Heart Guards for Baseball

Shut the front door! S., I didn't know I needed to be afraid of that. I'm conflicted. I don't know if I should be grateful to you or mad at you! Now I have a new bad thing to add to my list of freak accidents to worry about.

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Yes-my son wears one. To be honest I can't understand why people would NOT make their kids wear these. Its such a simple thing to do that could possibly prevent severe injury or death.
And yeah-the stats are ridiculously low for this kind of injury. But try telling that to the parents of the children who have died that way.

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Since my husband is the doc who see's the kid's who don't wear the chest or heart guards....here is the medical reason it's important...

If a young person receives a strong blow to the chest, the heart can be bruised. As the bruising starts to heal, in some children a tumor can develop. If this happens, within 6 mos to a year, parts of the tumor can dislodge, go to the brain and cause stroke. My husband sees it several times a year.

This same stroke condition can also be caused by or made worse if the child becomes severely sick from a virus that affects the heart muscle. This condition is probably more due to a poor immune system.

So, if you think your kids run the risk of receiving erratic fly balls to the chest, especially in the roll of catcher, they should be protected.

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I have 11 and 14 year old baseball players and I'm not familiar with this product.

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I would tend toward it, but my son playing also has a heart murmur and a weakened immune system, so probably more due to those matters. I'm really somewhere in the middle though. How hot is the protector? (Said son just spent the weekend vomiting from sun poisoning). Is it effective, or just a sales gimmick based on the recent publicity? At the same time, can you put a price on a child's life? I would have to do more research. I suppose they're like car seats and you shouldn't use a used one, etc. I just wonder if they are effective. This sort of stuff gets publicity big every so often. (Remember the girl who kissed the guy goodnight and died because she had an allergic reaction to his peanut butter sandwich at lunch? -- That's more common, and it's been a few years since that hit the news big). I'm not sure that means we need to stress and worry about every little thing that could happen. But then again, I could never forgive myself if I had the info and didn't do something about it. Thanks to the other posts for the help in researching it! Thanks for asking! Good, relative, helpful question!

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Yes, our 8 yr old son just started wearing one this season. I didn't even know they existed. My husband bought it. It is a sleeveless shirt with a pad in the middle of it.

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Yeah...this is a big deal right now. You can find shirts with the heart protector patch sewed right into the shirt....but I wonder if that bit of extra padding in the shirt would really make a difference...

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Just as I get to wind down for the summer now this my kids are in T-ball do they need protection,baseball pants,cup for boys,& this heart guard?Really first practice was yesterday & most of them dropped the ball or tapped it off the tee I don't see anything but a head butt with these small players.Who would of thought that a blow to the chest could be fatal i'm thinking more like a gun shot blow.Thanks for the post

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My daughter always wore one when she played softball. She was a pitcher, so it was very important to us that she always wore it. She took a few direct hits.

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In 2006, there were 73.7 million children under age 18 in the United States. So, if 4 die per year from this injury, that is a chance of 4 out of 73.7 million. In one year, five children were killed by bunk beds, 20 by household poisons, 90 by chickenpox, 126 by candles, and 1,100 were pedestrians.

http://www.arthurhu.com/index/health/death.htm

Here is an overview of the types of injuries that are most common for children in sports.

http://www.childrenshospital.org/az/Site1112/mainpageS111...

"Although death from a sports injury is rare, the leading cause of death from a sports-related injury is a brain injury". Heart impact is not even mentioned on this site.

IChildren are much more likely to die from heat-related causes. So, I would hesitate to put them in hot gear, to play baseball on a hot day.

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I did not know there was such a thing out there. Thank you! I will most definately get one, my son also wears a mouth guard, we have seen too many broken teeth from balls that bounce up or pop out of a glove right into their lips and mouth.

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Nope we don't wear them. My kids are 11, 6, and 7. We didn't wear them years ago when I played either.

Do you mean a chest protector? They are required in lacrosse and hockey so my kids have worn them since they started playing those sports for real (not just the "learn to play" clinics). I've never heard of them being used in baseball.

None of my kids wear them or have worn them.

What is a heart guard?
My kids wear chest protectors when they spar in karate. But even with those there is always the risk of receiving a big kick at just the wrong moment between heart beats, etc. It does help disburse the blow throughout the area rather than a pinpoint spot, and protects the ribs, though.