An Ottawa woman is raising concern after her daughter was bitten by a tick on a school field trip.
Seven-year-old Abigail Beaudoin was visiting MacSkimming, an outdoor education centre owned by the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, on Thursday when she was bitten by a tick.
"We got a letter home saying please pack sunscreen, insect repellant and that she should wear long pants, that kind of thing," said Abigail's mom Amy Beaudoin. "We sent her with all that and then she came home and said she's itchy."
Beaudoin says her daughter has a sensitivity to inspect bites so they initially brushed off the irritation to mosquito bites. The next morning, after a dose of Benadryl, one bite on her elbow was even worse.
"When you do hear about a tick bite you hear about a bullseye," she said. "It was white like a mosquito bite and red around. It didn't have those traditional red rings that you are used to seeing or the bug hanging there."
Doctors confirmed Abigail was bitten by a tick and put her on two weeks of high dose antibiotics to prevent any chance of her contracting Lyme Disease, a tick-carried illness.
"They're really tiny, like apple seeds," said Abigail about ticks.
Despite those best efforts, Beaudoin says she questions whether young children should be sent on outdoor field trips during the height of tick season. Ottawa is considered at an risk area for ticks with 20 per cent of the inspects testing positive for Lyme Disease. In addition, the number of confirmed cases of Lyme Disease in Ottawa increased 145% between 2016 and 2017.
"I don't even know if caution is good enough because we've heard that it is on the rise," said Beaudoin. "We weren't even in the forest and didn't realize it would be that close to home.
Ottawa Public Health admits the presence of ticks is increasing but points out that 80% of the insects do not have Lyme Disease and urge parents to be vigilant and conduct regular tick checks on their children.
