Insect repellent on babies

[Aranah]

Hey there,

Just need some advice on insect repellent on babies. I live in a Barmah/Ross River Fever hotspot and we are going camping on the weekend. I have a 7 month old and have never used insect repellent on him before and was wonderinf if it's safe to do so? It's not possible where we are going to keep him in a mozzie net 100% of the time, plus he is crawling everywhere and won't tolerate being closed in somewhere or kept in a pram.

Also, is it safe for me to use if I'm Breastfeeding?

[Liz]

There are insect repellents for babies. Just did a quick search, as you reminded me I wanted to look this up! There is one called Mei Mei Baby Protect (Natural Insect Repellent)

The unique formulation of Mei Mei Children Botanical Insect Repellent uses natural, non-toxic botanical essences of Citronella and Calendula in a base of Sweet Almond oil which moisturizes and softens the skin. These oils have been shown to repel insects but not irritate children's delicate skin as other chemically based repellents can.

Main Ingredients: Almond Oil, Citronella Oil, Rose Geranium Oil, Calendula Oil.

Being in almond oil tho, you'd have to be careful if there's any nut allergies.

No idea about breastfeeding. I would assume something like this would be ok to use if it's ok to put on baby.

ETA: hmm... there's an organic one at Natures Child.

[Kitty33]

Hi Tara.
When my DS was 3 months old we went to Rainbow Beach for 2 weeks and realised that I had nothing to keep the mozzies away so in a bit of improvisation panik we ended up using a tiny bit of tea tree oil mixed with baby oil and put it on his legs and arms .. pretty much just the exposed bits on him... I did a little test area first and there was no worries...

You just reminded me of that holiday and how chuffed I was at my little improvised success

Sorry I cant help with any brands... I never had to use it after that as we dont live in a mozzie area.

Good luck and enjoy your holiday
xoxox

[Shellbelle]

I'm sure I have heard somewhere about dettol and oil mixed together for baby mozzie lotion. Will get back on this one, will check with my SIL.....

[*EmJa*]

yep Shellbelle its dettol and baby oil mixed together, my doctor told me about that!

[*noni*e*]

kitty 33 did your tea tree concoction work?

[mgm]

We went to Bali when DS was 18 months. I use 'walkabout' on myself (mainly citronella i think) and i phoned them to ask if it was suitable for children - they said only over two years. So I dressed DS in light pants and long-sleeved cotton tops in the evening and put the repellent on his clothes. Seemed to do the trick... Good luck!

[Rach75]

we use that OFF brand one, I actually dont put it on jacks skin just spray around him and his clothes hat etc, he has had maybe 3-4 bites in his 15 mths of life been usuing it since he was 2mths or so