There has been a lot of talk about bees lately and how they are in imminent danger of disappearing which would be disastrous for us. Because of this, hubby and I decided to start educating the kids about bees and how important they are and how we can encourage bees into our little town garden. We planted lots of bee friendly flowers like honeysuckle, which I love because of the wonderful smell and also hollyhocks, Michaelmas daisies and campanula. The kids love helping in the garden and its a great way for them to learn about looking after the planet. We also made a bee house using hollow bamboo canes. I havent actually seen any bees using this yet but maybe they are just very sneaky or ninja bees as my six year old has suggested!
We have however seen an increase of bees in our garden so the children know to be gentle and not to swat at them as this can scare them. The children are not scared of the bees and we have enjoyed watching them weave in and out of the spring flowers, except on Sunday when my littlest one decided to sit on an ivy covered tree stump where an unsuspecting bee was hiding!
My little one screamed so loudly you would have thought he had been shot. We quickly calmed him down, distracted him with an ice lolly and embarrassingly had to Google what to do when stung by a bee!
Finding out what to do after a bee sting is definitely something I should have done before inviting lots of bees in to our garden but fortunately it was all quite plain sailing.
We removed the bee sting with tweezers as it was easy to see, you can also use a credit card for this as you can scrape it over the sting to remove it. It is important the sting is removed as quickly as possible.
We then washed the area with soap and water. If the area looks sore and red it is suggested you pop an ice pack on it.
We then used the magic pink lotion which is what we call Calamine lotion in our house as it really is magical and can be used for everything including bee and nettle stings.
Fortunately our littlest one is clearly quite hardy and took all of this in his stride while eating an ice lolly and having a cuddle. We kept a careful eye on the area as although its small it is still an open wound and infection is always possible and we wanted to make sure he wasnt itching.
We are very aware of possible allergies so we didnt let him out of our sight for the next few hours and watched for signs of wheezing or trouble breathing, swollen lips, tongue, or face, hives, and flushed or pale skin, weak or rapid pulse, dizziness or fainting and nausea or vomiting.
Thankfully none of these appeared and he doesnt seem to have lost his love of bees as he still wanted to read The Very Greedy Bee at bedtime!
