The Harrison Crib: Bee + Ethan = Not Friends!

I am sad to report that my sweet boy had his first experience with a bee/wasp today. Sigh.

Daddy stayed home from work today as we have all been kinda under the weather with colds and he wasn't feeling great. He rarely takes a day off of work and I encouraged him to stay home so he could rest. Such a smart man he is...listening to his wife :)

Jeremy decided to take Ethan out early afternoon to play for a little...suddenly a bee flew by his ear quickly and before Jeremy could even walk over to him it flew away. Ethan immediately started crying and saying, "Beeeeee Beeeeee". Jer came in and told me he thought he got stung. It didn't take but 15 minutes to realize he definitely got stung! His poor ear was bright red and was getting super swollen.

He was screaming and I was trying to put ice on it but that only got him more upset. I quickly went online and googled what to do. Of course the first thing I read is, "Bee venom may cause death." Great....thanks for making a momma so calm. NOT! I knew he would be fine but seeing as this is his first sting I was nervous he could be allergic and his ear was getting extremely swollen. I called the doctor and he told us to give him benadryl and if it seemed like he was having any trouble breathing to bring him in immediately. Some friends also told me to mix baking soda and vinegar together and put it on his ear - I guess it takes the pain of the sting away. We didn't have vinegar so we just mixed the baking soda with water. We figured it was worth a try. He cried for a good 20-30 minutes and then the pain stopped but his ear looked awful. It broke my heart! He got a popsicle, a cookie, all sorts of goodies because I felt so bad! Hopefully he doesn't start chasing bees now in hopes to get lots of special treats ;)

He is doing much better now...happy as can be and is himself and his ear is slowing getting better but it is still swollen. I'm praying it's a lot better by morning and I'll give him some more benadryl tonight to help him sleep.

I took some pictures of it right after it happened....and then I took one about 4 hours later. None of them look great and as you can see it got super swollen. He was breathing fine so we weren't too concerned but we kept a close eye on him all day. He may be allergic, I'm not really sure...I mean it seems so swollen for him not to be allergic...but he was stung on the back of his ear so I'm sure since it's kinda a funny place to get stung the swelling is somewhat normal in that area.

The poor kid is terrified of flying objects now and I don't blame him! We were eating dinner outside tonight and a fly kept coming by us and he would panic and duck his head down and say, "Beeeeeeee, Beeeeeeee" and start to whimper :( I've always been nervous about him getting stung and I figured it was inevitable at some point. I felt so bad for him though....it's hard being a momma sometimes when they are in pain and you feel so helpless. Poor kid was in the ER a few weeks ago with a swollen eye and now a swollen ear. I pray nothing else swells on this kid for a long time!

Here's some pictures of his ear. Doesn't it look awful??! The white stuff is baking soda...