Dust mite allergy help

[yummymummy345]

I have been to gp today and have suggested dust mite allegy for DS (3 years) coughing, sore throat, tiredness (which leads to naughtines) anyway I have now ordered zipped mattress protectors and duvet protectors, has anyone tried the dust allergy spray to kill them in and on the mattress?

worried they are chemically and do more harm
thanks for reading x

My son is very allergic to house dust mites and this is what I have done.

Zipped protectors on mattress, pillow and duvet.
Deep hoover weekly, I take ages hoovering each part of the carpet and try to do this at least 4 hours before bed or the dust is in the air and he gets a bit itchy.
Wash linens at 60 degrees.
Keep surfaces as uncluttered as possible and wipe them down with a damp cloth rather than using polish and a duster.
I try (but often forget!) to put cuddly toys in the freezer for 24hrs once a week to kill the mites.

I know it sounds really extereme but it really has helped. He was waking a lot in the night with an itchy nose and coughing and does less so. I also did the same in the areas he plays in. I try and keep on top of it as much as I can but it is hard work.

It will take at least a month before you start to see things improving. Hope that helps, if I think of anything else I'll let you know.

optimusprime thanks so much- just seen your post. He has had blood tests and come back that his coughing , throat infections, lack of sleep etc is due to an allergy and I suspect dustmite- tbc

I will try all the things you have advised. especially freezing his cuddly monkey! the mattress protector I have bought is like a plasticy polyproperline sort - is that what you have or are yours made of cotton? Docs have given him antihist aswel to try and calm things down.. pesky things!

My DS has a dust mite allergy, too, not too desperate, but bad enough that going to his GPs' house (which had been shut up for a while) and jumping on beds landed us in hospital with wheezing.

We have zipped mattress and pillow covers, and a steam cleaner, which I use about once a month. Unfortunately, we've recently had to move, into a place with carpets, which is a shame, but steam cleaning should help...

I've got some good ideas from the Allergy House.

My dd has blinds instead of curtains. No cushions, carpet or mats, we put vinyl in her room. Boxed all toys and books. Freeze teddies each week but do bang them off after. The freezing kills the mites but does nothing about the dustmite poo which is the allergen. I give them a good bang outside afterwards. She also has zipped covers on her bed, I wash bedding every week at 60degrees and hoover the mattress cover each time. We even changed to laminate in the living room and got a leather settee to try to help. It is really difficult but well worth changing your lifestyle. We also put zipped dustmite covers inside our cushions in the living room. Anything you can do is worth a go. good luck

are you using a modern vac with HEPA filter? older vacs just stir up the fine dust and blow it around. You can also get granules to put in the vac that are supposed to neutralise mite-dust.

You need to damp-wipe and wet-mop to remove dust from hard surfaces.

Apologies if you already do all that.

no thank you, all your advice is really welcome pigletjohn (and chloesmum)

Oooh, chloesmumtoo, where do you get dustmite covers for sofa cushions? That's brilliant!

Loads of great advise on here. Our eczema nurse told us dust mite builds up into a problem level every 3 days so I do change dd's sheets every 3 days and wipe down hard surfaces with a damp cloth, but do a thorough clean every week. Once you get into the habit it's not as bad as it sounds, we just have lots of sheets for her so I still do a wash at 60 degrees every week, but change them more frequently.

I try to keep a minimum of soft toys etc in her room. She has one she has to sleep with and the rest are kept downstairs or in our room. And they get frozen, but u like the idea of giving them a good bash after freezing, I'll have to remember that.

Please do let us know where you get zipped allergy covers for cushions, I haven't seen these either.

Medivac naturelle covers for cushions are sold on www.allergybestbuys.co.uk Hope that helps. They do two sizes.

Yes dd's teddies are kept downstairs too in a big black sack. All in freezer bags of about four teddies each. She chooses what freezer bag of teddies she wants on bed change day and then after a week on the bed they get re frozen for 24 hours and then packaged back in the black sack still sealed up from coming out of freezer. Works well for us.

