Bedbug Bites on Children: What to Look For: Hillingdon

Parents usually spot the marks first at breakfast or bath time. The instinct is to strip the bed and move the child in with you. Before either, it helps to know what bedbug bites tend to look like, where they turn up, and why the marks on their own cannot settle the question.

Where Children Tend to Be Bitten

Bedbugs feed on skin that is uncovered while someone sleeps. On a child that is often the face, neck, arms and hands, and the legs and feet if they kick the covers off. Marks under pyjamas are less typical, though not impossible.

The bites are often grouped together or in a short line, because one bug may feed several times close by. They may appear the next morning or a few days later. Some children react strongly, with raised, itchy welts. Others show nothing, even when their sister in the same room is covered.

What Else It Could Be

Plenty of things leave red marks on children. Mosquitoes and other biting insects in summer, fleas from a pet, heat rash, eczema flaring, a reaction to a new washing powder and common childhood infections can all look similar to a worried parent at seven in the morning. Our guide to bedbugs or something else covers the insects that are most often confused with them.

That is why we ask about the bed rather than the bites. Bedbugs leave evidence where they live, and a child’s bed can be checked in a few minutes of careful looking.

Checking a Child’s Bed

1. Take the bedding off and look along the mattress seams and piping with a torch.
2. Check where the mattress meets the frame, and the joints and slats underneath.
3. Look at the headboard, the back of any bedside unit and the edge of the carpet.
4. Look at cot bumpers, soft toys and anything kept on or under the bed.
5. Keep anything you find in a jar or on tape so it can be identified.

You are looking for small dark spots like pen dots, pale cast skins, tiny pale eggs, and the bugs themselves. Our guide on whether bedbugs are visible to the naked eye explains what each looks like and how easy they are to miss.

Looking After the Bites

Most bites settle on their own. For itching or a reaction that is bothering a child, ask a pharmacist or your GP what is suitable for their age before using anything on their skin. Keep nails short so scratching does less damage, and see a GP if a bite looks infected: hot, spreading, weeping or getting worse rather than better.

Call 999 if a child shows signs of a severe allergic reaction, such as swelling of the face, lips or throat, or difficulty breathing. That is rare, but it is an emergency.

Keeping It to One Room

However tempting, try not to move the child into your bed or onto the sofa. Bedbugs follow the person, and a second bed usually becomes a second problem. Keep the room as it is, hot-wash the bedding and ring us.

When a room is treated, we tell you what to do on the day and when the child can go back in, and it is important to follow that. The Hillingdon page explains how heat and chemical treatment fit around a family, and an inspection from £120 confirms things first if you are unsure.

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