Playtime poison
Our Big Boy was sent home early from preschool one day last week. He wasn’t sick. He wasn’t biting other kids. He just couldn’t stop scratching. He’d clawed his arms and legs to the point of drawing blood in some places. What I’d thought were a few bug bites that morning turned out to be a full-fledged reaction to poison ivy. (Bad mom. Ouch.)
We’re not sure where Big Boy came into contact with the urushiol oil of the poison ivy plant. Maybe it was when he helped his dad and granddad clear some brush in a field the previous weekend. Maybe it was when he played in a hollowed tree with his cousins at the lake on Labor Day. Wherever the poison came from, it was potent. And it got everywhere: his back, his tummy, his bum, in between his fingers. For almost a week, Big Boy has scratched and squirmed and awakened in the night crying for more calamine spray and Benadryl.
It’s a sad sight. And he may end up with some ugly scars from the incessant scratching. Even as the bumps and blisters begin to fade, I still feel sympathy for him, along with a little parental guilt — shouldn’t I have checked inside that hollowed-out tree before allowing him to climb in? Shouldn’t I have made him wear long pants to clear brush? (Oh yeah, I did.)
Then again, a little poison ivy isn’t so bad. To get it, he had to be playing outside, which is Big Boy’s favorite thing to do. And poison ivy potential aside, I know that unstructured, creative outside play is good for his mind and his body. As I’ve noted before on this blog, today’s kids spend 50 percent less time outside than they did just 20 years ago, according to KaBOOM. And research from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that kids spend an average of six and a half hours each day on electronic media.
I’m thinking that if I had to choose between a squirmy, itchy, blistery boy with a day of fresh air, sunlight, dirt and exercise behind him, and a four-year-old couch potato with a dazed look in his eyes, I’d take the poison-ivy sufferer any day. Who knows? One day he may see those three-pronged leaves and feel a rush of nostalgia for his playful boyhood.
But I think we need to prune the brush around our back fence, just in case.
Photo credit: 123rf.com
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Heya i got to your site by mistake when i was searching bing for something off topic here but i do have say your site is really helpful, like the theme and the content on here…so thanks for me procrastinating from my previous task, lol
Yay for not bubble-wrapping childhood! Bruises, bites, and poison ivy are all apart of it — lessons to be learned and rites of passage. Cheers- Bethe @balmeras
Ouch, sometimes you just have to get outside though. Chiggers, ticks, mosquitoes and poison ivy, I’ve got them all here in Kansas. The only time I object to them is when I am outside for just 5 minutes, adding compost to the pile or something similar, and have to put up with itching for a week afterward. That’s not a good trade-off – better to have a whole day outside for the same pain!
I hope your Big Boy will be back to his usual self soon. And maybe you want to invest in a product for removing the poison ivy oils just to be prepared for future encounters. I keep Tecnu on hand. Surprisingly, I’ve not really had to use it yet.
We’ve had our share of poison ivy around here too. Boy #2 is a poison ivy magnet — of course, he’s also my can’t-stay-out-of-the-woods kid. (Trail? What trail?)
Boy #1, though, developed a *terrible* case of poison ivy this summer, all over his face. He seriously looked miserable; half of his face was swollen and everything.
I hope you find some relief for your son soon. One thing we learned, completely co-incidentally: Salt water helps to dry and heal the poison ivy. Boy #2 still had a pretty good/bad case when we visited CA two summers ago, but after just one afternoon in the water, it was much better. We’ve since re-created the treatment at home by mixing and dabbing on salt water.
Wow. This is great! When I was little I had scraped knees and elbows, poison ivy, sunburn, and a whole lot of other outdoor “injuries.” But I’m thrilled with the memories of playing in the woods, finding the toad singing under the rock garden, watching the Robin eggs hatch and the monarchs emerging from their jewel-tone chrysalis. I wouldn’t trade any of those memories in for anything. Congratulations to you on letting the boy play!