Just because you or your spouse has asthma doesn’t mean your child will. In fact, controlling your child’s early exposure to allergens actually may slow down or prevent the development of asthma. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) reports that early and prolonged exposure to allergens contributes to the later development of asthma and allergies.

Start by getting dust mites (the most common pediatric asthma trigger) out of the crib. Doing so can delay or prevent the development of allergic disease, as is documented in study after study. For example, research published in the January 1998 Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology confirmed that dust mite-blocking bedding encasements can prevent dust mite sensitization.

The study followed two groups of high-risk infants for one year. One group of families practiced basic environmental control methods (frequent cleaning, dusting, and laundering). The other group used the same environmental control techniques, but also added anti-allergen encasements to all household bedding. The group using dust mite-blocking encasements showed significantly reduced reactions to dust mite allergen. And even the group using only basic environmental control showed reduced sensitization to dust mites. These results are important because reduced sensitization in infancy may mean a reduced incidence of asthma later in life.

For parents, the opportunity to prevent asthma in high-risk children is exciting news. But many new parents have their hands full just taking care of a newborn’s basic needs. How do you find the time for thorough daily — or even weekly — whole-house cleaning?

Start with a healthy crib

Very young children spend a lot of time sleeping, napping, and playing in cribs and beds. So do dust mites. As distasteful as it sounds, airborne pet allergens, cockroach allergen, and mold spores can drift into the bed, too. The solution: clean, clean, clean.

Laundering removes stray airborne allergens (like pollen or mold spores). Water of 130° F or hotter kills dust mites. Laundry should also be machine dried on the hottest setting available. Focus your anti-allergen efforts on the small piece of real estate where your baby spends the most time — the bed — and you and baby both will rest easier.

• Encase the crib mattress. Anti-allergen mattress covers have been proven effective in controlling dust mite exposure. If baby sleeps in your bed, encase your mattress, too. Make sure the encasement completely seals the mattress.
• Encase quilts and blankets. Use anti-allergen encasements. Avoid wool and down (or feather) bedding, since it can contain animal dander. If you can’t encase it, launder bedding weekly in very hot water or dry in a very hot commercial dryer.
• Give away the wool fleece. Some babies just love a soft, cuddly wool fleece. But not only is fleece a dander problem, it usually won’t stand up to the frequent hot water washing needed to kill dust mites.
• Encase toddler pillows. Choose a hypoallergenic toddler pillow and an anti-allergen pillow encasement.
• Choose only machine washable stuffed animals. Stuffed animals are dust mite magnets. But what’s childhood without stuffed animals? Choose machine washable plush toys, and launder them weekly. Educate well-meaning friends and family, so stuffed toys given as baby gifts won’t help create an asthma problem later on.

Remember: the effort you make today may make all the difference in your child’s health tomorrow where asthma is concerned.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 10th, 2007 at 5:44 am and is filed under Kids. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.