Allergies/Asthma

[WantToGoNow]

This is my first time posting but thought maybe I could get some ideas. We are planning another trip to Disney World next year.

My 4 y/o son has a rough time with his Asthma and takes as many as 6 medications at times to control it. I have made my reservation at POR. Is tihs a bad idea? I have read that the resort may not be a good idea because of "extensive walks through landscaped areas" that could affect allergy/asthma sufferers. We have a family of 5 (me, dh, dd (21), ds (4) and dd (1). This is the only moderate resort that came accomodate 5 people. We can't afford a deluxe resort or two rooms at one of the other moderates. I stayed at the ASM and my dd stayed at the Pop Centry but I really wanted to do a moderate this time.


He also is allergic to latex. We know to avoid the obvious -- balloons, rubber bands, rubber balls, etc. Is there a way to ask the Mousekeeping staff to not use rubber gloves when cleaning our room? What about the handrails on rides -- are they plastic coated or rubber coated? The water play areas have a rubber surface - how would I go about finding what that is made from? I plan on renting a double stroller instead of taking our huge one along (they will be 5 and 2 when we go) - what are the handles made of? I ordered the Passporter for Your Special Needs but it basically only goes into food allergies and not other environmental allergies. We do have to carry Benadryl Fastmelts and an EpiPen Jr. with us at all times but I really would not want to have to use it (the Pen) at Disney World because I allowed him to do something unsafe for him.

 

[spiceycat]

use to not suffer as much at WDW as in Al - but it is getting different.

I think it is global warning - Ala is becoming hotter.

however from Ohio - Fl should be a big enough difference that he shouldn't react for the first several days.

I have a ton of allergies in my 20, 30 - I finally meet a great doctor (who retired a couple of years ago) who got me over 95% I still am allergic to mold, mildrew and worst dust mites. plus all my food allergies and drug allergies - he refused to touch them - say sometimes about people dieing.

anyway he was GREAT.

go find an allergist. don't use a ear, nose and throat doctor.

you can call the person who helps with food allergies and see if she can help with this one

Brenda Bennett [Brenda.Bennett@disney.com] MAGIC KINGDOM Foods 407-824-5967.

 

[Schmeck]

The student I work with has a latex allergy and goes to WDW all the time. I'll ask his family tomorrow what they have encountered!

 

[pugdog]

I also have severe allergies to just about anything outside. Kind of forget about the post nasal crap because I get so used to it. But love going to WDW because I have NO post nasal what so ever down there.
Can't tell you anything about the latex but most places are getting away from using latex because of peoplw like your son.

 

[cillakat]

<<My 4 y/o son has a rough time with his Asthma and takes as many as 6 medications at times to control it. I have made my reservation at POR. Is tihs a bad idea?...snip.....
He also is allergic to latex. We know to avoid the obvious -- balloons, rubber bands, rubber balls, etc. Is there a way to ask the Mousekeeping staff to not use rubber gloves when cleaning our room? >>


my first concern wrt the latex allergy is that ime with restaurants, latex gloves are worn in many places in all stages of food preparation. that said......

we don't have a latex allergy, but i do have an asthmatic child and being a mom who has a strong aversion to spending nights in the ER I take several precautions:
1) when we arrive in the room i wipe *everything* down with alcohol handwipes and/or 50/50 mix of water/alcohol. in your situation, i'd call the property first and ask that prior to your arrival, and ask if the cleaning is done with latex or non-latex gloves....and ask them to use non-latex.

2)i fold the comforters outside in and toss them in the hallway, giving housekeeping a call to please come pick them up...we prefer not to have them in the room.

3)i request additional sheets (full sets) and towels. they always balk at the sheets, but i explain the allergies/asthma and they are then generally helpful. i cover all of the furniature with sheets.

4)my kids wear socks or slippers of some kind when walking around the room.....then they're slipped off at the last minute before hopping into bed.

5)i request that the room not be cleaned during our stay. i view the housekeepers visits into our room as an entryway for other peoples germs and a dose of risky chemicals to which i prefer not to expose my kids.

6)i carry hand sanitizer and hand sanitizing wipes (the alcohol kind not the chemical kind) and use them copiously while at WDW.

Last year my FIL, SIL and her 5 kids all got sick.....thankfully, we didn't.



