WHAT IS IT??? Itchy bites from hell after sleeping in DS's bed...??

(Ok this might be long, lol!) so for about 3ish weeks or so, DS has been getting itchy bites everywhere. So have I, thoughnot like DS does. DD and DH don't have any. I just put it down to being outside, living in the bush and nature! But in the last week, DS has just got them everywhere. They are red angry looking bumps and he is scratching like crazy. He has some in his hair and is telling me that they are really sore and he has scratched the skin off them and his head :(
So on Monday I sprayed the inside of the house with insect spray before we went out for the day, thinking we might have mozzies inside as I'd seen a few around (though not so many that I would have though would cause so many bites and just on DS??...) But he's gotten moer everywhere. He just looks terrible! And he's scratching like a mad man! My poor little man I feel sooo sorry for him because I don't know what to do!
I slept in his bed with him the other night and now I have bites everywhere too. Arms, legs, under my boobs, tummy, back....you name it there's a bite. So I'm thinking it's something in his room. But the thing that has me confused is that DH has been sleeping with him the other nights and he has no bites at all. When I was in the room I felt like there were little things creeping on me (((shudder))) and hardly slept all night listening to DS scratch and wriggle and me scratching and wriggling (but it might have been paranoia!).
Yesterday I sprayed DS's room, bed, floor, everywhere with surface spray, vaccummed to within an inch of my life (bed, carpet, moved furniture...), changed his sheets, and put his pillows in the sun. I will do it all again in a day or so too, and have asked DH to help me put the mattress in the sun too. I looked in his mattress, in the crevices and everywhere and couldn't see anything at all.
Does anyone have any ideas of what this could be? There obviously must be something in DS's room somewhere. I just don't get why DH isn't being eaten alive too?? He is hairy, but only sleeps in boxers so I would think he'd get bitten on his tummy or back where he isn't hairy, lol! I just don't know what else to do for my little man :( he's not sleeping well at night I assume because of this, but is sleeping 2-3hrs in the day, when he usually only sleeps 1-1 1/2hrs...

PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!

Are the bites in lines? Maybe bed bugs?

Sounds like bed bugs. Bed bugs are really tiny.

I don't know if this is true for bed bugs, but I know mozzies prefer to bite O+ women. Maybe there's something about your DH's blood they don't want to feed on.

I'd look at getting a new mattress.

Yeah, also thought of bed bugs...

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I'd look at getting a new mattress.

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Yep, that's what I was thinking too...

Bed bugs hide in the stitching and piping around the edge of the matteress and they are SO hard to get rid off!!

I've been attacked by them once while travelling through Germany (in one of the nicer hotels we stayed in) and it sounds very familiar - red bumps that are freakin' itchy.

I think they just went away after a few days, although we only stayed in that hotel for 2 nights.

I hope he recovers, poor little thing xo

lice? very common out there. I know it's gross but you can be fumigated for them.

I was thinking fleas?? Do you have pets?

We had a break out here last month, it was dreadful. We moved into this house (fully carpeted) in Jan and I suspect they have been dormant in the carpets. Reading up on the net it seems the flea eggs can lay dormant for ages and begin hatching when the conditions are right ie warm weather. Then it is on for young and old!!

In our house, DH and DD1 were eaten alive whereas DD2 and I were left alone - similar to you and DS vs DH. It certainly matches the description of you feeling something crawling on you as you can sometimes feel them, but the little buggers tend to jump off before you can see them.

If it is fleas, vacuuming, washing and sunning is a good solution - vacuuming daily to get all the new hatching eggs. If that is too much or not working then try a flea bomb.

good luck.

Arrgghhh!!!! New mattresses...fumigation!!

Bed bugs...lice...eeeekkkkkk (I'm going to run away screaming, go and rock in a corner and cover my eyes now!)

We don't have pets so I don't think it would be fleas, I haven't seen any around. I have checked out DS's bed, all around the seams and everything, and can't see any thing, not even fluff, so thats why I was wondering if it is bed bugs, plus the bites aren't in the line formations that it's supposed to be like, they are kind of in patches, like there are 2-3 bites in one spot, but not in a line. I have also thought of bird lice, we have alot of little birds around and our washing line is sort of under a tree...I don't think we have any in the roof though, I can't hear anything in the roof....
We so can't afford new mattresses/pillows or fumigation right now, and likely not for a while. I will continue to clean his room (and the house) meticulously and vac every day or two in the hope to at least minimise it I guess (so not what I need being 35wks pg with back and pelvic issues!). Maybe I should bring DS into DH and my bed and I will sleep in the spare bed (yes, we have strange sleeping arrangements at the moment!)
UGH!! This is all soooo gross!!! I'm so not a dirty person and I know having these sorts of infestations isn't about being dirty, but my goodness it makes me feel so dirty and makes my skin crawl!!

thinking outside the box

are you sure they are bites??

what about a reaction to the sheets themselves, like the washing powder or something??

you have only recently moved there too right? maybe the difference in location..therefore weather, heat, the fact its been raining heaps, has aggrivated something too?

