Dust mite allergy will kill me! Pls help!

[Whitesky75]

I’m wide awake at 3am as I’m struggling to breathe. I started sleeping on the sofa, but the last few days returned to the bedroom as it’s a bit cold downstairs. I have diagnosed dust mites allergy.

I’m ok during the day. When I sleep
in the bedroom, I have full blown allergy symptoms by around 11pm!! I wore a mask while sleeping, I coped better last night. The mask came off sometime in the night and I woke up with swollen eyes (rubbing) and itchy throat.

My mattress is probably infested with dust mites. I wash my sheets often, but how do I clean the mattesss? Vacuum clean it!!? Is there a spray or something?

Other s with dust mite allergy, pls tell me how you manage to stay alive?

Could you get an air purifier?

Get a fully enclosed dustmite proof mattress protector.

Are you taking an anti histamine?

Empathy! Is this recent thing?

Yes, you can vacuum it, but use one with a HEPA filter, otherwise it will just blow the dust into the room. Another option is wrapping it in a mite free mattress protector.
Get yourself an electronic air cleaner with a HEPA filter for your bedroom. Do not dry dust, it only stirs it up. Damp wipe everything instead. All surfaces should be wiped regularly. Make sure the bedroom curtains are washed regularly as well. Wash bedding in hot water to kill mites or use a hot dryer. Wrap your pillows in a mite free pillow protector.

Have you tried an antihistamine or a steroid nasal spray? Saline nasal spray may help open your sinuses as well.
Good luck and don't panic. A dust mite allergy can be managed. Look into getting allergy shots too.

Links for mattress and pillow protectors;

https://dustmitetreatment.com/products/anti-allergy-dust-mite-encasement-complete-bed-set-cases-for-mattress-pillow-duvet

https://www.allerguard.co.uk/

Air cleaners;

ukairpurifiers.com/

DD badly suffers from this

you can get a spray- think ours was from
allergy UK
Hoover your mattress and bed frame regularly
completely encase the mattress, pillows & duvet in dust mite proof covers, before the usual bedding.
We also changed her carpet to a wood floor.

We have an air purifier - but I didn’t think it’ll kill dust mites! I take loratadine/citrizine as needed, took a loratadine just now.

When you wet wipe surfaces, do you add anything to the water??

we have no curtains, no carpets. Laminate flooring and blinds (that get dusted weekly)

Just water will do. Better not to use chemical products which could irritate your sinuses more.

Purifiers don't kill dust mites, they trap the dust particles in the filter, therefore any mites that are in the dust are also trapped.

You need to fully encase your mattress in an allergy encasing. If you have a box spring, you also need to encase that (in a separate allergy encasing). An allergy encasing is sewn in a special way to ensure there are no little holes for the dust mite dander to escape. My mattress has a microfiber encasing and my box spring has a (much cheaper) vinyl encasing.

That said, we also encased the beds at my MIL's house which is a lot older and dustier than our house, and it doesn't really help that much. I think there's just too much dust in there, in the carpet, the curtains, and the mattresses. Even if the allergy encasings keep out 99% of the dust mite dander, that still leaves the other 1% and considering the mattress is 40 years old, I think even a top quality allergy encasing is not going to get all the dust mite dander..

Depending on how old your mattress is, and your budget, it might be more effective to get a cheap new mattress and encase that in an allergy encasing. Then your mattress should also stay dust-mite-free because you are encasing it as soon as you take it out of the plastic that it was shipped in.

Your pillows should also be in allergy encasings. If you also wash bedding (sheets, blankets, pillowcases) in hot water weekly (which it sounds like you do) and if you are dusting weekly and have removed carpet, pets, stuffed animals, then once your mattress and box spring are encased, you'll be doing the full spectrum of non-medical intervention as I understand it.

Our mattress is 2 yrs old. It’s an expensive one (super comfortable!) - we can’t afford to replace it . If we must, would buying a mattress topper help?

No other soft furnishings in the room. No pets. No stuffed toys.

My son has a grade 6 allergy (anaphylaxis) to dust mite, you need to be very strict with your cleaning and maintenance routine.

We deep clean his bedroom once a week as well as the house, we use a combination of freezing his bedding ,steam cleaning and hot washing every week and a strict daily routine.

For his bedding

Firstly we bought him a new hypoallergenic memory foam mattress and all hypoallergenic bedding/duvet/pillows and mattress protectors x 2.

We hoover his mattress every day and steam clean his mattress weekly, after we steam clean his mattress we UV light his full bedroom for a few hours.

In the mean time we freeze his bedding (duvet, pillows and protectors) for over 24hrs, this kills the dust mites and eggs but not the allergens, we then defrost his bedding and put them on a hot 60c wash as this kills the allergens and we tumble dry them on the hottest heat as again this kills residual mites/allergens.

We have 2 sets of full bedding so one is always in the freezer, we normally need to replace a set every 3-4 months due to wear and tear.

For his bedroom

We UV light his bedroom after every deep clean and when he is at school/training etc (leave the UV light unit on) he also has a good quality air purifier unit on 24/7.

We deep clean every inch of his bedroom every week (ceiling,floor's, walls, furniture, radiators, skirting etc) and we thoroughly surface clean every day and hot wash floors everyday.

