Children and Lyme Disease

Did you know that children are at HIGHEST risk of contracting Lyme disease as compared to other ages?

Any contact with vegetation outdoors, such as playing in the yard, playing a game of soccer, playing with the family dog, or going on a school field trip could result in children's exposure to ticks and tick-borne diseases.  All children in Iowa are at risk of contracting a tick-borne illness with tick exposure.

Information about Lyme disease in children:

ABC's of Lyme Disease - download brochure

Make Time to Look at Lyme - printed in Best Practices in School Health

The Effects of Lyme on Students, Schools, and School Policy

Neuropsychiatric Aspects of Pediatric Lyme - Columbia University

(Prevention for schools) - Time for Lyme School Curriculum

Lyme Induced Autism Foundation

Book for Children with Lyme Disease:

  Does your child have Lyme disease? Does he or she feel alone and not know what to expect from family and friends? In line with the Lyme Disease Association’s long tradition of helping children, it has published a new book for children 8-12 who have Lyme disease. Entitled Lyme Disease Is No Fun: Let’s Get Well!, the book is written by Mary Wall MS Ed, CCLS, a Columbia graduate student, and is edited by Colleen M. Smith, a peer-review medical journal production editor and Johns Hopkins grad─each has battled Lyme disease as a child. Author Amy Tan has written the back cover note.
 
 Ms. Wall wrote the book because of her own experiences with the disease. “I couldn’t understand why the doctors thought I would want to miss almost two entire school years and pretend to be in pain. I remember being at my sickest point and sitting in a wheelchair in front of a doctor. He looked at me, shook his head and said, ’Mary, why don’t you want to go to school?’ I was so frustrated, all I could do was cry.”
 
 The book presents a brief history of Lyme disease and ticks, diagnosis and treatment, missing school due to Lyme disease, and feelings about the disease. Information is included on LDA’s LymeAid 4 Kids fund which has available monies for children with Lyme without insurance coverage for the disease. Proceeds from the sale of the books will to go to support the national nonprofit LDA’s Lyme disease programs─education, prevention, research funding, and patient support.
 
 Books may be purchased by sending a check or money order for $6 payable to the Lyme Disease Association, PO Box 1438 Jackson, NJ 08527. For online orders, see http://www.lymediseaseassociation.org/Publication_Book.html