I’m sure like any parent, you pay close attention to your child’s safety needs. We have rule in our house that requires states ‘If it has wheels and your on it, you better have a helmet on or you lose the wheels!’ As well, I douse them with sunscreen and make sure they take their vitamins every morning.
I do all those things and more to protect my children, but I have to confess that I hadn’t thought much about protecting their ears with children’s earplugs. After all, I’m an 80s child who spent many hours listening to heavy metal bands (yes, my children are familiar with ACDC and more!) and attending loud rock concerts. I never wore earplugs and took my hearing for granted.
I suppose it’s a good thing that I couldn’t afford front row tickets or better stereo equipment, but times are different and even the less expensive stereo systems are much louder than they used to be. I don’t want to take any chances with my children’s hearing, yet I want them to enjoy music and eventually rock concerts.
Several years ago, a study on 6-19 year old kids found that 12.5% of them already had measurable hearing loss. Today’s kids are exposed to even more electronics that use earbuds to blast sound into their ears. In fact, a Harvard study showed that earbuds produce sound 10 decibels higher than standard earphones that cover the ear.
Think about how often your child uses earbuds. Mine have them for their iPods, Nintendo D.S.’s, and my daughter frequently uses them at the computer to play online music that the rest of us don’t appreciate as much.
In researching hearing loss and the potential for my children to experience hearing damage, I was shocked to find out how easily permanent hearing loss and tinnitus (painful, chronic ringing in the ears) can occur. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, repeated exposure to sounds above 85 decibels can produce hearing loss.
An MP3 player can emit sounds directly into your child’s precious ears at 95 decibels! Firework displays? 150 decibels! Even heavy traffic can produce decibel levels of 85 and up. If you think about our noisy world and what your children are exposed to, it only seems obvious that we need to throw children’s earplugs and specialized ‘earbuds’ called fleximonitors into our child safety arsenal!
Earplugs for children are comfortable because they are small enough for your child. You simply cannot use adult earplugs in most children’s ears because their ear canals are obviously much smaller and they probably won’t keep the bulky earplugs in. As well, they won’t fit snugly to allow proper protection.
For your music loving children, you might consider investing in ProGuard Fleximonitors or music earplugs if they are old enough. Fleximonitors and musician earplugs are just the coolest things! They actually improve the quality of the music to studio quality music the way it was meant to be heard! Might be a great gift for your teenager or yourself if you still enjoy your rock music like me!
Take Care
Meghan
P.S. Protect your child’s ears ensuring the gift of hearing throughout their life by purchasing highly affordable Macks Pillow Soft Earplugs for Kids! http://www.earplugshop.com/shopping/categories/childrens-earplugs/ OR check out ProGuard Fleximonitors as a special gift http://www.earplugshop.com/shopping/brands/proguard/0/custom-fleximonitors/.