How to Manage a Tick Bite

We encourage our parents to do a daily inspection for ticks, especially in the spring and early summer, or if you have pets that go outside.  Daily tick checks are invaluable given the prevailing medical knowledge that a tick must be on the body for 36-48 hours to pass any illness to humans.  Thus, a tick check with prompt tick removal is an essential component of Lyme Disease prevention.

The best method for removing a tick is to grab the base of the tick against the skin with a fine tweezers and steadily pull the tick out.  Once the tick is removed it can be discarded.  You can record the date and site of where the tick was removed on your calendar.  Using alcohol, nail polish, or a hot match to remove a tick is not effective and is not advised. Routine testing of a tick that is removed is also not recommended.

A frequently asked question is what to do if the entire tick is not removed.  If tiny embedded tick portions cannot be easily removed, you can leave them alone.  The main disease-carrying portion of a tick is the abdomen, and this is the most easily removed portion.  What usually remains is the head or part of a limb.  There is no increased risk if these body parts are left alone to come out on their own.  After removing the tick you can keep the bite area clean with soap and water and apply a topical antibiotic for a few days. 

The best course of action after removing a tick is careful observation.  Pediatric Infectious Disease experts do not recommend treating children with antibiotics just because a tick bit them as the risk of getting Lyme Disease is still very low, and if signs of infection appear Lyme Disease can be treated and cured.  It is also not helpful to do diagnostic blood tests right after a tick bite because it takes a number of weeks from the time of a tick bite to when a blood test becomes positive, if an infection is to occur.

In summary:

        Please remove tick as soon as possible by yourself

        Mark your calendar

        Observe area of bite for at least the next 30 days

        Call us if you have any questions or concerns