Welcome to the club.. you’re not alone
So you have just found out you have a dust mite allergy and you want to get rid of them as soon as you can! Fair enough, I certainly felt like that,
The longer they are in your home the more poop you will have to clean up, or worse breathe in.
What do I recommend to get rid of the mites in your home?
- Mitegaurd matress protector to put a good barrier between you and the mites, I’d recommend vacuuming your mattress before adding the protector, just to remove any easy to get mites and their poop
- Mitegaurd pillow and or pillow protector, if your pillow is over two years old up to 10% of the pillow can be just dustmite poop
- Begin a new cleaning routine where you vacuum space you live in at least twice a week and follow with a dustmite spray around key areas
- Get rid of old soft toys
- Make sure your vacuum is a HEPA filter Vacuum
- Hot wash sheets and snuggle blankets once a week
- Dustmite spray bedding every 3-4 Days
- If things are really bad, look at getting a air purifier, we have a Dyson one and I highly recommend it
- Air out bedding in the sun and then spray
These are the key actions we have found to be the most helpful. Eventually we will look at removing the carpet, getting a mite guard duvet protector and installing a HSV ventilation system.
The Miteguard products are expensive (but in my experience worth it) and if this is something you cannot allocate funds to at this time, I would recommend vacuuming your mattress as often as practical and trying the dustmite disappear.
What is a Dustmite?
It is a tiny bug that eats dead skin, you cannot see the dustmite unless you have a microscope. They live for about 80 days and can lay about 300 eggs in its lifetime and can poop 200 times its body weight in their lifetime. They do not cause/spread disease however many people are allergic to the poop they produce I (kylie) am one of those people.
Dustmites thrive in humid weather and live off eating your dead skin. Therefore ensuring you are cleaning and hot washing is a great way to kill the buggers especially when the weather is humid. I have found the dust mite spray is great for that extra bit of safety, it often feels like a safety blanket and is great to travel with.
Top tip for travelers with a dustmite allergy!
Ask the place where you are staying when the air con filter has last cleaned before putting the air con on. I had a big flare up one night after turning on the air con.
When booking air b&b look for less cluttered places
How do you know you have an allergy?
My journey to finding out I had an dust mite allergy was drawn out. After giving birth to our third child I caught a bad cold that turned into a two year asthma flare up, our little baby learnt how to sleep through the massive coughing fits I had. I was tired and trying to look after 3 little humans, I wasn’t cleaning well so I think the dust mites thrived in this time frame.
Fast forward two years, rounds and rounds of steroids maxed out preventative inhalers, tears and sleepless nights. Thousands of dollars on alternative medicine, herb taking, tea drinking, breathing exercises I demanded an allergy test because I always had to take antihistamines- even in the winter.
The skin prick test indicated a very large dust mite allergy. From there on things got better for us, and when I started implementing Buteyko Breathing I started to feel great, a year on and I am still adding in new techniques to support my body, at present I am in the middle of a 28 day detox with Dr Libby to support my liver.
How do I know my allergy is Flaring up?
I get an itch at the back of my mouth, like at the top, my nose gets this annoying itch. At this point I go for an antihistamine and the dustmite spray. If I don’t I feel an irritation down my oesophagus and a little tickle that implores me to cough.
I take my wellbeing seriously. Having an itchy mouth, stingy eyes and irritable self in the evenings does not make for a great way to go to sleep. For years Dustmites have taken away my joy, have made me up tight for no apparent reason without me even knowing. Having the knowledge of this allergy which triggered depilating Asthma has empowered me to find sleep and the loving open kylie I desire to be. The extra cleaning associated with this allergy is worth being healthy for. I know it can feel like a lot but honestly the alternative is not what I call living.
As a great friend says “my dreams are bigger than my excuses”
Information sourced from the years of reading about them and these sites
https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/health-a-z/a/allergy-dust-mites/
http://www.allergy.org.nz/A-Z+Allergies/Dust+mite+allergy.html
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