DH's allergies - any Dust Mite Allergic households?

[moaningpaper]

DH suffers from extremely bad allergic rhinitis - has had several operations and is on drugs every day.

He went to the NHS allergy clinic which was very helpful - but he was allergic to EVERY allergen they tested him with, INCLUDING THE PEN that they wrote on his arm with, which was supposed to be hypoallergenic...

ANYWAY we have removed all carpets from downstairs - which has had feck-all effect so far - and we are going to try and make some improvements to upstairs.

We've tried the dust-mite proof bed protectors but DH reacted badly to these - awful night sweats.

At the mo we have carpets and open shelves/wardrobes and will try and eliminate these.

1. I'm not sure what to do in the children's room because it is full of shelves and stuffed toys. Am I going to have to buy a zillion cupboards?

1. Should I buy an air purifier or is there no point while I still have carpets and open shelving?

1. Does anyone have any tips about how I should go about improving my home environment for DH?

[Furball]

I saw a program about asthma in children and how through tweeking your lifestyle you can eliminate it.

The children had hardwood floors in their bedrooms. No clutter, no soft toys, they had anti allegen matress, duvet and pillow protectors. In the morning they had to open their window and hang their duvet over the back of a chair to air everything. They also had their room dusted and hoovered everyday. Their Pj's were not allowed outside their bedroom and vice versa with clothes. They literally had a room for sleeping in and that was that.

But it worked and the parents who could keep ontop of the extra daily housework stopped their childs asthma. I know you DH hasn't got asthma but I am assuming it's similar in the fact that he suffers with dust etc.

[moaningpaper]

That's very interesting

The problem is that the house is quite small, so there is no where else to put clothes apart from the bedrooms, and I can't get rid of the children's toys (much as I'd like to!)

Food for thought though

[moaningpaper]

I do air the bedding / beds every day as soon as we are up - hanging it all out and opening windows etc

[Furball]

The childrens toys were stored in plastic stacking crates. which is fine as it's not in yours and Dh's bedroom.

You could still have hardwood floors and get rid of any shelves with nik naks on where dust can settle etc. and hoover everyday or every other, it does make it alot more work for you though. - This is what some of the parents struggled with, fitting in all that extra hoovering/dusting etc into their lives.

[fortyplus]

Damp dusting is more effective than hoovering. My ds1 has asthma & allergic rhinitis but he's nearly 13 now and has been almost symptom-free for a few years - just as long as I nag him to use his 'preventer' inhaler and he takes Piriton or similar in the hay fever season. Obviously not on the same scale as your dh!
One thing that did make a difference was always tumble drying all his bedding and pyjamas - not hanging them outside to dry.

[moaningpaper]

Yes, we don't have ornaments or anything but we have a lot of books

and clothes are on rails, and open shelves, because we've never really had any spare money to buy furniture like that, but DH has been very bad this year so I think we are just going to have to bite the bullet and buy wardrobes etc

[Zippetydoodahzippetyday]

I too have this but not to the extreme of your poor DP. I have had septoplasty to try and help my breathing and now I use my spray every night as the snoring is quite bad still.

[moaningpaper]

fortyplus: do you mean that tumble drying was BETTER? (sorry not sure) I have wondered which was the best thing to do.

I always damp-dust and I try to do it several hours before DH comes home

I do hoover downstairs twice a day but upstairs only twice a week probably because it's a pain in the arse lugging the hoover upstairs ...

[moaningpaper]

zipp: he was told that a septoplasty wasn't necessary but he has had several operations to scrape out the lining of his nasal passages - but it hasn't had any long-term improvement unfortunately

[Zippetydoodahzippetyday]

I've just swept my bedroom floor and now I am suffering with itchy eyes and sneezing. Didn't realise it was that dusty

Probably why I was snoring badly last night. DP was fed up.

[fortyplus]

Yes - tumble drying better for allergy sufferers as it means that bedding etc not outside with pollen spores etc landing on it. The idea being that hopefully yout room is reasonably allergen free but then if you get into a bed with lovely 'fresh' bedlinen that's been hanging outside and gathering whatever is floating around you're worse off than ever. Makes sense when you think about it. It certainly made a big difference to my ds1 - he had been sneezing so much at night that he'd been getting horrendous nose bleeds. Now that I tumble dry his bedding & pj's he's a lot better.

[fortyplus]

ps We also bought a Dyson and it's amazing how much better it is than a normal hoover

[HenniPenni]

FORTYPLUS, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!!!

I have been nagging DH for ages now to get a dryer, now I can use DDs allergies as the perfect excuse!!

