Allergy-proofing Your Child’s Bedroom

By Jeff May
Dust mites and other allergen-producing organisms may be uninvited guests in your child’s bedroom. If your child has allergies or asthma, there are things you can do to make his bedroom as clean and allergen-free as possible.

Never acquire a used mattress, even for a crib, unless the mattress is completely encased in plastic, because it may already be contaminated with dust-mite allergen or even bed bugs. Your allergic child’s mattress, box spring and pillows, even if new, should be encased in allergen-control covers. Don’t choose covers that “breathe” (some brands of encasings contain holes big enough for dust-mite allergen to pass through), but rather cotton or polyester encasings with solid urethane plastic backing, or the all-plastic zip encasings (these can be covered with an extra- thick cotton mattress pad). It’s OK to cover a new mattress in a woven polyester encasing as long as its average pore size is less than five microns.

If you want to remove and wash an allergen-control mattress encasing, use two encasings and only remove the outer one; otherwise, dust-mite allergen in the mattress will leak out and contaminate the room - unless the mattress was new to begin with and was encased before being used.

If you don’t encase pillows, tumble them in a dryer at least once or twice monthly (on medium heat for approximately ten minutes) to kill any dust mites present. Replace the pillows once a year. If your child sleeps with stuffed animals, they can also become infested with dust mites. If you decide to keep them on the bed, be sure and put them in a dryer (medium heat) briefly every week. Wash sheets and cotton mattress pads weekly in hot water. Wash blankets and quilts once a month (be sure they are completely dry before putting them back on beds). In between washings, put blankets and quilts in the dryer once a week (on medium heat for ten minutes). Don’t use down or feather-filled pillows or quilts, because feather-filled items emit irritating feather fragments. Avoid wool blankets, which can contain deteriorating wool fibers that also emit irritating fiber fragments.

If you want to run a humidifier in your allergic child’s bedroom I recommend a warm-mist humidifier, which boils the water and thus inhibits microbial growth in the reservoir. Follow the manufacturer’s directions for cleaning, maintenance and safety precautions. Since excess moisture can fuel mite colonies and mildew growth, monitor the relative humidity (RH) in the bedroom with a hygrometer, available in building supply and hardware stores. Keep the RH below 40% in the winter (lower if the windows fog or ice up).

If your family owns a dog or cat to which your child is even slightly allergic, don’t let the animal into the child’s bedroom. Hamster and guinea pig litter can also be allergenic. Fish tanks can harbor dust-mite infestations because mites thrive on the moisture and fish flake bits resting on the rim of the fish-tank cover. Also, the tank’s filter or bubbler can aerosolize algae and other water contaminants.

Carpeting captures dust and can harbor mold and dust mites, so have wood, tile or laminate floors in your allergic child’s bedroom. When cleaning the room, use a HEPA vacuum (a vacuum with a high efficiency particulate arrestance filter) or a central vac system that vents to the exterior of the home. If you hire outside cleaners, don’t let them use their own vacuum, which may contain and spew out allergens gathered from someone else’s house. And don’t depend on an ionizing air purifier. These produce ozone – an irritating gas.

Jeff May is co-author, with wife Connie, of Jeff May’s Healthy Home Tips: A Workbook for Detecting, Diagnosing, & Eliminating Pesky Pests, Stinky Stenches, Musty Mold, and Other Aggravating Home Problems (Johns Hopkins Press, June 2008).

Media Inquiries: Leslie Wolfe Arista, (617) 713-4130, leswolfe@mediabuzzpub.com