If you plan on hiking this summer, beware of tick and flea bites.

Andrea Roane, WUSA 8:46 AM. EDT July 01, 2017

Tick parasit on a human skin (Photo: ViktorCap, Viktor Cap 2013)

WASHINGTON (WUSA9) - In this weeks Health Alert, we tell you about the risks of hiking, a new study that says parents give their kids the wrong dose of medicine and how kids with hands on dads benefit in life.

Going hiking this summer or just working in your own backyard, beware of flea and tick bites.

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Our mild winter has allowed ticks to thrive and emerge earlier than usual and with ticks come the danger of Lyme disease.

When you take that walk: wear insect repellant with DEET or permethrin. Wear high socks and long pants. And when you return, do a tick check for yourself and both a flea and tick check for your pets.

A worrisome new study finds most parents are giving their children the wrong dose of medicine. More than 80 percent made one dosing error. And among all errors, about 12 percent involved an overdose.

But when parents had dosing implements, like an oral syringe that's the right size, the error rate was much lower. That was also the case for parents who got text and pictogram dosing instructions.

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Kids with hands on dads are less likely to be obese. Scientists from John Hopkins Harvard Universities tracked nearly four-thousand children from ages 2 - 4.

Fathers who took part in regular child care like outdoor play, putting them to bed or giving them a bath were 33 percent less likely to be obese.

Experts say when fathers play an active role in caregiving, mothers are less stressed which in turn improves children's wellbeing and diet.

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Health alert: Beware of ticks, parents give kids wrong dose of medicine - W*USA 9