How to Manage a Child's Dust Allergies
- 1). Encase the mattress and pillow as well as the duvet cover or comforter. Encasings minimize the opportunity for dust mites to reproduce since they thrive in the dark, warm places such as your bed and bedding. See Resources for online vendors of encasement products.
- 2). Wash your child's bed linens every week in hot, not warm, water. Hot water will kill off any active dust mites. And, though dust mites live in every home, you need to work actively to kill them off. They live off of the human skin's shedding scales, so the bed is a key component to minimizing your child's allergies.
- 3). Remove any rugs from the bedroom. Rugs are again a haven for dust mites. If you have hardwood floors, make sure you have washable throw rugs in the room that you can wash weekly in hot water. For those with carpeted rooms, vacuum using a High Efficiency Particle Air (HEPA) vacuum to clean the carpet and avoid sending allergens into the air.
- 4). Store stuffed animals off the bed or, ideally, in another room. Stuffed animals, frequently stored on the bed by loving kids, are one of the greatest sources of morning sniffles and coughs. Dust mites thrive in these loved toys, so keep them off the bed at a minimum and in another room is ideal.
- 5). Run an air purifier with HEPA filters. High Efficiency Particle Air (HEPA) filter the air to remove dust mites that can cause allergic reactions. You may think that any air filter will be useful, but a HEPA filter is key to managing your child's dust allergy. See Resources for a discussion of air filters.
- 6). Seal any bookshelves with a plastic liner. If your child's allergies are severe, you can drop a sheet of thick plastic over the front of a bookcase, seal the sides and cut slits in the front of it to enable reaching in for books. Dust and books go hand in hand, so rather than banning them from the room, minimize their potential for allergens by sealing the dust mites into the bookcase.
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