Not my actual baby
Despite our fly screens, I seem to wake up every day with more than a few craze-inducing lumps on my limbs (the H1B is sporting a few on his eyebrows, which gives him a perpetually quizzical look) so am naturally worried about our baby – the defenceless creature with its tender newborn skin – being savaged while it slumbers (and then the mind goes mad wondering about the possibility of dengue fever in NYC…).
I posted a question on the ever-helpful Park Slope Parents website (a cliché, moi?) and got a few good responses:
1) Put a dryer sheet – like Bounce – under the mattress at the foot-end of the crib. Not sure if this is because of the fragrance or because of some insidious chemical
2) Lavender – bags, sachets, placed delicately around the Provençal bébé
3) Spray baby with Listerine. Err…
4) Use a mosquito net from Graco Pack and Play, which should fit the mini crib (Da Vinci Emily, if you’re interested – no room for a full-size crib in the ‘nursery nook’; a grandiose phrase for the ‘space behind the door’)
5) Use a fan to blow away the bloody blood biters
The fan and the lavender are the most appealing ideas. I’ll investigate the dryer sheets too.
I was also told that type O people are more likely to be bitten by mozzies. I can never remember if I’m type A or type O…. I think it’s O so that would explain why every bug in the tri-state area likes to sup on my blood.
Hopefully the babe will be saved from a similar fate with some rare but readily-available-in-an-emergency blood type.
Eat more marmite! Apparently it puts them right off.