• Original Articles By Dr. Lavin Featuring Expert Advice & Information about Pediatric Health Issues that you Care the Most About

    The Rise of Bug Bites – Why are my child’s mosquito bites so enormous?

    By Dr. Arthur Lavin

    Mosquitoes are a real pest, they seem to be everywhere unless it’s winter, and can drive large numbers of big people indoors.

    Everyone has been bitten by a mosquito, but many parents wonder, why are their child(ren)’s mosquito bites so dramatically larger than they remember their’s?

    It’s a very fair question, as we have seen mosquito bites seem to be enormous recently.  We certainly see a large number of children because their  mosquito bites can each cover a whole limb with red, itchy, swelling.  Why is this?

    The Bite of the Mosquito

    Mosquitoes live on the blood of animals, including us.  To get away this this, they need to sneak around, and bite without causing any sensation, otherwise they risk starving or being crushed with a swift swat.

    If they get to land on our skin, they quickly insert a hollow needle very smoothly into our skin, drawing up our blood into their body.

    But they still have a problem to solve during the bite.  If you poke a whole in your skin, the blood clots just about right away.

    If your blood clots while the mosquito has his needle-nose in you, it will die, stuck on you.

    To prevent this from happening, the mosquito squirts a very tiny amount of fluid in your skin when it first jabs.  That fluid contains chemicals that stop your blood from clotting.  The  mosquito bite takes what blood it needs, slides out of your skin, and flies away.

    The Venom of the Mosquito

    That’s all great for the mosquito, but what about your child?  He or she is left with that tiny bit of anti-coagulant fluid, what we call  mosquito venom.  And for some people, that  mosquito venom causes an alarm to go off in their immune system.  Once the alarm is rung, all sorts of cells and chemicals swarm the mosquito venom.   The main one to keep in mind is a chemical made by cells of our immune system, especially the mast cells which loads all our skins.  That chemical is histamine, and it helps the immune system mainly by making blood vessels in the area leaky.  Those leaky blood vessels let the army of cells of the immune system gather at the site of trouble.

    So, every mosquito injects its venom to keep from being stuck in a clot, but each of us vary in how much histamine gets released when our body notices that mosquito venom.  Lots of histamine and like chemicals, big reaction.  No histamine and like compounds, and no reaction.

    Why Bigger Bites?

    For reasons unknown, it appears the venom of our mosquitoes is creating much bigger reactions.  Many look like firestorms, with raging red swollen skin covering most of a limb or abdomen and causing tremendous itch.  The bites are so big and red, we have to determine if they are indeed simply reactions to the venom, and not infections.  But even when it is clear there is no infection (not tender, not very warm, no pus, mainly itchy), the redness can be very impressive.

    My guess, and it is really just a guess, is that the venom in our area mosquitoes has changed and now creates a much larger reaction.

    It is still the case,though, that as you get a zillion bites, one’s body slowly catches on that the alarm is false, and so adults still tend to get smaller reactions than children.

    BOTTOM LINES

    1. Mosquitoes are everywhere and everyone gets bitten.
    2. They inject a tiny, tiny amount of fluid to keep their nose from getting stuck in a clot of our blood.
    3. That venom can cause a reaction.
    4. The reaction is from our own immune system and is led by compounds like histamine which cause redness, swelling, and itch in skin, but not much pain, pus, or heat.
    5.  There is clearly a trend towards dramaticallybigger mosquito bite reactions.
    6.  No matter the size of the reaction, they are overwhelmingly likely to be completely harmless, meaning when they go away, no harm done.

    To your health,
    Dr. Arthur Lavin

     

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