our son's pediatrician, and he said that deet is fine. He also added to not use products that put sunscreen & bug repellent together, because you need to reapply the sunscreen more often than the bug repellent.
I've used "Bug N Sun" on my 2 year old. I'm very careful not to put any on his face or hands.
