March Madness has begun. As my friends and family know, I’m a huge Dayton Flyers fan! When my husband and I moved back to Dayton after a short stint in Cleveland, season tickets were one of our first purchases.
Mary, by default, is a little Flyer fan too! Taking a 1-year-old to college basketball games with over 12,000 in attendance can be challenging – but seeing our Flyers is worth it! She doesn’t really watch the game – she likes to smile at the guys behind us for the majority of the game (I know – I’m in trouble) and we’re just happy when she can stay quiet through The Star-Spangled Banner. In any case, Flyer games are a family event!
As we prepared for the season, I remembered when Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl a few years ago. At the end of the game, during the celebration, Drew was holding his son who was wearing ear protection. (Of course, this would be what I noticed at the Super Bowl). I thought to myself, good idea Drew!
Guess who got ear muffs for Flyer games?
I did check out some recommendations by our physical therapists here at Dayton Children’s and in general they thought the arena probably wouldn’t have the prolonged exposure to loud music that would really warrant ear muffs. But, after attending a game or two and realizing that our seats were right below the speakers, we decided to get the muffs for time-outs and other times when the arena was super loud. We also realized that Mary keeping them on for any more than that wasn’t going to happen. We thought this was a good compromise!
What do you think about protecting your child’s hearing? What activities worry you?
I’m really interested in your thoughts! Before I sign off I gotta say it – GO FLYERS!
Comments
We had our daughter wear ear plugs when we go to games. I am amazed by the lack of ear protection for the majority of children at the games. Why not talk to an audiologist? We consulted with a friend who is an audiologist. He highly recommended ear protection.
My husband, Jeff and I are both UD alum and big Flyer fans. Our 5 month old daughter obviously loves Rudy as well.
She hasn’t been to a game yet, but as soon as she is big enough to wear the ear muff hearing protection, she will. Jeff is an Audiologist and I am a Speech-Language Pathologist. We can’t stress enough the importance of children (and adults!) wearing hearing protection during games, concerts, fireworks, etc. We’ve seen the negative effects of people who don’t realize that our hearing care needs attention too. So protect your little ones’ hearing- and set the example by protecting yours as well! (You can also have custom earplugs or filters made by an Audiologist if you prefer).