Protective gear

To parents of kids with abdominal placement - for those of you who allow your kids to play sports, which protective gear do you use...padded undershirts? My 7 yo is starting baseball & has abdominal placement. We found what looks like a really good padded undershirt with pads covering the abdomen...now I'm thinking ideally we'd have one that covers his chest too. Our son's frame is so skinny, his heart is just as close to his back, and what I'm envisioning to help him would be like a vest to cover front & back! Would be pretty bulky.
Any suggestions from seasoned moms & dad's? Our son's PM was implanted 4 months ago & he has been doing much better with it!

2 Comments

protection

by Tracey_E - 2014-03-10 10:03:31

I can't speak for the abdomen, but the heart is protected by the ribcage. You can't get much better protected than that.

Speaking as a kid who grew up with a heart condition, anything that makes him stand out from the other kids may be resented. I didn't mind being told no to something I wanted to do nearly as much as I was told yes with so many restrictions that I stuck out and the other kids made fun of me. Just a thought.

Glad to hear your son is feeling better!

My concern was a kickback.....

by donr - 2014-03-10 10:03:48

.....from a politician - uh, no - from a table saw. A table saw can throw a piece of wood at you pretty darned fast. MOF, I had one that threw a piece over my LEFT shoulder & it impacted against a wall about 10 ft behind me. Put a dent in the wall that had to be repaired.

Had that hit me in the PM, That woulda HURT!

The only thing that would have protected me from that was a Viet Nam era Flak jacket - or a vest like Cops wear. But I still would have gotten a pretty bad bruise & had the wind knocked out of me.

Lets talk a baseball or the tip of a bat. That bat is capable of projecting a ball over 90 ft. I'd guess it is moving at about the speed of the piece of wood that went over my shoulder. Probably weighs about as much.

IMNSHO, I do not believe you will find a pad that will stop a baseball or bat tip from doing some damage if either hits your son in the gut or directly in the sternum. One thing that the Flak Jacket did was spread the force of a bullet out over a much larger area. That meant it was pretty stiff. Tough playing in something stiff.

Ever notice what a catcher's chest protector looks like? Not very flexible at all. Ditto for the Ump's protector.

I think that you are going to have to make a choice based on pure probability of him getting hit in the sensitive area. It's actually pretty darned small when you get down to it.

Not many kids take a ball in the gut & there are a lot of kids out there playing baseball. When they do, regardless of whether they have a PM or not, it does some damage.

I coached girl's softball many yrs ago. The best candidate for playing shortstop had a mouthful of braces She was darned good - better than any other girl on the team. I talked to her Dad about my concern for her taking a mouthful of softball following a bad bounce. She wanted the position & he was satisfied she could take care of herself.

Rest of the story. Last inning, last game - for the league championship - ball took a bad bounce, came up between her hands & hit her square in the mouth. Unperturbed, she picked up the ball & threw a perfect strike into the firstbasegirl's glove to end the game & win the championship for us.

It does happen. She suffered nothing more than a bruised lip.

Good luck.

Donr

You know you're wired when...

You can proudly say you’re energy efficient.

Member Quotes

I've never had a problem with my model.