Smoke from the fires in Yosemite.  and the higher pollen counts have sent my family into a frenzy.  Thankfully, our home remains a healthy air safe haven!  The outdoor air quality dabbles in and out of “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” and my daughter has promised that she is moving in with her allergist’s family in California who live on the edge of the San Francisco Bay.  So, if the outdoor air quality is bad, then we know the indoor air quality is not going to be much better!  This morning, fine ash was falling from the smokey sky as we quickly nixed walking to the bus stop.  Even I paused and thought about packing my bag and leaving town.   With or without asthma or any sort of lung disease, ash in the lungs is NOT okay.  Smoke from fires, pollen, allergens and car pollution are serious health hazards.  We all need to pause and consider a commitment to our children’s lung health (ours too) and how we can secure good indoor air quality.  No good has ever come from ignoring lung health.  Period.  Getting ready to change our air filters sooner than later due to the ash falling (Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) certified asthma and allergy friendly ones from Lysol), I decided to put together a  list of fast and affordable actions we take that I believe will make an impact.  Of course, always check in with your physician regarding any steps you are taking regarding your own or your child’s health and well being.  Please comment below if you have action to add to the list!

 Nerdy as we are, the two most important items in my house right now are my AAFA certified (I love that program) Lysol Air Filters and my portable air filters from Catalytic Pure Air.  Although, I just saw AAFA approved the Rabbit Air!

Tips for Cleaning up the Air in Your Home and welcoming good indoor air quality

I’m addressing the home since we spent so much time inside and this is the one area we can control and master!  Also, our sweet children sleep there.
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• Set those toes free!  Impose a no shoe rule in your home.  Tracking in ash or pollens just brings the bad stuff inside and then grinds it into your carpets.
• Leave jackets, sweaters and outer wear at the door. Same concept, don’t track it through the house.  Consider changing into some “house” clothes too.
• Change your air filters NOW!  We will be changing our filters ahead of time due to the horrible air quality in Reno.  I’m biased (not a paid bias though) to the Lysol Air Filters we’ve been using-our indoor air quality has been very, very good.
• Save money.  The Lysol Air Filter coupon code is still good until August 31st:  Visit BUYFILTERS and receive 25% off PLUS free shipping–simply use COUPON CODE Caroline (I just love that too).  These filters are the ONLY Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) certified asthma and allergy friendly.  I have a funny story about that too-see below!
• Use portable air filters for spot areas.  I move around my portable air filter to “spot areas” as I call them, like near my garage door where bad air can sneak inside!  AAFA has four portable air filters they have certified!
• Make errands efficient.    Easy to say, hard to do!  Moving in and out of my car during high pollen count or smokey days does me in.  So, I try to run errands at night after bedtime since many stores are open late and pollen counts are way down.  I also group my errands together on certain days.
• Scrub away.  Showering every night and washing hair also washes away pollens, allergens and fine ash.  Remember, you don’t want to sleep with your allergen falling from hair onto your pillow!
• Stay indoors.  Staying indoors when things get questionable is key!  I speak from experience with my asthma and my children’s asthma.
• Just Say, “No thanks”!  I have kept my kids home from sports practice, parties and events when I felt their health was in danger.  Unless you’ve sat up all night with a nebulizer – giving treatments and watching your child work hard to breathe, you might not appreciate the beauty of saying, “no, we’ll stay inside today”.  Say no and be proud you are making an awesome choice.

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What’s missing from this photo?  My view of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range!  No visibility past my neighbor’s house.

While I was attending the Mylan Food Allergy Bloggers Summit in New York City last week, I was receiving text messages from my daughter, “I feel like the sharks are circling…”  Now, she is 10 and clearly morphing into the drama queen, but I understand she was really stressing out and I was pleased that she was verbalizing it.  At home she can breathe easy and knows her house is a safe, healthy and happy place.  The thought of heading off to school where even indoors, the air is basically clean, freaked her out.  We did have to talk her down from the ledge and explained that she’ll be fine at school and if she felt sick, to call us.

What geeks we are! Talking about this stuff in an elevator in a hip New York City elevator!?

Okay, for my funny story: I was in the elevator at the Mylan Summit and someone mentioned a product that was certified by AAFA.  All of sudden there was lively conversation about how much we all love the AAFA certification program and what products we’ve purchased as a result, etc.  I left the elevator thinking only a group of food allergy and asthma moms would dive into that kind of conversation as if they were talking about a new Kate Spade Bag.  We have our own kind of nerdy village I see!  Even though the air will eventually clear from smoke, the pollen counts will jump up soon!  My hubby keeps mentioning moving to the beach…..hum….but then we’ll have mold to battle (one of my bigger allergens)!

Good luck in keeping your house air clean and here is the link again for the Lysol Air Filter coupon before it runs out:  Visit BUYFILTERS and receive 25% off PLUS free shipping–simply use COUPON CODE Caroline — share the code and link!

p.s. that fabulous top image is courtesy of Sweet Crisis via Freedigitalphotos.net