Written by Fred Hermsen
No parent wants to see his or her child sneezing uncontrollably and wheezing helplessly. It is important that parents know about one of the leading yet least acknowledged causes and aggravators of asthma and allergies: dust mites. While healthy adults will not be affected by mites most of the time, children are vulnerable to their effects.
Dust mites are tiny bugs, too small to see with the naked eye, which feed off of the dander shed by humans and pets in the home. The mites’ feces contain an enzyme that is an allergenic and can even lead to or exacerbate asthma in children. It is important that parents know where mites live and how to limit their presence in a home so kids can grow healthy and strong, unhindered by needless allergies and asthma.
Interestingly, dust mites live in every home. It is impossible to completely rid a home of dust mites. However, to a large degree, mites can be eliminated and their harmful effects allayed by destroying the environments inducing mite health and gestation. Mites thrive in warm humid places with abundant dust: places like carpet, fabric, upholstery, and especially mattresses. It is difficult to control the humidity of your home, so it is best to try to minimize places dust can collect and lead to mites. You should remove as many materials where dust cannot be cleaned away as possible. Two examples would be to choose to have wood floors instead of carpet and leather or wood furniture instead of fabric upholstery.
The greatest incubator and haven for dust mites is not underfoot or in a chair, it is in mattresses. Mattresses often form the ideal environment for mites to take root and propagate. Moisture often soaks into the outer layers of a mattress and remains for long periods of time. A considerable amount of dead skin and hair cells are shed onto the mattress while you and your family sleep. In both cases, there is often no way to wash the mattress itself, which makes mattresses the most detrimental place to have dust mites when a child is trying to sleep. The mites can cause hay fever, sneezing, itchy eyes and nose and keep a child from sleeping soundly. Instead, he or she tosses and turns, wheezing and lying unknowingly in the very cause of his or her affliction.
There are two viable solutions to getting mites out of a bed. The first way is to get a mattress cover designed for this purpose. Covers have been shown to consistently keep mites from invading a mattress. The drawbacks to covers are that they can be uncomfortable if made of plastic, inconvenient to take on and off of the mattress, and very expensive. The second solution is to get a latex mattress. Latex is all natural, made from the sap of rubber trees, and is a natural anti-microbial. A latex mattress doesn’t retain moisture and has a convenient removable washable cover. What’s more, a latex mattress is the most supportive and comfortable mattress on the market. So from every angle, latex is the absolute best way to assure a child a restful night’s sleep so that he or she can do what children are meant to do: enjoy life.
To help you and your children enjoy a more peaceful, restful night’s sleep, visit Foam Source for a wide selection of latex mattresses and memory foam. We want your family to sleep just as well as ours. Foam Source has been helping people sleep more soundly since 1985.
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