You can get those flea bombs?

Kell, get DH to contact housing/the LAM and get the house fumigated - you shouldn't have to pay!!!

Wow, Teirae, you have a good memory!! Yep, we've only been here for about 6ish mths. These things look like bites. DS is sensitive tot he water out here because it's 'hard' water, but that gives him a rash like and excema(sp?) rash behind his knees and in his elbows. DD usually gets the rash from the water at the same time he does too cause she's sensitive too, and she hasn't got the rash now, so I don't think it's the water this time. Plus the bites aren't in his knees or elbows, well there's a few behind one knee, but they're big lumpy red welts, not like the little bumpy rash he usually gets.
Shouldn't be washing powder or anything since I haven't changed anything like that. Haven't changed bath wash or anything either, and I don't wash them with thier wash every day anyway, I usually just let them soak in the bath water, lol! Only wash them when they have been doing some seriously dirty playing.

Kim, would this be covered by housing?? I did wonder. I just thought since we're living here we would be responsible...?

I would take him to the dr and just check it out, it could be something like scabies that he's picked up from somewhere that has got nothing to do with the bed at all? The dr might be able to I.D, the bites based on the pattern.

Also worth checking what's happening under the floorboards, I have heard once of a nasty infestation of some sort of tiny biting licey thing in a classroom, apparently they didn't get it sorted out until after they treated underneath the floors.

I was going to say to leave his mattress out in the sun for a day (might be easier said than done if the weather there is anything like here) just in case there is anything there. It's free and it might help???

I hope you figure it out soon :hug:

sounds like scabies, hun ...

wasing is hot hot water I think is best, if replacing is out of the question for the time being ... and washing/scrubbing everything - linen, towells, clothes, etc ...

and it's no reflection on your hygiene standards, hun :hug: sometimes bugs just come!!

OMG...SCABIES!!!! :o

That really has my skin crawling........but I guess it could be. I will take DS and myself to the doc asap. Ugh! This is soooo disgusting!

Nope, definately not. The owner is responsible for pest control. I'd still be contacting them.

Thanks Kim, I suggested it to DH and he's reluctant to call them....he's such a pita!!

I'm thinking they are bed bugs now. DH came out this morning and said he spent an hour inspecting the bed and DS with a torch through the night last night and he showed me some of the 'things' he's picked off the bed or DS and killed (ick!!!) on a bit of white paper. I still don't get how DH can sleep in the bed and not be eaten, but poor DS is eaten alive every night??!! Last night I put some stop itch all over DS's bites and sprayed some aeroguard all over him before he went to bed. Seems to have prevented too many more bites. I will spray the room with insect spray again and vac and all taht. It's rainy here today, so I won't be able to put the mattress outside which really sucks. I am also going to NAG DH to call about the place being fumigated. We go away for a few weeks in a few weeks (lol!) because I have to go to be near a hospital to give birth! But that would be the perfect time to be fumigated and not have to be here with all of the fumes. It's abd enough that I'm using all of this bloody insect spray and crap which I hate, but I need to minimise the damage for my poor baby. He's sooo itchy :(

Thankyou everyone for your suggestions and help, I appreciate it!

Sounds like fleas to me! I think scabies infest in the webbing of your hands and feet, don't they (just googled it, and it seems not, but they live on the skin)? Bed bugs would be not only in DS bed but everyone elses as well (fleas are smaller than bed bugs too so you wouldn't see them). I know we get fleas here every now and then and they especially like DD#2's bed... I take her mattress off and leave it in the sun, beat the crap out of it and vacuum it every couple of days....

ETA: Since you have only been in your house 6 months fleas can live in the carpet for a loooong time in their egg form!! I think the adult bed bug lives longest as an adult. Check the creases of your bed... I remember seeing them on ACA and they could see them in the seams of the mattress *ick* If it is bed bugs, you can get special plastic thingies to put on the legs of your furniture to prevent infestation.... cause they will get into every thing!

What happened, did you solve the itchy mystery?

We never figured out what they were, but they seem to have gone now. DS and I are no longer being eaten alive!! And we don't feel the creepy feeling we were anymore when we sleep! Thank goodness!! I was vaccumming every day and changing sheets every day, putting the mattress and pillows outside whenever I could. I also sprayed bug spray every day for a week (a rather expensive week that was!) which was supposed to kill bed bugs and bird lice as well as other biting nasties. So it all obviously worked. We are still going to get the house fumigated though. We are going away in a few days and I am going to get it sone while were away. The realestate can deal with it.