I have horrible allergies and was tested about 3 months ago. I take allergy meds from all possible categories and have switched them up many times, in addition I have been getting allergie shots for the last 2 months or so. I still am not getting 100% relief and have had a nasty cough and congestion for weeks now. I spoke to my allergy nurse about it on Friday and she feels like it must be something in my house. Some of my biggest allergies are to dust mites, mold and grasses (although there are many, many more). I obviously cannot kill of my grass and I have purchased all of the mattress/pillow covers and covered everyones bed and pillows in the whole house. I recently purchased a new expensive vacuum that is suppose to help with allergies as well. None of these things are helping and I am beginning to get rather frustrated. So my question is:
Has anyone ever changed their flooring and did it help? They say that hardwood is suppose to really help a lot, and I looked into it but it hurts me to spend that much money :) So I looked into some allergy friendly carpet and it is half the price of wood but what if it does the same thing as my current carpet and just keeps all of the dust mites, etc. in it over time? Have you changed your flooring and if so, did you have a dramatic difference in how you feel?
We went to all wood flooring in our house (most of our bedrooms had carpet) and it DID seem to help, especially my younger son who has bad allergies. It’s just much easier to clean. In hindsight I would look for “green” wood flooring that doesn’t “off-gas.”
Also, we work with a couple of alternative health practitioners (a chiropractor who specializes in allergies, and an acupunturist) and that seemed to help alot too.
We cut out offending foods (dairy/wheat/soy) and increased water intake. We take a number of supplements (with guidance).
Living in southern Florida where it’s very humid, I run my dehumidifier day and night and am always amazed at how much water it pulls out of our house (even with AC going). Mold loves humidity. If I were you I’d figure out my humidity levels (don’t go too high or low).
Good luck - I can really empathize. I’m relieved to say that we are off all prescription and OTC allergy meds. I don’t like taking that stuff, and especially don’t like giving it to my kids.
PS: I suppose my point is that it is a cumulative effort. For us there never was any one fix.
My son has a lot of allergies, too. We have tile floors everywhere except the bedrooms. Sorry, but I just like carpet in the bedrooms. I try to keep it vacuumed (or remind HIM to, he’s 14).
He also takes allergy shots. I’m surprised that your doctor did not give you a timeline of expectations of when you will see results. We were told that you have to be quite a ways into the regimen before we would notice any difference, and it was. Almost 2 years before any NOTICEABLE amount of relief. He still takes daily OTC meds, but for the most part his sinuses aren’t clogged and he doesn’t have constant post nasal drip and 700 sneezes a day anymore. I no longer feel the need to invest heavily in Kleenex (as in stocks, not just buying more boxes for the pantry).
I have always heard that taking out carpets makes a huge difference for allergy sufferers. And to NOT use a bagless vacuum, either. But, my son isn’t allergic to dust mites. Mold, grasses and weeds mostly, and a few trees. Unfortunately, one of those trees is oak, and we have some beautiful large live oak trees on our property—it’s why we bought this piece of property 7 years ago!
Give the shots some time, and change your pillowcase every day. If you can, try washing your hair at night before you go to bed. You’d be stunned how many allergens get caught up in your hair during the day, and then you go to bed and lay with your face in them. My son has short hair, but I still make him change his pillow case frequently, and suggest he shower after he’s been active outside.
I once ask my allergist about replacing carpet with hardwood. She said anyone she ever knew that did it, did not have any noticeable difference in their allergies.
A 1 1/2 ago we replaced our downstairs carpet and stairs with hardwood for aesthetic reasons. I am amazed with the amount of dust and dirt that accumulates on the stairs particularly. I have noticed no difference in allergies but I do feel like my downstairs is so much cleaner.
EDIT - What has helped my allergies more than anything is simply using OTC saline spray daily.
if you have carpeting instead of hardwood flooring - then that could very well be your culprit.
It’s not cheap - but hardwoods are the way to go.
If you have dust mite allergies - vacuuming the bed once a month (I strip it and put a baking soda/salt shaker together - sprinkle it on the bed and let set for 15 minutes and vacuum) then put fresh mattress cover and sheets on. This also means washing or dry cleaning your comforter and pillows as well.
