How To Disinfect A Home With Children And Allergies

How To Disinfect A Home With Children And Allergies If you have children in your home, you’ll always want to take certain precautions to avoid domestic accidents. However, you must also ensure your home’s hygiene, especially when children suffer from allergies.

In this sense, it isn’t enough to clean your house in the usual way; it’s essential to do it sincerely and correctly to prevent future allergic reactions. Today, we’ll give you some crucial tips for cleaning and disinfecting a home with children and allergies. Read on!

What are the most common allergies in Singapore?

Since allergies are reactions of the immune system to initially harmless substances entering the body, it’s possible to be allergic to anything. Although Singapore’s climate is temperate and has a minimal variation between seasons, dust and pollution over the months pose an excellent risk for allergy sufferers.

This is especially true for children, who tend to suffer more allergies than adults. Although a person can be allergic to various things, the allergy is mainly to a specific element. That’s why it’s essential to identify the allergen and eliminate it quickly. To do this, pay attention to the primary allergy triggers in Singapore.

Some of the allergy triggers are:

Dust mite

Dust mites cause about 80% of allergic reactions in Singapore. These are tiny insects related to spiders whose microscopic size makes it impossible to detect them with the naked eye. As its name indicates, the ideal conditions for its habitat and proliferation are areas full of dust and dirt.

Pollen

Pollen allergy, also known as hay fever, is relatively common in Singapore. Its temperate climate produces high levels of pollen for most of the year..

Pets

Just like humans, pets can shed hair and dead skin cells throughout the house, which can cause an allergic reaction if any of these elements come into contact with a child’s body. However, fluids such as urine and saliva can also cause these reactions.

Food

Indeed, it’s increasingly common to see cases of anaphylaxis in children in Singapore caused by the consumption of peanuts due to the presence of a protein that the body identifies as potentially dangerous.

In the case of allergies, symptoms such as skin rashes, itching, and swelling may appear in certain body parts. This can also happen with people allergic to marine animals such as clams, octopuses, and crabs.

How to disinfect your home with children and allergies, step by step

Of course, it’s perfectly possible to reduce the incidence of allergy attacks in the house, starting with good cleaning and disinfection. With the following tips, you can deal with allergies at any time of the year.

TIP: If you can only implement some of these suggestions due to a lack of time, start with the areas of your home where your children spend most of their time. This can include their bedroom or playroom.

1. Cleaning

Cleaning is the first step to eliminating most allergens in your home. When we talk about cleaning, we refer to removing the most visible dirt from the surface, such as dust, pet hair, etc.

Cleaning is usually done with soap, water, and a brush. This process helps remove most germs and dirt from surfaces.

Remove dust

It’s a good idea to remove the dust from the floor with a vacuum cleaner instead of a broom since you avoid spreading it on other surfaces.

Also, please don’t use a feather duster to clean dust from furniture or appliances since this is the same as using a broom. You could use a damp microfiber cloth and wipe it over the table. Do this task at least once a week.

Wash with hot water

Children with allergies will greatly appreciate it if you wash sheets, pillowcases, mattresses, and blankets at 60ºC to kill dust mites. The same can be applied to carpets (depending on the material), and curtains since many dust mites accumulate there.

Beware of pets

If you have pets at home, try to buy machine-washable clothes for them and wash them at least every two weeks. Also, clean their cups and toys with soap and water whenever possible.

Also, remember to brush your pets’ hair frequently (at least once a week) to remove excess hair from their body. And, of course, remember their respective baths.

2. Disinfecting

In addition to cleaning, disinfecting your home is essential to eliminate most germs from surfaces and objects, something beneficial to prevent infections with viruses, bacteria, fungi, and food that might pose a risk to allergic children. Disinfection is usually done with robust bleach solutions or unique disinfectant products.

TIP: Consider that if there are many decorative objects in the room, you should also clean them. All these objects accumulate dust, mites, and bacteria, but if you want to make cleaning your home more accessible, get rid of as many objects of this type as possible.

Clean first

You can use soap and water to clean surfaces before you’re done. This is important to help cleaning products penetrate deeper and do their job better.

Isolates the area to be cleaned

Could you ensure you have your children well away from the place you’re going to disinfect, or even better, do the disinfection work when your children aren’t at home? Something similar happens with pets like dogs and cats; keep them off the spot while cleaning.

Protect yourself

Before using any chemical, please read the instructions to ensure its correct use and avoid unwanted side effects. Also, put on the recommended protective equipment, such as glasses and gloves, to protect your skin and eyes from possible drops of chemical products.

Apply the disinfectant product

Apply the disinfectant product, following the instructions on the packaging, and allow it to sit on the surface long enough to kill germs. Make sure you read how much contact time is required to achieve satisfactory results in the instructions.

Also, could you ensure good ventilation and fresh air, especially when cleaning indoors? Some products can emit gases that are not suitable for breathing.

Finish disinfection

Once the contact time is over, wash your hands with plenty of soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and store disinfectant products out of the reach of children and pets.

How To Disinfect A Home With Children And Allergies – Conclusion

With the following tips, we hope you learned how to disinfect your home safely! Also, please remember that dust mites love heat and humidity, so open windows for at least 15 minutes each morning to avoid creating a favorable environment for mites and insects.

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