Two Effective Ingredients

• Products containg DEETand picaridin are most effective.ANTI-MOSQUITO AND ANTI-BUG SPRAY. OPEN AND CLOSE. image by Maxim_Kazmin from Fotolia.com
  
  The Centers for Disease Control lists two ingredients it believes have proven most effective in insect repellents. These ingredients, DEET and picaridin, are both approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
  
  

Child-Safe Repellents

• Only DEET products are recommended by the AAP.mosquito bites image by Vanessa van Rensburg from Fotolia.com
  
  Picaridin and DEET are both considered safe for children over two months of age. While the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has not released an opinion or recommendation regarding the use of picaridin on children, it has declared repellents with up to 30 percent DEET to be safe for children and babies over two months. There is no EPA-approved repellent for children under two months of age.
  
  

Natural Ingredients

• Recent years have seen the development of several insect repellents with only natural ingredients, most of them botanical. These products vary widely in efficacy and safety. For example, oil of lemon eucalyptus-based repellents are registered with the EPA and deemed effective, but their use is restricted, and they are recommended only for people age 3 and up. Other botanical-based repellents, containing primarily soybean oil, are touted as the safest for kids, but they are short-acting and much less effective.