<What about the handrails on rides -- are they plastic coated or rubber coated? The water play areas have a rubber surface - how would I go about finding what that is made from? I plan on renting a double stroller instead of taking our huge one along (they will be 5 and 2 when we go) - what are the handles made of?>>

that gross germ harbouring black spongey material. i could hardly bear it, but my love for the strollers otherwise won out and i used it. i'm not sure what the material is.

best to you!

katherine in atl

 

[SueM in MN]

What about the handrails on rides -- are they plastic coated or rubber coated?

Most of the ride handrails are painted metal or shiny (like chromed) metal.

 

[pugdog]

Please do not take any offence cillakat but my personal belief is that all of this ultra cleaning that people do is what is causing ultra allergies. You can't find any soap anymore that isn't antibacterial anymore. Everyone cleans everything to the extreame. All of the natural flora that used to be on our hands that helped us from getting sick is now constantly being killed off with all of the hand sanitizers out there.
I work in a hospital and I think the fast rise of drug resistence bugs out there are directly related to to many antibacterial soaps. the body needs the flora and everyone keeps killing them off.
If people stopped using all of these would it lower allergies and other problems?
Who knows but it certainly wouldn't hurt.
Our parents and grandparents never had these problems. I'm sure alot of the newer chemicals out there don't help any either.

 

[SueM in MN]

Please do not take any offence cillakat but my personal belief is that all of this ultra cleaning that people do is what is causing ultra allergies. You can't find any soap anymore that isn't antibacterial anymore. Everyone cleans everything to the extreame. All of the natural flora that used to be on our hands that helped us from getting sick is now constantly being killed off with all of the hand sanitizers out there.
I work in a hospital and I think the fast rise of drug resistence bugs out there are directly related to to many antibacterial soaps. the body needs the flora and everyone keeps killing them off.
If people stopped using all of these would it lower allergies and other problems?
Who knows but it certainly wouldn't hurt.
Our parents and grandparents never had these problems. I'm sure alot of the newer chemicals out there don't help any either.

There have been articles about that idea. There is actually a theory called the "Hygiene Hypothesis" that proposes that if the immune system is not challenged with germs, it begins to go haywire and attack the body. One of the basic functions of the immune system is to identify "me" from "not me" and then attack and do away with the "not me". In auto-immune diseases, the body starts identifying parts of itself as "not me" and destoying them (things like joints in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, myelin in MS, etc).
If you google "Hygiene Hypothesis" you will find a lot of entries on the internet that are very interesting.
Just to note though, that doesn't really help someone who already has allergies.

 

[JenJen]

Please do not take any offence cillakat but my personal belief is that all of this ultra cleaning that people do is what is causing ultra allergies. You can't find any soap anymore that isn't antibacterial anymore. Everyone cleans everything to the extreame. All of the natural flora that used to be on our hands that helped us from getting sick is now constantly being killed off with all of the hand sanitizers out there.
I work in a hospital and I think the fast rise of drug resistence bugs out there are directly related to to many antibacterial soaps. the body needs the flora and everyone keeps killing them off.
If people stopped using all of these would it lower allergies and other problems?
Who knows but it certainly wouldn't hurt.
Our parents and grandparents never had these problems. I'm sure alot of the newer chemicals out there don't help any either.

I totally agree with this. I think only those people that are immuno supressant should use these products for obvious reasons. I use to use these products when working with the goggles at the 3D shows at disney and I was sick all the time and no antibiotic would touch the infection. This was ether because it was viral or because of the hand sanitizer over use.
JenJen

 

[cillakat]

i agree that exposure to germs is critical for normal immune function....and believe me, we had normal exposure in spades. i wasn't a clean freak growing up, nor when my kids were very very little. it developed over time *in response to* Lila's allergies and asthma.

one must look at what was normal in the course of human evolution and go from there:
spendinng much time out of doors, eating fruits and veggies (as the bulk of the diet) with small bits of irt/microorganisms still attached to them. as there was no refrigeration, much food was eaten either completely raw or cooked then immediately eaten. in most climates, the only method of preserving food for thousands of years, was to ferment it (think yogurt, real sauerkraut, natto etc)

we changed everything when we changed our human diet.....and we changed everything again by living in ways that are so dramatically opposed to how humans evolved to live. some of those things that humans aren't meant to do (but of course we do and i'd never want to give it up) include traveling and exposing ourselves to vast numbers of germs in diverse areas of the country and world.