[fortyplus]

Glad to be of service!

[noonar]

sorry to hijack but i have very troublesome symptoms - runny nose, constant sneezing- trigered by animal hair and dust,feathers- i think- but not usually pollen. it's odd cos i can go weeks symptom free, then get it really badly.

have tried beconase and flixonase spray and benadryl - new fast acting tablets. the benadryl worked but made me feel lousy. any other suggestions for over the counter meds? MP- what does your dh take?

i really sympathise mp, it must be awful to have an extreme case.

[fortyplus]

my dh takes Beconase
ds1 Sainsbury's own brand Hay Fever tablets or Benadryl, but only in the summer - we seem to have things under control at home just by having hard floor in his bedroom and tumble drying the bedding.
M-I-L takes Piriton when she comes to our house as she's allergic to the cat.
ds2 & I are lucky enough not to suffer.
Don't think any of mine are very bad though - you need advice from someone with more severe symptoms.

[moaningpaper]

noonar DH has a selection of drugs from the GP. The problem is that taking them all the time seems to affect his liver so recently he has been chopping and changing the drugs a bit. He takes oral tablets and various nasal sprays.

[HenniPenni]

DD takes claratyn at the moment in the winter but she my be chnging to a nsal spray at some point.

I, on the other hand take whtever anti-hystamines are on offer at the time (as in BOGOF)

[USAUKMum]

we've just bought DS one of these purifiers :
Airfree
for his room. DS has asthma. He's only had in there a few days (and it said would take up to a month for full effect) but his energy levels are vastly improved (have thought about taking it out again as now can't keep up )

We have wood floors in most rooms, including his bedroom, wardrobes.

[moaningpaper]

USAUKMum those air purifiers look interesting

Do they have a filter you have to change? How many hours a day do you need it? Is it noisy at all? How many cubic litres (?!? or what) of air does it clean in what time?

[USAUKMum]

It has no filters to change. You leave it on 24 hrs a day and is silent. It has a blue light (like a night light) which you can turn off. It says it is about the same as a 40W (maybe 60W) bulb. From memory (as I can't find where DH "tidied" the directions to ) is that is can purify 55 cubic meters. You keep the door closed to the room, but can air it out. It seems to be working well for DS, I think he has more energy as he is sleeping better. Will see how it works when he gets his next cold (which always makes his asthma worse).

They say in about a month, the air will be free of all sort of "stuff". Though there is a dramatic drop in "stuff" after about 1.5 wks. It has been tested by huge numbers of laboratories.

[USAUKMum]

BTW I do remember it specifically mentions dust mites, pollens, molds -- but the list of "stuff" is about 10 long. If you want it I can find where the directions have been "tidied" too.

[riab]

So could someone give a good list of the tihngs you need to do if you have an allergy sufferer int he house and order of priority, ie is it more important to rip up carpet or to hoover bedroom every day?
more important to air out rooms or mop down the hall etc?

Anyone else with the airfre thingie or similar, what does your GP think?

[Indith]

If its any comfort I grew out of dust mite allergies around age 20! Still get got by the bloody cat though. Apparently its childhood and then 40s that are the 2 periods for suffering from things like that. Maybe it will stick around for a while then go!

Don't go mental over it, its more getting in the habit of it until symptoms are manageable. I went through all my childhood on antihistamines, steroid nasal sprays (which at one point were causing up to 5 nose bleeds a day), eye drops for when they got very bad (tablets don't always tackle the eyes well) and sometimes steroid creams for skin flare ups. YOu learn to live with it, there are good days and bad ones.

But, removing carpet from the bedroom is great. Remember that around the rest of the house you tend to be moving around more, its more airy but you spend a considerable length of time in the bedroom all at once while asleep. You can get ready treated pillows and duvets rather than buying covers. COvers as you have found are often not very breathable and end up flattening your pillows so the ready treated ones are better! (you can get good low price ones from Dunelm)It is worth getting an expensive mattress cover though that holds the whole mattress rather than a fitted sheet style one. YOu can get good ones that won't cause sweats.

Change the bedding every week and air the bed every day and try to have the windows open for an hour a day even when its cold.

Use microfibre cleaning cloths for dusting and try to do it often. A vax is a really good vaccuum cleaner for allergies and you can get ones that also do carpet cleaning which is good to do regulrarly. For the uncarpeted floors microfibre mop things are great too, as are the pledge dust and go things though less good for the environment!

For kids soft toys, I doubt your DH spends too much time hugging them but sticking them in the freezer for a few hours kills everything.

Thats all I can think of right now!