Baby hearing protection

[Patrick Kelliher]

I plan on taking my son to the track for the first time this spring ( gotta get them hooked early), and wanted to know what brand of ear muffs you would recommend. He'll be 14 months at the start of the season.

I suggest just getting the shooting style full coverage muffs. My daughter went to her first Nascar race at 8 weeks. (I worked on the circuit, had to take her to an event) She slept the entire time.

Dont do any foam plugs or insert protection. And dont but from NItroMall...way too expensive!

[Chris DeGidio]

Took my son when he was a little shaver...I used shooting muffs from a sporting goods store and also used swimmers silicone ear plugs that you shape to fit.The ear plugs are used to fill the surrounding open area of the ear,not to be jammed inside the canal.
Anyway.he slept like a newborn even thru T/F and F/C,although I didnt have him at the grandstands,we were behind as I went to look at stockers and super stockers.

[FrankM]

Here are kid size protection made for their smaller heads. 5 star review rating from 252 reviews. Protect those litle ears :-) My daughter was at the track 6 weeks before and after being born and has never been around the cars without protection.
http://www.envirosafetyproducts.com/...-earmuffs.html

[Bruce Noland]

You should ask your doctor before taking the risk with your child's hearing. There is no fool proof way to protect children at drag races. There are studies that have shown large noise spikes can cause permanent hearing loss and in some cases brain damage in children. About ten years ago, I noticed young couples at national events with their infants and was appalled to see that some of them had no hearing protection. I'm sure these people were trying to be good parents but they were not using common sense. I finally decided to research the issue and found that loud noise can cause permanent damage to infants and young children. Now, I'm sure thousands of babbies have attended races with their parents and hopefully with no adverse effects but why take the chance? I sent Tom Compton several return receipt latters asking him to do the right thing and post signs at national events about the potential of harming young, developing ears at drag races. No surprise - he refused to respond. We are all drag racers and we belong to one big fractious family. Compton is not part of our family! Protect your child by calling your pediatrician first. Sorry for the length of this post.

[Geerhead55]

One of the worst things I've ever seen as far as clueless parenting is concerned, happened years ago at Seattle, when I saw a young mom pushing her child in a stroller, up through the staging lanes, when the call went out to everyone to move up. The cars all fired up, and the noise, the fumes, smoke, etc were totally over the top for that baby stuck down by the exhausts and noise! I wasn't even a parent yet myself, but I remember yelling at her to get her baby out of there! It was so stupid. A few years later, I made sure each of my boys were at least 5 before going to a national event, and that was with some very good fitting ear muffs and we didn't go near the fuel cars in the pits.
Every family has their own circumstances, just use common sense and carry them in noisy areas and save the strollers for areas away from the cars. My 2 cents.
Danny Durham

[Jim Wahl]

I have a pediatrician friend who says not to use any device that is inserted into the babies ears! Shooters type ear muffs work fine and are recommended.

Bruce........ I think all of us here have that dain bramage you were referring to! Jim


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[Ed Fernandez]

I'm with Bruce on this one.

[Bob Bender]

ED, call me.............

[Emily Stott]

Shooting type ear protection works great. They also come in kids sizes. Both my kids were at the track from 6 weeks on and learned to wear ear protection. NEVER use anything inserted in the ear.