Getting Outside:
Kids with Equipment

By Kellie Berger, TX Hands & Voices

Cooler weather, camping weather, game day weather and the rain and/or snow season is quickly approaching! Wondering what to do with the hearing aids, CIs, FMs, phones and other electronics our kids haul around with them?  There are many tools out there that could protect your investments.

• Waterproof dry boxes or cases are very useful. You can find them at camping/outdoors stores or those sections of discount department stores. Otterbox and Pelican Case are two of the brands that are more readily available. They snap shut or screw tight and come small enough to hold just one or two hearing aids up to large enough to carry a laptop. Some of them even float.
•  A dry bag is a bag that when sealed properly, is watertight. It is usually bigger so you can store more stuff in it. You will have to fold the top over about three times and button/buckle/zip it closed. A dry bag might be used to keep hearing aids or processors dry and safe on a boat, for example, instead of leaving them in the car.
• Desiccant is another thing you may want to have on hand.  It can be as simple as a Ziploc bag of uncooked white rice, a few packets of silica gel from your shoeboxes (everyone bought their kids new shoes for school right?!) or fancier stuff you can buy online or at an audiologist office that even changes color to tell you when to replace or recharge it.  Put your electronics in the dry bag box or case with the desiccant if they get damp or wet.  If they are completely submerged it may not bring them completely back to life, but should return them to a point where they or some of the info they might contain can be salvaged.

When we go camping, my girls each take their own drybox with some desiccant, a flashlight (for talking after dark) and extra batteries with them.  These stay in a designated daypack during the day, with a dry box for their hearing aids at night, and for surprise rain showers or water play during the day.  They also have cats’ eyes on the bills of their hats (like headlamps for hats) for hands free vision at night. Newer water resistant aids and waterproof processors will make all this easier, but while there are kids, there will be electronic “stuff” dropped in the drink. Being prepared makes that kind of accident a little less likely.