I remember when I lived down south for a while and had a run in with ticks. It is shocking when you are not used to such things! We lived in a kind of sandy area and you could walk out in certain parts of the yard and the things would just start crawling up your legs by the dozen
! I would suspect that you may have such a problem close to where you are. Other than keeping your baby away from tick infested areas there is no great solution for them.
We started having a tick problem up here when we moved into a wooded area and took in some cats that had been dumped. They remained indoor/outdoor cats but we found that they started arriving home with engorged ticks during the spring and fall.
We tried using Frontline Plus as it was the only topical that was supposed to kill ticks on cats but the creatures seemed to love the stuff and we continued to find engorged ticks on them and sometimes they would carry loose ticks in on their fur. I had to start flea combing them before letting them inside in order to get all the vermin off them.
I have heard mixed reviews about Advantix II. It seems to work on fleas but most people don't have much success with ticks.
When I walk Gracie during ticks season I always avoid the areas where I know the ticks hang out and I check her good before bringing her inside. She has remained tick free. We do, however, still have to do the flea comb thing with the cats. Ticks are really difficult to deal with. Avoiding them is the only way I have found to deal with them.