Vacation Pests

It looks like my bragging about swimming outdoors in February has come to bite me in the ass. Well, not in the ass, and not me. Instead, karma bites my sweet little Mia, on the hands, ankles and cheeks. And by karma, I mean bed bugs.

So our this:

 turned into, this:

Mia's hands erupted in a red, nasty looking rash on the Monday after our return from Palm Springs. I assumed that it was an allergic reaction to something, or a delayed reaction to us putting sunblock on her. Mia has some mild eczema, so her skin gets irritated pretty easily. But, the rash got redder, and she was constantly scratching at it. To the point of breaking the skin and causing little scabs. So, off to the pediatrician we went, who immediately asked three questions:

1) Did you travel anywhere? 

    Answer: Yes.

2) Did you stay in a hotel?

    Answer: Yes.

3) Did you use a hotel crib?

    Answer: YES?! OMG HOW COULD WE BE SO STUPID, WE JUST WANTED TO SAVE       TRUNK SPACE!

The pediatrician ruled out scabies (thank goodness), and said that they were insect bites. Since the bumps were only on areas of her body not covered by her pajamas (she wore onesie pajamas without footies, but was wearing socks), she deduced that it was bed bugs from the hotel-provided crib. Awesome.

We were given instructions to head straight home, blast any piece of fabric in the high heat setting on the dryer, and bag everything for three days to suffocate everything. Luckily, we were super lazy and hadn't unpacked our bag yet, so it was easy enough to gather everything up. The bites have gotten better, and we haven't noticed any new ones, so we are safe to assume they did not travel back with us, and were only living in the hotel's crib mattress. But our poor child has spent the last few days pointing to her hands and showing us her "Owie", and vigorously scratching. There isn't a treatment for the bug bites themselves, just hydrocortisone to relieve the itching, and neosporin for the scabs she created. 

Now, I'm not going to name the hotel because we're still dealing with them at the moment. I figured that I should hold back any public shaming until we see how they respond to this whole thing. B did talk to the Manager on the telephone a couple of times, so at least they know not to use those cribs. I've uploaded and ordered photos from Shutterfly, and am going to put everything in writing, including a note from our Doctor naming them as "insect bites".

I would hope for a refund. But let's at least take this lesson away: Hotel Cribs = No.