A Walking Citronella Candle

When mozzie season hits us in Victoria I am always well prepared.

Over the last eight years I have fine tuned our mozzie bite prevention system and it pretty much works side by side with our sunsmart plan.

Popps is really a walking citronella candle for me. As long as she is close by, most other people will not be bitten. Certainly not me. By taking on the bulk of the insect attack, she protects the rest of us. But they attack her like the paparazzi on Schapelle Corby. It is nothing at all for her to get 20 or more bites in one day.

Once they have sucked her blood over and over she has a nice allergic reaction that has in the past required trips to the doctors, chemists getting her to guzzle Phenergan and one time, as a toddler, it wasn't sure if she had a sprained ankle or a bite, the bite was so lost in the swelling no one could tell.

These bites can really affect our holidays, especially if she is particularly uncomfortable, can't sleep or needs medical treatment, so it's essential that we do what we can to prevent the discomfort of bites and balance this with ensuring our family gets our fill of being outdoors as much as we can (all summer long!)

This brings me to our little pink bag.

It is filled and refilled all summer and makes it easy to ensure we always have what we need. The little pink bag is simply an old thermal lunch bag, but it is a great size and fits bottles standing up. It sits on the bench and goes with us in the car everywhere.

The main thing in the bag is always Aerogard and sunblock. But Aerogard needs reapplying, it has a smell and washes off. We also go through a few bottles of sun block each summer and there are always a few options in the bag.

Also included are anti-itch items, creams, lotions, potions, powders and medications.

There will be mozzie bands, mozzie stickers, and even little buzzers that you wear which keep bites away.

This summer we trialled a new product called Para'Kito - this is a velcro band with a natural 'pellet' that I placed around the kids ankles. They are totally weather/water/dirt proof so they can be worn all day long. Our holidays are spent in dams with yabbies, lakes, mountains, dirt roads and farms and the Para'Kito band survived all we put them through.

I also gave a new anti itch spray a try, it's called Ouch! spray. It is a totally natural product that is extremely transportable, the size of a credit card it's idea for any bag or first aid kit.

My favourite items in the little pink bag this year were the Neutrogena Wet Skin Kids. During the heat wave days I applied sun block every half an hour, this was the easiest and best I have found in years and will certainly be my first choice from now on. The only downfall was that we did go through the bottle pretty quickly, so have a few spare options as you may find this empties fast.

For mozzie protection I found the Mozzie band was the favourite for Popps to wear. They are best worn around the ankle and when they get wet they are dry pretty quickly, unlike the Para'Kito, which once wet is kind of soggy for awhile, especially if you wear it in the bath before bed, it's kind of like a strap of wet suit material. Instead I ended up attaching the Para'Kito to the kids beds and have noticed a big reduction in the number of mozzie bites we dealt with this summer (so far).

A few 'Mozzie bands' can be worth trying.

The Ouch Spray was a big winner. I really like this stuff. I am a sucker for decent packaging too and this product ticks all the boxes. Because no matter what I try, insects still swarm to Popps and attack her first. Ouch! works, it's natural, it's Australian made and it smells kind of good. I started spraying this on the kids for things just for a placebo effect, just like a band aid can fix most cuts, the Ouch! spray could cure nearly all at our place this summer. Ideally if all the prevention items kept her bite free you wouldn't need this, but you would be surprised at the times you might use it - like when swimming in the lake and you find you need to rip a leach off your child's arm!!

One last note: I also carry Phenergan in our little pink bag as there are just some days when only the big medications will do. If you have a child with similar allergies, please ensure you continue to carry any medications they may need for allergies. xx