i believe illness is important......it's how our immune system learns to respond. in fact, my kids aren't vaccinated. i'd rather have them get chicken pox (which they did) and/or measles, and/or the flu, and/or well, you get the picture. when my kids are little, i nurse for a long long time, and i don't keep them away from other people. they get sick (and i boost the immune response with appropriate minerals and herbs).....and it's okay.

what 's not okay is the extreme number of germs to which we're exposed when we travel. and extremee unusual number of exposures in a short period of time. not to mention the well documented reports of semen and ecoli floating around hotel rooms.

hand sanitizer (the alcohol based ones) have never been implicated in an of the concerning issues surrounding the development of superbugs....they only have been documented over and over again to be effective at reducing the number of germs on hands, and therefor the spread of illness that way.

we have pets (which have been seem to be at this point a benefit in terms of avoiding allergies and asthma....though it didn't work that way for us) and we eat an exceptionally good diet wi th appropriate amounts of protein, sufficient zinc, iron, a tremendous amount of veggies etc etc etc. Lila just drew the unlucky allergy card;/

there are problems with excessive use of antibiotics and poor diets (most of what america eats) leaving most ppl with an immune system that can't fight off a lot of what goes around.

but when those aren't an issue (we have no hx of antibiotic use with the kids. none and they eat extremely well), and when a vacation is at stake....and when hotel rooms are unusually, notoriously germ laden with exposure that is not only exceptional, but biologically inappropriate for humans (b/c of the germ diversity), using extreme measures mean that we get to enjoy our vacation with no risk of ending up in the emergency room for a viral or bacterial illness.

just my .02 on a subject that's pretty much been the study of my life

in general, i would say i agree on some leve. i think antibacterial soap, dish soap and hand lotion are very very bad indeed......that antibiotics should be used rarely only when it is known that the infection is in fact bacterial not viral. but alcohol based hand sanitizers work differently (they simply dehydrate the germ) than chemical antibacterials and they don't carry the same risks. and as long as the immune system gets all of the positives it needs (lots of zinc, normal exposures, dirt, soil organisms, probiotics, hormones in breastmilk etc), there is no risk of occasionally taking extreme measures.


katherine in atl

 

[SueM in MN]

i think antibacterial soap, dish soap and hand lotion are very very bad indeed......that antibiotics should be used rarely only when it is known that the infection is in fact bacterial not viral. but alcohol based hand sanitizers work differently (they simply dehydrate the germ) than chemical antibacterials and they don't carry the same risks. and as long as the immune system gets all of the positives it needs (lots of zinc, normal exposures, dirt, soil organisms, probiotics, hormones in breastmilk etc), there is no risk of occasionally taking extreme measures.


katherine in atl

The antibacterial soaps work in most cases in a very similar way to antibiotics - so there is evidence that antibacterial soap use contributes to germs becoming resistant to antibiotics.
As you mentioned, there is no evidence that alcohol does anything to contribute to resistance. And, alcohol has been used long enough that we know there is not a problem with it.

Now, back to the discussion and off the detour.

 

[momof2inPA]

Very informed, cillakat. My kids have tons of allergies, and I've never been accused of being a clean freak. Plus, the hygiene theory as the cause of increased incidences of allergies isn't the only theory out there, but it does have merit even if it's unproven, maybe even unprovable. I would imagine that many people who would argue against antibiotic overuse, would come down on the side of vaccinations, even for kids with lots of allergies at a young age.

OP- I do remember that some safety bars for the rides and the stroller handles are covered in a rubber-like substance. That might be something to look into. I second the idea of wiping down the room (especially light switches and the remote) and I always bring my own sheets, since detergents can be a problem for my kids. There has got to be someone at guest relations who can answer questions on latex allergies, does someone have the general number for guest relations/ disability questions?

 

[Schmeck]

Talked to my student's family about the latex concern - most of the precautions they take have already been mentioned here.

At restaurants, you have to ask that they use latex-free gloves.

At your hotel, you must tell housekeeping about the allergy, and make sure the mousekeeper uses latex-free gloves.

Rides - student has been on most rides, hasn't had any problems. Has ridden Splash Mountain, but I'm not sure about the other 'mountain' rides. Has been on all the lower-intensity rides.