Monday, January 26, 2009

Get Rid of Allergens, Not Pets

Today in my local paper, there was a column written about a 10 year old boy with allergies. His family has cats and his doctor said to get rid of them. The writer responded about how tramatic it would be for the boy to lose his pets.

She had this advice to get rid of allergens in the house.
1. Have your house steam cleaned. This is a safe, chemical-free way of eliminating allergens that are already in your home.
2. Then, be diligent with vacuuming. This means carpet, furniture, all the corners of every room, walls, etc. You'll need to use the hand tools to get all the nooks and crannies. This is a big job if you haven't vacuumed this way before, but once you get past the first time, it will be much easier and quicker after that, especially if you vacuum on a daily basis.
3. Invest in a couple of high quality HEPA air purifiers. These devices work great and really do clean the air. You'll notice allergy relief almost immediately once these are up and running. Be sure to change the filters according to the directions.
4. Teach your children to wash their hands frequently, especially after playing with or petting your pets. A lot of kids rub their eyes without thinking. Make sure they keep their hands away from their face and eyes. This will take practice and frequent reminders.
5. Keep the pets out of their bedroom. This should be a pet free zone. Having one room in the house should remain allergen-free, especially the one they spend their sleeping hours.
6. Finally, the most important step involves the use of a product that is called Allerpet/c (cats) or Allerpet/d (dogs). All you need to do is to regularly comb your pet and then apply Allerpet/c or d. with a microfiber cloth directly to your pets' coat. The application process is fairly enjoyable for your pet. It's like a massage. You'll want to use strokes that go both with and against the direction of the fur growth. You only need to apply the Allerpet/c or d weekly. But you should comb or brush you pet daily.

This seems like a lot of work, but allergy sufferers who love their pets have developed systems that work for them, and these systems become fairly simple routines.