It might also help if you take ONE medication instead of several - they could be counter-acting each other and creating problems for you. I realize you have a ton of allergies, however, when I was getting the shot - I was advised NOT to take any allergy medications as they would only counter-act the shots.
If you have mold allergies? Have a company come in that does mold testing and find out if you have mold in your walls - you might have it growing under your carpeting…
If you have drapes, consider removing them and putting up blinds instead as they hold A LOT of dust…
While many say it doesn’t change anything? I would get the vents cleaned out as well…make sure you are changing the air filter on your A/C and heater frequently.
Any hard flooring will help: hardwood, laminate, vinyl or tile. We just replaced our carpets with laminate. We would have wanted hardwood but were not ready or able to spend that much money and our carpet NEEDED to go.
My DH has allergic asthma, mostly to cats but also dust (he got shots for dust, but even those are never 100%). When we were renters we couldn’t just change the flooring, so we had to resort to other things to at least help, and the following things always made big improvements: wash or paint the walls and ceilings, replace furnace filters (regularly) and get your ducts cleaned and shampoo your carpets regularly if you cannot replace them (we did it once a year).
I have hardwood, laminate, and tile in my house. It isn’t so much our allergies as I don’t have the time to keep carpeting clean enough not to effect our allergies.
Just so you know we still experience seasonal allergies. What that stuff spikes it will effect you, not pill or shot can negate those levels. Just remind yourself what it would be like without the meds.
My youngest son has awful allergies, too, and we made the changes you mentioned. We also installed hardwood floors in his room (most of the house already had hardwoods), and we put an air purifier in his room. The biggest difference though is that our two cats died (we were all devastated, but it did help his allergies a ton). Also, we make sure he showers before bed if he’s been playing outside. That way he rinses off any pollen, ragweed, etc.
He still struggles with allergies, but they’re better. I don’t know how much the floors helped, but we like hardwood floors better anyway.
Good luck finding something that works. Allergies are terrible to deal with.
I had so many allergies that I was on two allergy shots (2 vials of antigens) per week for 16 years, then started them up again some years down the road, for another several years. The shots helped some. I was very very allergic to dust mites, and some pollens, and… cockroaches. Well we didn’t have cockroaches, but we did have crickets in the basement and that’s the same thing, I was told. And it doesn’t matter if they are dead - it is their outer shell from the dead causing lots of problems.
We did change to low pile commercial carpeting. We use an incredible vacuum with Hepa filter (Kirby), and I leave the house for vacuuming (my husband vacuums). We have electrostatic filters on the heating/cooling unit which gets cleaned monthly.
The mattresses and pillows are encased in the hypoallergenic dust-proof coverings.
We keep the bedrooms as hypoallergenic as possible.
I mow the lawn wearing a dust/pollen mask.
And still… I eventually got even more allergic. I developed asthma. I got hives… sigh. Then I learned about probiotics, getting rid of systemic yeast infections, and changing my diet… stuff my allergist never told me about even though by then I was on SIX medications… but my Integrative medical doctor (M.D.) helped me with. Now I am down to just one allergy medication on a regular basis, and one other occasionally.
Yes. I would go with allergy-friendly carpeting or none at all, AND ensure your vacuum cleaner has a hepa filter, or is hypoallergenic by some other method. Even so, you might want to wear a dust mask while vacuuming, or have someone else vacuum. Enclose your mattresses and pillowcases. I was told the allergy responses are cumulative so at least minimize exposure in your bedroom where you spend so much of your life sleeping! For us, that also meant we both used Allerpet on my cat, AND didn’t allow him in the bedroom Luckily, one of the kids was fine with the cat and he slept with her.
My home doesn’t have any carpeting at all and my allergies are grateful for it. Whenever I go to someone’s home that has carpeting my allergies go haywire even if it’s relatively new carpeting. I hate the stuff. You can actually increase the value of your house by removing carpet. If it improves your health, that’s even better and I would think worth the cost. Otherwise you risk reactive asthma. Do you really want allergy-induced asthma? It’s not fun, and it’s largely preventable in your own home. Allergies can lead to a lot of other health problems and exacerbate other health issues.
In addition to what you’ve already done as well as getting rid of the carpeting, you can also get air filters that help get rid of allergens in the air.
