Fire Ants

You know that old saying "If you play with fire you're going to get burned", well I have a new saying, "If you mess with fire ants you're going to get bit". Unfortunately Braden found that out the hard way. Yesterday was a really nice day weather wise so Braden spent a lot of time playing outside. So yesterday evening Braden was out playing with one of his neighborhood friends and apparently they decided to mess with an ant hill. I don't know the whole story and I don't exactly know what they were doing, but obviously whatever they were doing the ants didn't like! Braden came in crying and took off his shoes and said the ants bit him. He was scratching his feet like crazy. I decided to just have Braden go and take a bath before dinner because he was so filthy. Once he took off his clothes and was in the tub I noticed "bites" (or so I thought) all over his body. He was still crying and scratching himself everywhere like crazy. Luckily we had some Children's Benadryl on hand so I gave him some to help with the itching. Then I noticed that his eyes were starting to swell and he started coughing and that's when I finally realized that although he did have some ant bites on his feet and back, it was hives that were covering his body from head to toe and he was having a severe allergic reaction to the ant bites. That's when the worry and the panic started to set in with me, especially when I could tell his breathing was starting to be affected by it. I've had an allergic reaction before and I know the feeling of your throat swelling and it isn't fun. Thankfully grandpa and grandma are here so I wasn't alone and that kept me from freaking out too much! And thankfully the Benadryl worked pretty quick and Braden was back to running around and being crazy and hyper soon after. Today Braden has very swollen, red, itchy, hurty feet and is walking funny because of it! He still has little spots of rash here and there on his body but seems to be doing fine. I just hope he learned his lesson! Of course taking a picture of him yesterday was the last thing on my mind, but here are a picture of his little feet the day after. He has chubby feet anyway but they are extra chubby today!