Dust allergy

[melk]

My dd was told by the allergist she is allergic to (among other things) dust and dust mites.

I am wondering about those vacuums I have seen that reduce allergens. Can anyone with dust allergies recommend them? Do they really make a difference compared to a regular vacuum? Which one do you recommend?

Thank you!

p.s. This was the one question I forgot to ask the doctor!

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

DS7 has dust/dust mite allergies. Thankfully, we have all solid surface flooring and do not have to worry about carpets. Our allergist does say that the only room he really worries about is the bedroom and if we ever move to a house with carpets, we should at least replace his bedroom with a solid surface like wood or laminate. The rest of the house wouldn't matter as much unless DS spends alot of time with his face pressed to the floor. Sorry I can't really answer your questions about vacuums, but I THINK that allergen reducing vacuums just don't release the allergens that they suck up...they don't actually do much else. I may be wrong.

 

[melk]

Unfortunately we do have carpets upstairs, but we are considering pulling hers up. Downstairs only the family room has a carpet, so I'm really more concerned with upstairs.

 

[Mermaid02]

They do help. Vacuums do release some of what the suck up and these trap it. If you have a lot of carpets I would think this would be totally worth it!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We already have a dyson, but we weren't told to go out and buy any special vacuum. I would think sucking power would be more important so that you are indeed vacuuming up as much as you can. Just b/c it doesn't release allergens when it vacuums, doesn't mean it is picking them all up either.

*Our doc recommended a mattress liner, new pillow once per year and putting it in a liner, ditching the stuffed animals (which she has refused to do--and me the crazy mom is letting her deal with the results of that decision), and hepa filters.

*DD no longer dusts (just like I haven't mowed a lawn in years due to that allergy). And I have started wet dusting (well--using furniture polish).

We were not told that we had to pull carpets and I thought I saw an article that suggests it may not even be necessary. So her carpet remains.


Also--dust is a large percentage of dead skin cells, so having the family exfoliate will help reduce the occurence of dust will which help reduce the occurrence of those dust mite critters.

We do put the allergen air filters in our a/c intake. Unfortunately it means you have to replace them more often than the blue ones--but that helps as well.

 

[JessicaR]

Its proven that vacuums even hepa filtered vacuums are not effective against removing dust mite allergens from carpet. Some make great claims that just aren't true. I can show you some studies if you're interested. I would not invest a bundle in a special vacuum. A good allergist will tell you to remove all carpeting anyway.

My sons allergies/asthma were really bad when he was younger and we had central vac installed, that helped, but having hepa air purifiers helped the most.

 

[tuckerkeys]

I am also allergic to dust. I have a dyson and it does work wonders, although I have to vac. every day to feel ok.
I also have the Honeywell air cleaner in 3 rooms. I got them on ebay and they each have a 5 year warranty. without these I would be sneezing all day and have red itchy eyes and throat. the dust they gather is amazing! I highly recommend the air cleaners, at least for your daughters room. Good luck!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

My DH is also allergic to dust. What was suggested to us was to buy a hepa air purifier. We bought a very expensive Blueair Hepa purifier for the bedroom and that seems to be helping a lot. Since they are so expensive we are saving up to buy the larger one for our living room. I have to say I no longer see any dust in our bedroom due to the air purifier, it is really nice. We also have a Dyson and are vaccuming daily and now changing our sheets twice a week.

 

[LuvOrlando]

DS, DD and I all have dust allergies. I pulled up a good amount of carpeting in my house and replaced it with hard floors and then replaced the carpet in the rest of the rooms (only 3 left). To be honest I don't see much of a difference since DS's allergies are still set off from outside environmental allergens so although my house LOOKS nicer I can't say the thousands spent improved anything at all. I also do not think the dust has been reduced, it's just that now I can see it easier and I happen to think it kicks up into the air easier, which is bad for me. I'm going to try air purifiers soon, maybe they'll collect the stuff that kicks up.

I think out of all of us my allergy is the most severe though since when I do dust I turn red, sweat heavily, feel ill and need a shower and new clothes In my opinion, the best thing you can do with this allergy is make sure the allergic person is NOWHERE in the room when you do dust or clean because all that dust kicks up in the air and there is noway for it not to land on your skin or in your lungs (unless you wear a mask). There is no way to remove ALL the dust so sit is best to not disturb it while the allergic person is around. The best things to do include staying off the floor, generally keep everything that goes near the face away from the floor including clothing, replacing bedding often and wash comforter etc once a month, replace pillows every few months ( I get cheap hypoallergenic ones because of this), keep the room 'minimalist' with toys elsewhere.

While this sounds annoying I don't think this is a very hard allergy to live with compared with others, once everyone gets used to the idea of keeping away from the floor and not disturbing dust you'll be golden

 

[melk]

Thank you all for your advice, this week will be all about cleaning out her room and getting covers on her mattress, pillow, etc. I think I have my work cut out for me, lol!!