The 6-year-old Pingping often coughs and sneezes for a while, so his mother thought he had caught a cold again. It turned out that Ping’s coughing and sneezing were not a cold, but a manifestation of allergies. Let’s learn more about dust mites, the invisible killer of children’s respiratory health. Let’s start by understanding the habits of dust mites. There are more than 30 species of dust mites recorded, and only a few are closely related to human allergic diseases, such as house dust mite, dust mite and dust mite. They are spider-like with 8 legs and are so tiny that they are invisible to the naked eye without the aid of a microscope. The optimal temperature for dust mite growth and development is 25°C ± 2°C and 80% relative humidity. Dust mites are especially suitable for warm and humid seasons, so they multiply in spring and autumn, which is also the season when children are most likely to develop allergic diseases, and in air-conditioned rooms they can multiply all year round. Dust mites are extremely widespread. House dust mites breed mainly in furniture and household items (especially in bedding, sofas, carpets, sweaters and cotton clothes), and also in clothes that are not frequently washed. Dust mites can be found in flour mills, cotton mills, food warehouses, Chinese medicine warehouses, etc. They can be found everywhere, which is the reason why they are difficult to eliminate. What are the dangers of dust mites to children’s respiratory tract? One of them: allergic rhinitis. The main manifestations of children are frequent itching and nasal congestion, like to rub the nose, sneezing, and several in a row, accompanied by a large amount of clear water-like nasal discharge, more obvious in the morning when they wake up, and reduced sense of smell. Many parents mistakenly think that their children are cold and flu, and add clothes to their children, and take a variety of cold medicine, but the effect is very little, in fact, this is the performance of allergic rhinitis, the child examination can be seen in the nasal mucosa pale edema, a lot of clear water-like secretions, if persistent edema can also occur nasal polyps or polypoid degeneration. The second: allergic asthma. The child may first experience sneezing, nasal discharge, nasal itching and other aura symptoms, and then start coughing with wheezing for several episodes, and in severe cases, breathing difficulty, pallor and profuse sweating. This is a typical asthma attack, and parents can mostly pay attention to it and seek medical treatment in time. There is another special type of asthma that we call cough variant asthma, in which the child often coughs, mostly with an irritating dry cough, without wheezing, mostly at night or in the early morning, or after exercise. This type of child is easily misdiagnosed. Not only parents but even some physicians misdiagnose children as having bronchitis, recurrent mycoplasma infections, chronic pharyngitis, whooping cough, etc. The child is given a variety of antibiotics, including azithromycin, for a long time, but as a result, the cough does not clear up and the child develops drug resistance or even a secondary infection. In fact, this is all the harm brought by allergies, of which dust mite allergy plays a role that cannot be ignored. How can we effectively control indoor dust mites and reduce the harm brought by dust mites to children’s respiratory tract? 1. Keep the room ventilated and dry and reduce the relative humidity. Keeping the relative humidity below 50% is the most common way to control the level of mites and their allergens. To survive, mites must obtain sufficient moisture from their surroundings. Tests have shown that adult mites will die of dehydration in 5 to 11 days at 40% or 50% relative humidity and temperatures between 25°C and 34°C continuously. You can use a dehumidifier if you can, and remember never to dry your clothes indoors. 2. Wash furniture and fabrics with hot water frequently, and sun-dry bedding, bed sheets and clothes regularly. Because dust mites are not heat-resistant, 50 degrees of hot water can kill most of them, and 60 degrees of hot water or more can kill almost all of them. When we buy furniture, it is best to choose the ones that can be cleaned with hot water. Mattresses, pillow cases, pillow surfaces, bed sheets, quilts, blanket surfaces, bedspreads and other multi-fiber places are very suitable for dust mites to grow, so wash once a week with hot water equal to or higher than 55 degrees Celsius to kill mites and remove most mite allergens. Summer or sunny days will be quilts, mattresses, etc. out of the sun, choose the strongest sunlight time, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Remember to sunbathe both sides, otherwise there will be a large number of dust mites survived. 3. Say goodbye to carpets, choose blinds, and minimize plush toys and decorations. Carpets, curtains and home décor fabrics accumulate debris debris and stay damp, providing an ideal habitat for mites to breed. For people with allergies, it is best to avoid carpeting. Window (cloth) curtains or blackout shades should be replaced with blinds, home décor fabrics should not be chosen from the tweed or pile category, but can be replaced with leather, and furniture can be made of wood. With fleece or velvet as the material made of dolls, more voids inside, the surface is uneven, easy to lurk allergens, plus not easy to clean, so it is not suitable for allergic children to play. 4, pay attention to personal hygiene daily shampooing, bathing, and strengthen their own exercise. Pay attention to personal hygiene, such as frequent bathing, change of clothes. It has been found that dust mite allergens in hair are significantly reduced after regular methods of washing hair, so washing hair every day is a good way to control dust mite allergens. Strengthen their own exercise, through the method of physical exercise can enhance physical fitness, improve immunity, enhance the ability to adapt to allergic substances, can also achieve the purpose of treatment.