How do you deal with sleepovers with dust allergic child?

[DaftApeth]

Ds' dust allergy seems to be more easily triggered recently and it takes very little to bring on his wheeziness and coughing overnight. Touch wood it's never been too horrendous (like some dcs asthma) but, I think, it does regularly affect his quality of sleep.

We seem to just about manage to keep it under control at home but whenever he stays away he often really suffers - mainly, I suspect, through using duvets and pillows that have been pulled out of a cupboard or sleeping in a little used spare bed. He has had to come home late at night a couple of times because he was so wheezy and couldn't sleep.

How do other parents deal with this when dcs stay overnight at friends? I can hardly insist on intensive hoovering and washing all bed linen, etc!! Yet he also wants to be able to stay at friend's houses.

Can he take his own sleeping bag & sleeping mat? My DS doesn't have allergies but I usually offer to send his sleeping bag - much less washing/effort for the host so I am sure most families would think this is accpetable and you are not criticising their housekeeping !

Yes, a sleeping bag could be an option but not sure about a mat because that brings him close to the floor and carpet which holds so many nasty dust mites

I have to take an antihistamine when I sleep at my Mum's because of her dogs. I only take them when really needed... could that be an option?

I also use a latex pillow as apparently they don't harbour dust mites. I would imagine the pillow is most important as it's nearest to his ears, nose and throat.

I do the anti-histamine thing at my parents. Was thinking a good idea to suggest this when he stays at his friends next week.

Think pillow being most important is true. Unfortunately, sending a pillow is not always easy. Will have to work out how to do this for next week - he is being collected after a day at cricket and the drop-offs and pick-ups involve friend's two sets of grandparents, so don't want to burden with too much extra stuff!

You can get inflatable pillows from camping shops - could that be an option?

a blow up mattress perhaps? You can get quite thick ones from camping shops.

Ds had a bad experience with a blow-up mattress last night, which is partly why I posted this today.

They are so uncomfortable and mean that he is still too close to the floor that he was still awake at 11.30 last night, coughing, wheezing and tossing and turning.

Inflatable pillows aren't amazingly comfortable but are much better if you wrap them in a jumper

I wonder if a cotbed pillow might be better than an inflatable one. I know I could not sleep at all easily on an inflatable one.

At least a cotbed one could be stuffed into a bag and put into the washing machine easily. It's a shame I gave his old one away, although it would be years old and probably rather dog-eared by now

you can get very good blow up mattresses from camping shops. They are about 20 cm thick.

I wonder if allergy pillows come in smaller sizes? We have full size ones but they do come in their own special carrier with good strong handles so that might make it a bit easier to tout around. If they did half size ones that would be so useful!

You can now get a specially designed sleepsac to protect against dustmites etc for sleeping in unfamiliar beds. It's called a Dreambag and it's on the allergybestbuys website. They also sell a cotbed size pillow as part of their Children's Anti-allergy Bed Set. Both worked for my DS. Good luck!

Thankyou everyone.

I found some cotbed anti-allergy pillows online yesterday

Had a look at the Dreambags. Gulp at the price!! A great idea though.

Yes, I think inhaler before bed does make a difference.

What is the difference between using the spacer and not? I tend not to bother with the spacer anymore as ds has rarely needed his inhaler and so it is easier to just take the inhaler when we go anywhere.