Cleaning With Sensitivities in Mind

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It is spring and cleaning is on the mind. I told you how I do daily cleaning of the toys that I use each day, but what about more general and deeper cleaning? When you have multiple medical problems, as many of our kids that come to therapy have, it is very important to maintain a clean environment in order to minimize the spread of illness. When I work with kids in their homes, many have a tracheostomy and a ventilator, so their environment needs to be kept even cleaner than the average child’s.

picture credit Ilike | dollar photo

The other day when I was sitting in my freshly cleaned house, the smell of the cleaning solution was very strong and was affecting my breathing a little bit. I now know why my mother can not be around cleaning solutions due to her asthma acting up and causing a problem. This is something to think about with our kids that have sensory issues as they struggle with being around strong smells. If the child has other medical issues as well, they may be affected by cleaning solutions.

So how do we make sure that the spaces we use are clean, but that we are not negatively affecting the kids that are working and living there? One of the first things to do is to make sure that the child is not in the room when strong chemicals are being used and then to give it some time for the chemical fumes to dissipate before the child comes back.

Another thing to do is to use a cleaner that has less of a chemical scent to it. Bleach is very strong, and some of the general cleaners are very strong with fumes and scent. It depends on your environment as to whether you are required to use a specific cleaner or if you have a choice in what you use. I have a choice most of the time, and have started to use some more natural cleaners that are plant based and are much less noxious in their scent and fumes. In fact, they smell really good. You can get some natural cleaners at Target such as Mrs. Meyers and Dr. Bronners. They come in lemon scent and peppermint and lavender.

I also have started to use the Thieves cleaner which is an essential oil cleaner, and it has a cinnamon and lemon scent which is great. It also cleans great too. I recently used it to spot clean my carpet even and it did an awesome job and smelled wonderful.

Here are some popular cleaning recipes.

Disinfecting spray

¼ Cup of vinegar

¼ Cup of vodka (or rubbing alcohol, but vodka has minimal smell)

5 drops lavender essential oil

5 drops lemon essential oil

¾ Cup water (distilled)