Looking to asthma proof your home? When finding out your child has asthma everything can seem a little overwhelming! This blog post is going to break down the basics of what you need to do and why it’s important.

Hello friends! We recently found out my 3 year old has asthma. The last week has been crazy and full of changes! While I’m glad we finally know what’s going on with my daughter, it has been a little stressful! I wanted to take a moment and jot down a few notes that I thought might help other parents who find themselves in a similar situation. 

But first, some facts! 

According to the CDC, asthma currently impacts 8.0% of U.S. adults and 6.5% of U.S. children. Honestly, I was surprised by these numbers! I would have thought these numbers would at least be in the double digits! How did my daughter end up in the tiny 6.5% of American children with asthma? 

How did we know?

How did we know my daughter had asthma? Honestly, we didn’t! 

My daughter has had pretty bad allergies since she was about 2. These allergies seemed seasonal and related to the pollen outside. Her Dad also has bad allergies (and as it turns out, asthma), so we didn’t think much of giving her some allergy medicine everyday during specific times of the year. 

The past month, month and a half, her allergies seemed to be getting considerably worse. 

At first, she had a cough and runny nose that wouldn’t go away. This cough was worse at night and had both her and me sleeping very poorly. When cold medicine didn’t work we tried some allergy medicine and that seemed to help a little. 

Any night we forgot to give my daughter allergy medicine it was pretty much guaranteed that we would wake up at 3 or 4 am to her coughing non stop and having difficulty breathing. There were quite a few nights where we would have to toss her in a hot shower just to clear her airways. More than a few times I was worried she was going to throw up on me because she was coughing so bad! 

After a month of this I decided it needed to stop. Everyone in my boyfriend’s family always talks about how their allergies get worse as they get older. Most of them are talking about their allergies getting bad around their late teens, early adulthood. If my 3 year old was having this difficult a time now, what was the rest of her life going to look like? 

I’m an over-thinker. If you didn’t know before, now you do. 

So, I took my daughter to an allergy and asthma specialist with the intent to get her allergies under control. After going through a brutal allergy test and answering a couple dozen questions, we had our results. Asthma with a severe allergy to dust mites and pretty much every pollen there is outside. 

My daughter’s diagnosis came with a long list of things we needed to do around the house, half a dozen prescriptions, and a packet of information to take home.

It’s safe to say I was only a little overwhelmed, lol. 

Now that you have suffered through my long story, let’s get to the tips! 

The tips will be broken into two sections. Things you gotta clean and things you gotta buy. If you have specific questions or concerns, feel free to jump ahead! I know this asthma stuff can be overwhelming and stressful when you first find out. 

Disclosure: I am not a doctor or medical professional. The tips given below are simply what has worked for me and what has been recommended for my family. The tips below are not medical advice. If you have medical questions are concerns, you should consult a doctor or medical professional.

Things you gotta clean!

This section is important for those with asthma that is triggered or made worse by allergens. 

What it all boils down to is dust mite and pollen proofing your home. 

For those that don’t know, dust mites are microscopic little bugs that you can’t see, but you can pretty much guarantee they are EVERYWHERE! 

I was only slightly disgusted when the Dr explained this part. 🤢

Dust mites thrive in warm and humid places and love your fabrics! Your sheets, mattresses, furniture, carpets, curtains, and your kids stuffed animals. They are all over that stuff! 

What that means is washing pretty much everything on a very regular basis. 

Washing Bedding!

Asthma coughing is usually worse at night. Something you can do to help your kiddo sleep is dust mite proofing their bed and bedroom! 

This means washing your child’s bedding, blankets, and any stuffed animals they sleep with at least once a week in hot water. For my daughter it’s more like once every 5 or 6 days. 

What this also means is if your child’s favorite toy is not machine washable, it shouldn’t be sleeping with them at night. 

To combat any frustrations with this one, we moved my daughter’s babydoll bed next to her bed so her non-washable toys can be close without actually being within breathing distance. You could also try putting a separate blanket and pillow on the floor for these toys and place them there. 

Washing Toys!

My daughter has a lot of stuffed animals and blankets that she plays with throughout the day and occasionally sleeps with. Unfortunately, it’s never just one specific stuffed animal. She’ll play with different toys depending on her mood. 

While this makes things easier when she misplaces a toy, this isn’t exactly ideal cleaning wise. 

To help keep track of what toys she has and hasn’t played with throughout the week I put a basket in our living room and one in her bedroom. 

When she is done playing with any stuffed animals or blankets we put them in one of the baskets. If she wants to play with the toy again she just has to pull it out of the basket. When bedding laundry day comes, we wash everything in the baskets. 

Any toys she doesn’t use throughout the week I’ll toss in a random load of laundry here and there. I’m not usually too stressed about washing ALL of her stuffed animals weekly because there are many she doesn’t get around to playing with in a week. 

Spacers

If your child is using a spacer with their inhaler, my Dr recommends cleaning it every couple of weeks. I guess there is some white film that can build up after a few uses. 

I am not the type of person to remember exactly when I did something, so I usually clean this every week on bedding laundry day. 

Spacers are not machine washable!

My daughter’s Dr recommended wiping the inside down with a warm washcloth. He said this would be more than enough to keep it clean and usable. 

Other things you should clean weekly:

• Ceiling fans, and other things that can collect dust. 
  
• Vacuum carpet weekly, including any rugs.

• Clean any cloth furniture once a week (like your couch). 

