Clean FEEL, not Clean CLEAN

 

As a mom,  I understand my responsibilities to protect my daughter from all forms of harm, including but not limited to protecting her precious virginal skin from harmful UV rays and other environmental hazards.  One of the most difficult tasks for me, is to protect her from itchies, aka, mosquito bites.  It seems that I am not the only one who thinks my baby is extra sweet.  These pests are drawn to her like, well, you know.  There is hardly anything more heart-wrenching that waking in the middle of the night to find that your daughter is helplessly clawing at her legs in her sleep,  in a futile attempt to stop the maddening itch from mosquito bites.  After-bite solutions sting and thus have become like dreaded monsters in our house.  Cortisone cream helps,  but takes a lot of careful maneuvering and spy tactics to get it applied.  Basically, prevention is key.  Especially since these little shits not only pack a serious bite,  but can also be filled like a birthday pinata with diseases ranging from malaria (okay not so likely) to West Nile Virus (a real danger).

I despise bug repellent.  Hate it.  I hate the sticky feel,  the smell, the act of applying it, the fact that it’s loaded with chemicals strong enough to repel even the most willful biting fly or mosquito.  I’ve tried the natural repellents and they just seem to lure the bugs even more.  So every summer, I have to squirt chemicals on my child in order to protect her as a good mother should.  Seems a bit ironic, doesn’t it?

This year, I bought a new product. It is called OFF clean feel.  I have to admit, it has no odor and leaves no sticky, weird residue.  The jury is still out on whether or not the actual mosquito repelling properties are what they claim, but I want to say it’s been effective so far.  So last night,  I was looking at the bottle and thought to myself how naive I would be to feel better about applying this rather than the old school type.  I mean, the name says it right there, CLEAN FEEL.  Not Clean,  Clean FEEL.  So it’s just as much a chemical wonderland as the other stuff,  except for magically the company has designed a way (probably using more chemicals) to get rid of the horrible smell and feel of the original.  It dos not claim to be a natural repellent,  same active ingredients, except now I don’t have this horrendous smell to remind me to wash this stuff off of us as soon as possible.  Now we smell and feel clean.

I find this a bit disturbing but have not yet decided on an alternative that still allows us to play outside.  Perhaps my neighbors could treat their koi pond for mosquitoes or something,  or cut down some of the wild jungle brush around the side of the house…  but that’s another blog. 

 

* photos used, of course, without permission.

~ by janedavisblogs on May 18, 2008.