In his room we don’t have any teddies/ carpets/rugs/fabric furnishings etc… his furniture is all wood/metal and leather as dust and eggs cannot settle, we still have to deep clean and surface clean these to rid of any surface allergens however.

For the rest of the house

We do the deep clean the rest of the house fortnightly and surface clean everyday and hot wash the floors everyday.

We have minimised our soft furnishings as much as we can throughout ou home, so we don’t have carpets and have wooden flooring, our rugs are washable ruggables and our settee and armchairs are leather, our furniture is wooden etc…

Ds is 15, he was diagnosed with multiple allergies age 5 months , he still has to take a high volumes of hypo allergy medication a day (including carrying Epi-pens) he’s currently taking a daily dose of 70mg (average person takes 5/10mg) however this can go up to as much as 120mg as he is also anaphylaxis to grass and pollen.

To make your home a safe environment you need to be very strict in your cleaning and maintenance routine, it’s hard work but its our way of life now and to keep ds healthy and safe.

you need to take prescription strength fexofenadine every day.

Mattress, duvet and pillow encasers. (Get recommendations from allergy clinic or society. It’s expensive but worth it.) Wash every six weeks in very hot wash.
Wash normal bedding weekly at 60+ degrees.
If you can afford it, have spare bedding including encasers that you use if you sleep anywhere else other than home.
Damp dust / hoover / mop at least weekly. Minimal knickknacks or soft furnishings.
Ideally window open daily.
Strong daily anti histamines for rest of your life. If you have breathing issues, I found daily montelukast a game changer. Discuss timings of when you take medication with pharmacy.
Sounds like you are being pro active already - Good luck!

Ds air purifier https://sharkclean.co.uk/product/shark-hepa-air-purifier-3-in-1-hc450uk-zidHC450UK?gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADtVN5zGEf4CVkZ2o7pfNSq0HldCM&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlbfriJyFiAMVSI9QBh0QmwgqEAQYASABEgLFDvD_BwE&gclsrc=

ultraviolet Germicidal Light UV Disinfection Sterilizer

https://www.dentaldeal.co.uk/goods-2256-Buy-1000W-Commercial-UV-Disinfection-Lamp-UVC-Germicidal-Light-Sanitizer-Mobile-Sterilizer-Lamp-Online.html

Ds current memory foam mattress

https://divanbedking.co.uk/products/anti-bacterial-hypoallergenic-memory-foam-mattress?variant=48737073398088&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&srsltid=AfmBOorDG8nv2009rl74TlvvTDnlFEkv98DrjZIQkq8W5uOpc7jC9WkQ_mI

Mattress and pillow dust mite protectors.

https://dustmitetreatment.com/products/dust-mite-pillow-protector?variant=42401785086145&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAA9iKVPYqG-Gr4aIuH20-mQQME7wyf&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8eiDiKCFiAMVH5lQBh22-QGWEAQYByABEgJpgvD_BwE

These are what we are currently using for ds, his mattress will need renewing soon tho.

Antihistamine every day whether you think you need it or not! I buy mine in bulk on line it's much cheaper.

Plus see your asthma nurse, you may need to step up your treatment - asthma is always worse at night so it may not be dust mites, just not very well controlled asthma.

For me, it's the pilllows which can be a bad trigger. I replace mine regularly. Maybe just buy a couple of cheap new ones and see if it makes a difference.

Are your sofas even newer than your mattress? Two years is pretty new, and with weekly washing of bedding, I'm not convinced the mattress is the problem, especially if your allergy has flared significantly in recent days.

Your bedroom sounds very bare and dust free, but I wonder if there's another source of dust upstairs? Do you keep your bedroom door shut with the air purifier running?

Definitely take an antihistamine before bed every night. Do you already use a preventer inhaler as well as a reliever? I'd be seeing the GP to get on top of symptoms, regardless of what the trigger turns out to be.

If your mattress is only 2 years old then you could just put an allergy encasing on your existing mattress. A mattress topper is just another fluffy place for dust mites to hide. An allergy encasing is basically a dust-mite-proof bag that zips over the entire mattress. Nothing gets in or out. The question is how much do you spend on it. Vinyl is cheapest but doesn't breathe as well, you might get sweaty in the bed. It's a balance between an encasing with a weave that is large enough to let the mattress breathe, but small enough that dust mite dander doesn't pass through it. You just have to see what are the options available to you and pick one.

I agree it's possible your dust source is outside your bedroom but if your mattress is only 2 years old then to me it makes sense to put it in an allergy encasing as soon as possible to minimise entry of dust mites into the mattress. You can certainly add medications, see your GP or your asthma specialist, do all the things, but I don't think there's harm in starting with the allergy encasing of your mattress because that's a pretty standard thing to do for dust mite allergy and you sleep on it for 7-8 hours every night, nose right on top of the mattress.

@AnnaMagnani agree with this. I have a terrible dust mite allergy plus asthma. When my asthma is well managed and I take a daily antihistamine I cope much better. Don't buy your antihistamines at the supermarket unless you're desperate , non brand products are available on ebay for £5-10 for 6 months worth.

Are you washing your sheets at 60 degrees? I'm only ok if we do this and I absolutely can't cope with fabric softener being used.

And I find Fenofexadine much better at controlling my symptoms