My friend Kelli’s youngest child is a little girl adopted from China. Kelli and her husband have 3 older children of their own, but since Sarah is their first child from another country, they have occasionally experienced challenges and adjustments based on the inherent cultural and genetic differences.Â
One such challenge is Sarah’s extreme reaction to mosquito bites which apparently is not uncommon for those of Chinese heritage. As such, using an effective natural mosquito repellent is important, but doesn’t always work in every situation.
Living in Florida and being very sensitive to mosquito bites can pose a challenge. Mosquitoes can be a year-round problem particularly if the winter is rather warm as it has been so far this season. Even with spraying by mosquito control, getting nasty bites is a common occurrence.
Telling a young child not to scratch is a losing battle most of the time! Unfortunately, Kelli did not find any of the Western style remedies for mosquito bites to work very well for Sarah.
As a result, just a few mosquito bites could send Sarah to the doctor for examination as they would sometimes get infected from her scratching. Â The picture above is of Sarah’s leg after a recent run-in with a hungry mozzie!
Besides being a busy Mom of four, Kelli is also an Adoption Specialist, so with her international connections, she was able to consult with her Chinese friends about Sarah’s problem with mosquito bites.
Their suggestion?
An old Chinese mosquito bite remedy that is rubbing the bites with the inside of a banana peel!
I asked Kelli to let me know if the banana peel remedy worked the next time Sarah was bitten, and within a few days, Kelli reported back that the banana peel worked! The picture to the right shows Kelli applying the inside of a banana peel to Sarah’s bite. Â The peel is folded over backward which is why the inside of the peel is also facing the camera.
The banana peel not only worked, but it also worked FAST!
Here is Kelli’s email to me about her experience with this mosquito bite remedy:
Well, sure enough Sarah got 2 bites this evening….ÂThey immediately began to swell and the area all around the bite was quite red, of course some of that was from her itching.ÂI applied the banana peel, as advised by my Chinese friends, and within 2 minutes the bite stopped itching. About 5 or 7 minutes later, the site was significantly less red. When I glanced at it again before bed, though I could still see the bite, her skin was no longer red. Best of all, she didn’t seem bothered by it.ÂSince she is so young it is hard for her not to scratch, and I will forward you a picture of a current bite which landed us at the doctor’s office out of fear of infection (we’re in the clear for now). She has been on antibiotics once before from a bug bite getting infected after her scratching it, and I try to avoid antibiotics so was not happy when this recent bite started looking so bad.ÂFrom now on, we will honor this Chinese remedy…I wish I had known this secret years ago!
The most interesting thing about this mosquito bite remedy to me is that it is fairly well known that eating bananas is a surefire way to be a prime mozzie target at sundown. Â While eating bananas seems to attract mosquitoes, rubbing the bites with the inside of the peel heals them!
Does your child have problems with mosquito bites too? Â The next time the mozzies leave their calling card on your child’s skin, skip the ammonia sticks and other chemical-based remedies that will end up in your child’s bloodstream and simply try the inside of a banana peel!
Do you know another mosquito bite remedy that works well too? We’ve often used this homemade herbal salve which is incredible for all types of skin irritations, rashes, and bites. Dabbing witch hazel on bug bites is a remedy that my Grandmother used.
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Baking soda with water to make a paste (as Jenny also suggested), hands down has been the best for our family! My son is highly allergic and swells up into a very bad cellulitis even if he doesn’t scratch. Trick is you have to lather it on within the first few minutes or it won’t work. Amazingly after less than 5 minutes the basic property in the soda counteracts the acidic mosquito saliva and no more itching and no big bump at all by the next day!! I carry a little bag in my travel first aid kit.
Sandy – I hope you can answer this: I got cellulitis for the first time ever after doing an intensive gardening in early evening. Lots of bug bits and then noticed the next day a reddening on the lower part of the leg. Seemed to be spreading and when it started to puff up, went to emergency thinking this is the beginning of septicemia.
Antibiotic IV + 10 days scripts of antibiotics + $2000 later…….
The doctor said he was pleased that I came in early!
