Earth Clinic Mobile: Home Remedies for People and Pets

Baking Soda and Aspirin Paste for Insect Bites

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Delia (Springfield, Mo) on 06/17/2017:
5 out of 5 stars

I had what looked like two bug bites about 3 or 4 inches apart come up on my leg Monday evening. I am sensitive to bug bites so I am used to wierd reactions and have learned how to deal with them. These bites were different from anything I have ever had before (I am thinking it might have been a house scorpion sting). One Tuesday there was just a giant red area and it started itching like crazy. Normally running hot water over bites really helps, so I tried that but it just made this worse. I used hydrocortisone cream and diphenhydramine cream at the same time and that would take care of the itch for a while. Cold compresses helped some with the redness and swelling. Kept doing that through Wednesday day morning but it was just getting more swollen, red, and itchy. By Wednesday evening it was really starting to spread. It was looking rather scary so I decided to look for stuff to try on here overnight and if there was no improvement by morning I'd go see the doctor.

I started taking two diphenhydramine tablets every four hours and read through all the remedies for bug bites. I remembered my mom putting a paste made of baking soda on bee stings when I was little so I tried that first. It helped a bit. I decided to try adding crushed up asprin to the baking soda paste. When I went to bed I just covered the whole area in the asprin/baking soda paste and slept with a towel under my leg. When I woke up at 3:00 to go to the bathroom, most of it flaked off. When I got back in bed there was still some of the dried up paste left on my leg. I used some hydrocortisone cream to rehydrate it and went back to sleep.

When I woke up it was looking a lot better. I was fortunate enough to be off Thursday, so I stayed home and kept the asprin/baking soda paste on all day. I reapplied the it several times and ocasionaIy put a little cortisone on to rehydrate it, still taking 2 diphenhydramine every 4 hours. I slept with the paste on my leg again Thursday night and by Friday morning it was almost completely better. I was able to get through work just taking diphenhydramine and using the hydrocortisone cream. I went ahead and did the paste over night last night and all that is left is a few small red blotches that itch every once in a while. Am gonna do the paste overnight again for good measure. It seems no matter what goes wrong I always find a remedy on here that works. I don't have health insurance and am allergic to the cheap antibiotics so this has saved me a lot of money.

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