• Towels

• Curtains

• Anything in the coat closet during the cold months, especially if your child also has pollen allergies like mine does. 
  

Linen Closets

After a week or two of washing everything, I started thinking about our linen closet. 

Are dust mites lurking around my linen closet? Probably! They’re everywhere else, so why not? 

This is a problem because my daughter pulls a new blanket out every few days to play or cuddle with. 

What’s the point in doing all of this cleaning if some random little blanket is going to have my kid coughing throughout the day? 

To combat this stresser I got GIANT ziplock bags. I’m talking 3 – 5 gallons giant. 

After washing the blankets she plays with we put them in a ziplock bag (sometimes even shove 2 or 3 in there!) After a few days she got used to pulling her fresh blankets out of ziplock bags. 

Things You Gotta Buy!

Not gonna lie, when we got home from the Dr that day I spent quite a bit of money on Amazon. I was eager to get everything in my home clean and asthma proof! 

Now this is not the approach you have to take. Not everyone is a stress shopper, I get it! There are a few things I recommend buying at some point though, even if it’s just gradually. 

HEPA Air Purifier

This is the type of air purifier my daughter’s Dr recommended. There are quite a variety of them online, so you’ll have many to choose from. 

We went with this one. It was the most affordable one I could find and the replacement filters aren’t too expensive. This one is a little noisy, but we use noise machines in all of our bedrooms at night, so that’s not a huge deal. 

If you have more money to spend you can try this one. This is what we have in our living room. It works great, has great ratings, and doesn’t make any noise! 

I would recommend starting with an air filter in the room your kiddo sleeps in. Both my daughter and spouse have asthma, so we have one in each bedroom. After that you can consider adding an air filter to your living room if you think it’s necessary. 

Dust Mite Proof Mattress and Pillow Covers

This one is a must. Putting these over your mattresses and pillows will help limit the exposure to dust mites and other allergens. 

My daughter’s Dr stressed that these covers PLUS washing the sheets weekly was a requirement for good sleep. 

The great thing about dust mite covers is you SHOULDN’T need to wash them every week with the sheets. The ones I got say you should wash them quarterly, others say monthly. Be sure to check the care instructions on yours before throwing them away. 

Swiffer Duster

While this isn’t a requirement, it does make life easier. 

I HATE cleaning ceiling fans. They are probably the dustiest place in the home and it is such a hassle to get them clean! 

Prior to finding out my daughter has asthma I would climb up on a chair with a wet paper towel or Clorox wipe to clean the ceiling fans. This happened MAYBE two or three times a year and it was always really gross and inconvenient. 

Now that we know my daughter has asthma, we’re cleaning the ceiling fans once a week! 

I knew that if I had to climb on a chair every week to get these things cleaned it wasn’t going to happen! 

Another option you can try is using the hose on your vacuum. My sister does this and says it’s super easy and less messy. It does still require you to climb up on a chair with your vacuum though. 

An extra spacer for the inhaler

This is something I would recommend if you have a younger child that needs the spacer when using their inhaler. 

Yes, the spacer is a little bulky and inconvenient to tote around with you everywhere. The fact is though, your child could have an asthma attack ANYWHERE! Not just at home. 

It is so important to keep an inhaler and the spacer with your child at all times. Even if it’s not a full blown asthma attack, having an inhaler handy can stop insistent coughing. 

Is your kid coughing a bunch while running around on the playground? Give them their inhaler! 

Is your kid coughing every couple of minutes during their dance/gymnastics/sports class? Give them their inhaler! 

Kids run around A LOT! And if a couple puffs of an inhaler makes it so my kid can play and have fun WITHOUT coughing, then we’re using it. 

Inhaler Travel Bag

That little rant brings me to my next item. 

Believe it or not, they have a travel bag for EVERYTHING! 

When my daughter was diagnosed with asthma my spouse and I were also trying for another baby. I knew within a year I would be toting around a diaper bag and two kids everywhere I went. While it was easy at the moment to toss the spacer in a small backpack and the inhaler in my pocket, that might not always be the case. My over thinking mind could just see me misplacing either the inhaled or the spacer in a messy bag full of diapers and bottles. 

To help ease my fears I took to Amazon! 

They have some pretty simple and affordable travel cases for inhalers and spacers. The travel cases also make life easier if you plan, well, traveling. When we are packing for trips it’s nice to know THIS is where the kid’s asthma stuff goes. 

If you have an older kid who doesn’t need a spacer you can still get a travel case! I found some cut cases for just inhalers you can clip onto their backpacks that I fully plan on using when my daughter is old enough. This will make it easier to tell their teachers exactly where the inhaler is, rather than relying on your child to keep track of it. 

Couch Covers

This is something I have been thinking about buying, but haven’t actually tried yet. 

Currently, we are vacuuming the couch every week. It’s not that huge a hassle and it does seem to help a bit with the coughing in the house. That being said, I HATE vacuuming the couch and I’m honestly not as thorough as I could be with it. 

I have read on a few different blogs that putting a blanket on a couch can reduce/get rid of allergy symptoms. If that is the case, getting a couch cover and washing it weekly SHOULD help as well. 

That’s the list! 

I know it’s a lot. In my home we have a routine in place to make things easier. There is a set day every week that I wash sheets and blankets. Another day for cleaning curtains and rugs. Set days of the month to change the air purifier filters. 

Once you find a routine for your home, life will be easier and less overwhelming. You are strong and able to adapt! 

What are your thoughts? What do you do in your home to help with allergies and asthma?