Interesting you mentioned your son has had bad cellulitis. If he had something that continue to spread, is that when you would think it’s out of hand?
Helen-
Glad to hear you are okay. Boy that must have been pretty scary!
If I don’t do the baking soda remedy, within 2-3 days after the bite the area around the initial bump spreads about 2-3 inches. Once, the poor thing was bit right behind his ear and his whole ear swelled pretty badly. Then I applied topical hydrocortisone and gave motrin and watched closely.
Since we’ve been through this many times (I am also a nurse) I know what to look for. So I would say that if it spreads much more than that with no improvement, starts to ooze, or you get a fever, I would get it checked out.
Sounds like it could have been many types of bugs where you were gardening. Not sure where you live or what kind of spiders around, but certain kinds of spiders can cause a pretty bad cellulitis.
We use homeopathy, and the prime one to use for those big itchy irritating mosquito bites is Staphysagria 30c. It would not conflict with the banana peel. The great news about using homeopathy is her body may eventually respond better and better when bitten. That’s interesting about bananas…one attracts, the other cures. This is actually the homeopathic principle of “like cures like”.
Baking soda is excellent for any itching, insect bites etc. I use it for poison ivy too. I just mix with water to make a paste or dilute further and wash with it to remove the oils.
Wow! My son has some bites on the back of his knees that just will not go away. I’ll be peeling a banana after this post! I am friends with Kelli, too– what a wonderful woman! So glad Sarah is better!
some people are more attractive to the mosquitos, I could send my twins out to play in the same area, side by side the whole time and one would get lots of bites and the other few or none.
Great tip. I had a friend who once misunderstood, and thought that she was told that eating bananas would deter mosquitoes. So, she took a lot of bananas on a camping trip and made her kids eat lots of them. They were eaten alive!
Eating garlic and drinking lemon water will help repel mosquitos.
Bananas are definitely NOT good camping food! LOL
How long should you hold the peel there for it to be effective? I wonder if just cutting a small piece of peel and taping it on with a bandaid would be more convenient. We are mosquito bait here most of the year also. Can’t wait to try this!
Tina, you don’t need to leave it on the skin. I just rubbed it in a circular fashion until the area felt a little slippery. The itch relief lasted for about 6 hours for me when I used it for poison ivy. I react badly to poison ivy and the itching would drive me crazy. I was amazed at how completely it took the itch away!
I love this idea! My son is a mosquito magnet-usually getting 5+ bites at at time. He swells up so badly when he gets them. We usually cover them with bandaids to keep him from scratching them, but he still swells really badly. Hopefully this will help!
I was told by a friend that mouth-breathers attract more stinging, biting insects. Encourage your son to breath through his nose and see if it helps!
I’m a nose breather and get eaten alive, so I don’t think that has anything to do with it 🙂
The mouth or nose breathing comes from the fact that what the mosquitoes are attracted to is the higher levels of CO2 concentrated around these areas. The bugs are attracted to CO2 ( CO2 = humans, )as well as sweet smelling perfumes, lotions and oils.
I love this idea! I use apple cider vinegar and that sure takes the stinging sensation out as well and helps with the itching.
Oh, yes, Apple Cider Vinegar works like a charm too. Potassium in the ACV (and Banana by the way) are so helpful for anything related to skin. If you are itching, potassium is the answer. I put it on bites neat, in my bathwater, and if I want a great pick me up in the morning, I splash 50% ACV/50% water on my arms and legs (never face…ouch!).
By the way, careful! I found that in the Midwest, perhaps other places, the grocery stores like HyVee carry FAKE apple cider vinegar. Best to get the real thing in the health food section. Braggs Raw Apple Cider.
White vinegar is good too.
As far as I know, there are at the most only trace amounts of potassium in any style of vinegar. Maybe it works as a temporary counter-irritant and drying agent since it’s more acidic than human skin. Not the healthiest thing to do to skin, but it works for a few minutes. Wish there was something that was a bit more effective.
I also give it to my dogs. It stops the fleas. I uses it for their last rinse at bath time and a little in their drinking water. IT’S GREAT!