A Trick While Playing a Contact Sport

My Story: Because of my hearing loss, my parents believed that playing sports would boost my confidence and help me communicate with others. Goodness were they right! Growing up I played many contact sports (softball, lacrosse and basketball). These sports required some type of body contact and made it tricky to wear hearing aids while competing. We all know that our ears continuously grow just as any other part of the body. I remember many phases of life where my hearing aids would no longer fit inside of my ears tightly due to my ear size changing. My hearing aids would often fall out of my ear while bumping into someone or being knocked down to the ground. Unfortunately, there are not many solutions to this besides removing the hearing aids while playing sports which, as you can imagine, could be extremely difficult. As a solution to this ongoing challenge, my parents had the idea to tape my hearing aids inside my ears with clear transpore medical tape. I will admit, it was not the most attractive thing to wear but my hearing aids were always safe. We had this tape everywhere- in the car, medicine kit, sport bags and even purses. Whenever I needed it, it was there. This tape would be placed around the back of my ear lobe, across my ear/aid, and then slightly on my face to fully cover the hearing aids while they were inside my ears. I always made sure to place the tape around the hearing aid speakers to avoid any issues with excess noises or sounds from the tape being too close to the speaker. While using the tape, my hearing aids did not move around, fall out of my ears, or hurt me in any way. When I was ready to remove the tape, I would simply pull it off like a band aid and throw it away. Though, taking the tape off was tricky at times. Sometimes the tape would stick to the hearing aids, especially if there was sweat on my ears, so I had to be extra careful when removing it. This was a simple and inexpensive trick that we found to help keep my hearing aids secured!
 
Here’s a Little Help: If you play a contact sport or have a child who wants to play (and this includes playing around with a bunch of kids at the park), I recommend taping the hearing aids inside the individual’s ears to keep them safe. This not only helps you feel less nervous about the expensive devices, but it also allows the child to simply act like a kid without worrying if their hearing aids will fall out. Click here to see exactly what I used. It might be tacky looking, but at least you are not having to pay money for a replacement over something that could have been avoided. It helped me, maybe it will help you!