Your assumption that some kind of insect bite is responsible for your child’s condition is probably accurate. There are some other symptoms that you also need to look at to eliminate the chance of a bite from the recluse spider. If you are living in a part of the world that does harbor the recluse spider, which is the American continent, ensure that you haven’t seen the spider around your house. Ask your child if it has seen a spider as well. This is important because there is a possibility that the problem could also be a Lyme disease that is caused by the bite of an infected tick. This can be ruled out if you live in an area that is far from forested areas and areas where there might be deer and rodents.
To eliminate the possibility of a recluse spider bite, the first thing that you need to do is to get the child to a hospital as soon as possible. If your child has developed a sore that is the size of a bottle cap and the area around the bite has started to turn black, then the tissue is necrotizing. If this is the case, you need to take your child to the hospital as an emergency case because the next stage of problems that will occur will be in the kidneys. There are no home remedies that will be effective at this stage but if you had known earlier, or if this should happen again, keep some meat tenderizer handy. Meat tenderizer contains a substance called papain and this is known for its usefulness in treating bee stings and other venom related bites. Papain works by destroying protein and venom is a type of protein itself.
You must immediately start treating your child with some tea tree oil around the area of the sore to kill off any bacteria that has invaded the open wound. Do this after applying some hydrogen peroxide on the injury site to clean out the dead skin first. Next, you must place a cold compress on the rest of the leg to reduce the inflammation. The inflammation is a natural reaction by the immune system to the presence of venom in the region. Get your child to have some papaya juice as this also contains papain and could help on venom that has pervaded inside the body. Finally, get to the doctor as soon as you can.
answered by G M