Sunday, July 11, 2010

Neat Nicks


When we started this diet 2 weeks ago we decided to not only detox our bodies but also our house. Our ultimate goal is to get to the root of Tia's asthma and we knew that our diet was not the only cause. In fact, our diet was pretty good from the start, but not perfect. We eat local foods, either from our CSA, our neighbors farm or locally grown foods from the farmers market or whole foods. We even try to buy organic as much as possible, or when our budget allows for it. But we still let sugar and processed foods slip into our diet from time to time and that's what we are trying to curb. We've learned a lot about nutrition and plan to continue on a very similar diet when these 4 weeks are over.

So, on to the house. For about the last 2 months every time Tia would sit on our couch she would have an asthma attack and her eyes would swell up and water. Our couch is only 7 years old and to the naked eye doesn't appear dirty. But, it must have been full of dust mites which did show up with off the chart numbers on Tia's allergy test. After a few calls and 2 days later we had our couch dry cleaned. Magic! Tia can now comfortably sit on the couch and enjoy our Netflix subscription without all of the sneezes and sniffles!

Our bed was the next concern. For the past several months or so Tia has been waking up every single night with a very serious and severe asthma attack. There were even times she would wake Brad up from her wheezing without even waking herself. So, we ditched our pillows and emptied our wallets for brand new organic Allergy Luxe pillows. Magic, it worked again!

We also decided it was time to deep clean our house but we didn't have the time, energy or noses to rid our house of the dust. We called a local company called Eco Maids and they came out and provided a deep and thorough clean. They have their own supplies but will work with you if you'd rather have them use what you have. This was great for us since we have all bamboo and cork flooring and we needed them to use our approved cleaning supplies. Our house is now spotless! Wait, Maya just got home, forget that last statement :)

It's been a little over a week since we got new pillows and our couch cleaned and only 4 days since we had our house cleaned and it's already proving to have worked a great deal. Tia is still suffering from occasional asthma attacks but with much less frequency. Most of them now occur due to the occasional run in with pets or the heat and humidity. The past few nights have been great and we hope this will finally provide some relief. If not, our next step will be to test our house for hidden mold. Let's hope we don't have to go there...

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