Summer challenge – Mini BEEast Hunt!

Our summer challenge is going well

One of our latest activities to be completed was the mini-beast hunt it took a while to complete this challenge as you can see by clicking on the link.

Sammy really enjoyed looking for mini-beasts

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unfortunately things did not end well

Yesterday we were sat in the garden watching a new species of beast that has arrived in our garden since Daddy’s birthday

The boys were enjoying watching the helicopter, running around the garden and generally having fun. Then things went wrong, I was sat on the grass ‘playing’ with our new (well new to us!) camera seeing if I could get a half decent picture of a close up flower

: first attempt

: in focus!

Then I thought I would be more ambitious and got these photos

It was these little mini beasts that went on to cause us problems.

Initially we thought Sammy had been very lucky when he stood on one with nothing on his feet.

Then he wasn’t so lucky.

I was sitting on the grass minding my own business, then as Sammy crawled along the grass the conversation went along the lines of

leave the bee alone

don’t touch the bees

the bee doesn’t want to make friends with you

then

aaaaaaahhhhhhhh

that one was from Sammy, waving his hand in the air with a bee still attached.

Have you tried telling a 2 year old with a bee stuck in his finger to stand still, don’t move his hand, we have to get it out etc?

Sammy luckily is a very brave little man, but this was hurting and his finger was starting to swell, which meant that we also had to remove his wristband that he was still wearing from his swimming challenge, this caused more tears.

As you will see from the picture we were able to get the sting out in one piece.

I am not here to give any medical advice and will be adding links for anyone who wants to read more, but I will just remind people whatever you do DO NOT squeeze the sting when removing as you can put more venom in.

We dosed him up with chlorpheniramine liquid and Anthisan cream, then called the doctor to be on the safe side.

As allergies run in the family and there had already been swelling she decided she wanted to see him, so within less than half an hour of it happening we were being seen by our doctor, I know everyone likes to moan about doctors and waiting times etc, but when it is an emergency they are always there!

She checked him from head to toe, looking for any other signs or symptoms of an allergic reaction sending him away with some hydrocortisone cream and advised putting his finger in ice to bring down the swelling.

Sammy didn’t like the idea of putting it in ice, but seemed ok with the thought of a cold bath, so at bedtime there we were running a bath, he slowly lowered himself into it, holding his had gingerly and putting it in a millimeter at a time, because in his words

the doctor told me to mummy

it did the trick and reduced the swelling, by the time he got out of the bath he was even starting to use his hand, and by morning it was back to normal.

I hope that anyone else taking part in the mini-beast hunt hasn’t had any mishaps, if you do want to know more about how to treat bee stings click the links below