I had the same problem as you but not as badly, and a friend of mine had your issues and worse. Her son had them too.
Sometimes getting rid of carpet can help - it depends on what the carpet is made of and what chemicals it gives off. It might not be the carpet - it could be the foam in your couch cushions, mold, etc. Our pediatrician said that sometimes the act of pulling up the carpets creates such a huge problem (all the dust and allergens deep in the pile and below it or what’s in the pad) that the allergies get much worse. That on top of the expense.
We did all the stuff you did and others mentioned - encased the mattresses and pillows, got the expensive vacuum, washed everything, got rid of the stuffed animals, got the air filters, blah blah. No appreciable results except the hit to our pocketbook.
My friend’s husband is a health professional, and he found out about cellular nutrition and a product that cleans the allergens out of the blood stream and colon. We were skeptical (as was he) but checked it out, and I’ve been allergy-symptom-free for almost 5 years, with no medication whatsoever. I have not had to take anything out of my diet - I just added in. My friend was carrying a box of Kleenex under her arm for years, getting shots and meds, and she’s done with that. And their son is off his nebulizer for about 7 years now.
It’s another healthier and cheaper way to go if you want to look into it.
I have had allergies for years had my eyes swell shut twice from it and had rashes, etc., etc. I got shots for years for dust allergy and I was told that the dust if often not house dust but just ‘dust’ all around too. Our allergist said no blinds, no curtains, no carpet, etc., etc. We didn’t do that but you do need to vacuum often and keep things very dust free. I found things like books with dust really made me bad when I cleaned huge bookcases full of them so it’s dust like that that is very bad usually. I am much better now that I’m older but now it’s gone to more of the asthma type so just try to keep things as free from dust as you can, I can’t mow or be around when mowing for most grasses but that too has gotten better over time. Trees are bad for me and you can’t cut down all the trees. You may get more immune to the things causing the allergy after shots and treatment, etc. I wouldn’t change floors. Just vacuum often and dust often with some product that doesn’t just blow it around when dusting.
I don’t suffer from severe allergies like you do. However, all my young life I lived in houses or apts. with carpeting. The first apt. I moved into without carpeting, I noticed a huge change. I’m talking over 20 years ago before they had all this “green” and “hyroallergenic” products.
Tear up all the carpeting. If you have to, just put down cheap linoleum or tile and cover with some nice throw rugs. You can alway take the throw rugs outside for a good cleaning or even put them in the washing machine.
We did, and it has helped immensly. Our oldest son has asthma too. When you clean your hardwoods, and realize that most of that dirt would probably be under the carpet if you had carpet, it makes you so happy that you chose hardwoods. We don’t have curtains to speak of either because they really trap dust too. And it will take a while for your shots to help out. Our son was on a five year shot program. It was a huge pain in the rear, but it was life changing for him and I’m glad we did the whole thing through.
I had horrible allergies, too, until doctor put me on Vemma. They have been gone for about five years now. You could try it. Liquid and tastes good. Allows body to heal as the vitamins and minerals are 97% absorbed. (according to clinical studies)
God is great! He got me well with His food, and pays me. There is a financial part of this too. When I got well of so many things, my friends all wanted to try it, too. Financial and physical health!!! http://annnoblehealth.com
My son is highly allergic to dust mites!! We now have no carpet in the whole house…just a few area rugs. It has helps tremendously!!
I can keep up with his bedding (everything mattress and pillows in mite barrier cases)…sheets, bedspread, and lovey stuffed animal in hot water washes at least once a week.
I would go with a hard floor that is low maintenance that is easy to clean and will not allow the mites to live in it…bamboo is beautiful and a green material, does not deplete the earth. Our house was mostly saltillo tile so we finished the rest of the house with more of the same…I hate it but it was the cheapest solution. One day I would love to do a porciline (sorry can’t spell it) tile that looks just like wood…you cannot tell the difference…we just need about 20K to have it installed…lol.
My son was living in the doctor’s office with asthma flair ups all the time…now it is only when he is exposed elsewhere that we have issues…like on vacation when the bedding sent him into an asthma flair without even the allergy symptoms first…
My son has short hair, but I still make him change his pillow case frequently, and suggest he shower after he’s been active outside.