Sneezing, runny nose and itchy body - these are what my son, Kio has been through every morning for the past few years before I figure what makes these happen to him.
Hi! I'm Yuki, a Japanese mom living in Malaysia. When I first moved to Malaysia thirteen years ago, my child has been suffering from severe dust mites allergy which costs me spending thousands of Ringgits to figure out the causes. With all the struggles and money spent, I would like to share with you the allergy journey and how we treat and prevent it.
How I Discovered My Son's Severe Dust Mites Allergy

At the very first, Kio sneezed occasionally but the symptoms got better after few days. And of course, I did not take the sneeze seriously. A few months after, he experienced a more frequent runny nose, and sometimes he couldn’t sleep due to shortness of breath.
As Kio’s symptoms look like allergic reactions, I quickly link them to food allergies. To treat the ‘allergy’, I started to stop cooking specific food - from fish, prawns to sesame and eggs. But the symptoms did not get better after all.
Finding The Right Way
I brought Kio to visit a clinic nearby my house and he was just diagnosed with normal flu, and the sneeze did not relieve after having different medicines. By that time, I was urgent to travel back to Japan and generally leaving house more to settle my travel documents. I brought Kio with me and I noticed that he felt much better in terms of sneezing and coughing when he was out of the house. The second that he got home he would start sneezing, coughing, and even getting an itchy throat at night.
As Kio felt better outside the house, I quickly deduced that these specific symptoms were not due to normal flu or food allergy. I was thinking: It had to be something in my home. So after searching like crazy about Kio's symptoms, Google eventually led me to dust mite allergy testing, and low and behold, Kio is allergic to dust mites!
Here are some basic differences between food allergy and environmental allergy. It's easy to get confused as we normally will link allergic reactions to food instead of the environment.

Allergy Test
To validate my doubt, I decided to bring Kio to consult an allergist in Mont Kiara to have an allergy test. After doing a blood test, Kio has a very high allergic reaction to dust mites as expected. And the results show that Kio is also allergic to cat dander and house dust, what a surprise!
The allergist told us that Kio's allergy is highly affected by environment. To cure his allergy, it is first and foremost important to control the dust mites already in house and prevent them from multiplying.

Kio's Asean Allergen Screen Personalised Report

The consultation and test fee were such a pain!
3 Ways to Clean Your Mattress Naturally
In my humble opinion, there is almost no point of treating yourself if you are still continuously going to be attacked by endless dust mites at home. It will be a constant battle. As soon as you find out that you are allergic to dust mites, you need to reduce the dust mites already in your home. Here’s exactly what I did to reduce and prevent dust mites:



Air Purifier: Yes and No.

If you didn’t already know, mattress is the main source of indoor pollution.
The All-In-One Raycop
When in doubt, use Google.

Raycop is the No.1 Mattress Cleaning Brand in Japan. It helps to purify, kill and remove dust mites all in one step!


The vacuum sucked out a thick layer of dust from my son's bed and it's completely visible as I can see it from the transparent container. The dual filtration system is one of my favourites. I can easily wash the filters after I clean my bed. It's more hygiene compared to a lot of vacuums that can't be washed. And the HEPA Grade 13 Medical Filter is my biggest saver, I can tell it really makes a difference when I vacuum. Both filters have great seals, ensuring the air coming out of the device is filtered and purified twice.
