DO NOT wait for symptoms to appear. They can lay dormant in your body for decades and erupt when stress presents. Medicate... There are a LOT of ppl with a lot of opinions, but I swear to you, you will regret not medicating later in his/her life when he/she becomes sick. And that will happen. An LLMD is correct. Research! In the mean time see your family dr and ask for antibiotics. If your dr refuses, find an LLMD or another dr who will. Most of the world, including medical drs are clueless how serious Lyme disease can be if not handled properly . I'm living proof. 31 and can't have a baby, can't get up stairs easily, heart issues, terrible fatigue, all kinds of joint pain. It's serious and I am fighting for my life. I was bit as a child and didn't even know. My mom got bit, knew it and got treated the proper way. Please do the right thing for your baby. Do see website posted above.

Anonymous wrote:

A course of prophylactic antibiotics can prevent lyme.

It can prevent Lyme disease. It will breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Which is more dangerous to your child in the long term?

Please please get your child to a doctor (preferably an LLMD) and get him some antibiotics! I am so sick with Lyme disease. I have a heart issue now, several tick Bourne illnesses and a multitude of health issues due to a tick. Please check out www.underourskin.com for an award winning documentary on ticks. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Get your baby on medicine ASAP. If you do it within a few weeks it won't become chronic and ruin your child's life. Please run, don't walk.

When I hear 'engorged tick' I think of dog ticks, not deer ticks. I've never heard of a deer tick getting engorged.

Doesn't anyone remember having a dog growing up who would have a blood filled tick fall off the dog's body?

Anonymous wrote:

A course of prophylactic antibiotics can prevent lyme.

It can prevent Lyme disease. It will breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Which is more dangerous to your child in the long term?

Uh, do you know anything about Lyme disease?

Poor OP, how messy this has become.
I just want to add something that hopefully will help.
If you decide not to medicate and wait, please bear in mind that symptoms can appear up to a month later (28 days for my son, bulls eyes), then he took antibiotics and was fine.
And, if you do a blood test for lyme, make sure you first understand from the doctor the reliability of this test. I think it can give many false positives or something like that. I am sorry I can't remember this part.

Wow. If I put the kids on abx or took every tick to be tested, the kids would be on abx until they're 30 and so would I. If kid gets a rash, worry. If not, don't worry. If you can see it, it probably isn't a deer tick anyway. They're really tiny.

OP Here: I am not an anti deet crazy. I didn't use any bug spray because 1. it is December, 2. we've had a frost and 3. the only place we've been is our front yard and a local playground. I haven't been to the doctor, although I have a message in to them and I think I'm going to take the tick to be tested tomorrow. Then I'll know what to do.

Probably one of those anti deet crazies

Anonymous wrote:Our toddler had a tick in his chest a couple of months ago, and we went to the ER, where the doc took a cotton ball, soaked it in Palmolive (or some similar dish soap), and then proceeded to move it in a circle AROUND the tick, never touching the tick. Without once being touched, the tick backed itself out of our son's skin, and we disposed of it. The doc then gave my son a dose of antibiotic prophylactically (sp?), as they get so many ticks they don't bother to test them for Lyme any more, they just assume all ticks would test positive.

Wait. You went to the ER? For a tick? Unreal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what part of the boom docks do you live in

The Bethesda kind and it's "boon docks"

why didn't you use deep woods off

Not a helpful comment.

PP poster her who doesn't understand the posters on this thread. My kid got her last one at school at recess in November in Bethesda, which so many DCUMer are so fond of calling "urban" when we complain about sprawl. Am I supposed to slather her with smelly OFF every day before school? Wait, the concept of practicality escapes many on DCUM.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what part of the boom docks do you live in

The Bethesda kind and it's "boon docks"

why didn't you use deep woods off

Get the antibiotics... Just had a friend that suffered with Lyme for over 1 year! He was miserable.

Can you tell if it was a deer tick or the other kind? Deer ticks are so small you generally wouldn't say they were "engorged." If it was engorged and bluish or grayish it wasn't a deer tick. I've picked many a tick of both kinds of my kid and myself. Overwhelming chance is that it is nothing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what part of the boom docks do you live in

The Bethesda kind and it's "boon docks"

"Boom Docks" is far more celebratory of living in the sticks. Like, "Hey, it's okay, I grew up in the Boom Docks, too!"

We need a deer cull around here, badly.

If it is a deer tick then have it tested.The $75 will save oyu your sanity and the constant worry and checking. Then you will know wheter or not to worry. It can take a long time for symptoms to show up and sometimes you don't see the easy to spot ones like the bulls eye. It also takes a while for a blood test to be positive. I also agree that you don't want to take antibiotics if they are not necessary as it jsut porduced resistant bacteria.