That's great, chloesmumtoo, thanks!

Have no advice to offer but wanted to mark my place as I think ds1 has something similar.

I'm interested in the mattress covers - where do you ge them? We're about to buy a new bed and mattress for him, so it would be good to have a protector for the mattress before he sleeps in it to see if that makes any difference.

I bought the mattress cover from linens limited (through amazon) but they do feel a bit plasticky but not sure if they are all like that? The doctor also advised me to put the mattress on an incline so the congested nose runs straight down to his tummy (not stopping at the throat causing throat infections and coughs) also to use sinus saline spray to clear the nose congestion, but ds is now on antihistmine and is a different child! not grumpy stroppy etc from the lack of sleep.

sorry not linens limited (they are bloody useless) the mattress duvet protectors are from puraspace

we have a plug in dust mite zapper bought from amazon, i have no idea if it's actually doing anything or not, but may be worth a try as they're only about 15 quid

is it an ionising air purifier?

does it have a fan?

can you describe it please?

always interested in gadgets, ta.

I've got one ofthe ionising air prifiers - a bionaire. We use it and I think it makes a difference, but I'm not at all sure. Our house is old and gets very dusty, so it's kinda hard to tell. The filter certainly gets suitably grubby.

midnightexpress, we got mattress covers from John Lewis, the sort you zip the mattress into. They have the Allergy Foundation seal (which not all bedding protectr products do), but are a bit annoying in that they are so loose on mattresses, so that they get all rucked up under the sheets, and I end up putting on a quilted "mattress protector" as well, even though such a thing ought to be redundant! On the other hand, you don't want to sweat through sheets straight onto the allergy-mattress-protector!

Bloody housework in general is at least 20% busywork, thanks to things which don't actually fit or work entirely perfectly!

Thanks plupervert

Not at all. If you run into stock problems, have a look on the AllergyUK site, which is where I found the JL ones. I think M&S do "certified" ones, too, so it really depends where you think you're going toplace the largest order, to make sure you don't need to pay for delivery.

This is the list on the Allergy UK site. I'm a sucker for a stamp of approval!

I looked at the Stamp of Approval page.

It doesn't say "we have tested these products to make sure they work, before issuing our seal"

however it does say they get a commission if you buy through their link.

I'd be happier if it was the other way round.

sorry, took me a while to get back to this, the plug in dust mite zapper is along these lines (i think mine was cheaper but same idea)

www.amazon.co.uk/Dust-Mite-Controller-allergies-caused/dp/B001M4YZR2/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1319034999&sr=8-5

very interested in that. Not much info on Amazon. Does it have a fan, and how do you clean (or replace how often?) the filter?

We have some with a filter plus electrostatic action, and they leave a shadow of fine dust on the floor or wall around the machine where it has become charged, and sticks like dust does to a TV screen. Does yours do that? Or does it do something that kills the mites?

TIA

update

sorry, found it now. The ad says

"The Dust Mite Controller simply plugs into your socket and emits a complicated range of ultrasonic waves covering up to 62.8m3. These sounds interfere with the feeding and reproductive cycles of the dust mite, immediately reducing the amount of allergens produced (faecal matter) and over a period cause the population of mites to decrease."

so I suppose it cuts down the new dust, and you carry on cleaning away the old, so the house gradually becomes clearer, is that right?

This is the advice we got from the Addenbrookes allergy clinic:

Wash bedding etc at 60C once a week.
Have zipped protectors on bedding and mattresses.
Hoover all mattresses, rugs and soft furnishings at least once a week with a special Miele hoover with an allergy filter.
Air rooms after hoovering.
Damp dust surfaces.

You would be amazed how much that gets rid of and you may not need to do anything else.

Incidentally, dust mite can't survive over 500m above sea level, so we take summer holidays in the Alps to get away from it all!