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Wednesday, April 9, 2014

TIP - Medical Alert Bracelet

LB's metabolic physicians have recommended that he wear a medic alert bracelet nearly since his diagnosis (at 3 days old when a car seat sticker is about as good as you can do in the medic alert department), but we honestly had trouble finding something that was appropriate for a little kid for a very long time.  Always wanting to be prepared for a situation where others need to be aware of LB's medical condition and when we may not be able to speak on his behalf, we kept looking and ended up settling on something that I have used for a long time as a marathon runner and triathlete (don't be too impressed, I haven't done much training in ages, but it was a fun hobby pre-kids)  -- Road ID!  Although they are made primarily for athletes, the selection and sizing has been great for our purposes, too.

There are a couple options that work well for little kids and there are a lot of options for older kids and adults:

Option 1 - A Shoe ID - you just Velcro it onto their shoe and you don't have to worry about it irritating their wrist or being much of a distraction to them.  Hopefully they manage to keep their shoes on, but not a bad option for a toddler all things considered.

Option 2 - A Wrist ID Slim - it's made out of silicone and resembles the bracelets that a lot of people wear for fun, but it is available in sizes as small as 5" to fit the wrist of a toddler.

The laser-engraved tags can be modular with different items and larger sizes of bracelets as your child grows.  You can also order just the tag and not the whole bracelet/shoe clip/etc. for times when your emergency contact information might need to be tweaked, but the bracelet/shoe clip/etc. is still in fine shape.  I actually still have my original shoe ID Velcro bit even though I have ordered at least 3 new tags as I've moved from place to place.

The metabolic clinic suggested that the bracelet read - "Metabolic Disorder, MCADD, Needs Glucose, Metabolic Dr. On-Call ###-###-####" and we got the color red to make sure it was very visible.

The best news of all?  They are having a HUGE SALE THIS WEEK!  If you're wanting to check this important item off your to-do list, there's no time like today!

2 comments:

  1. That's for this post! My wife and I have a 5month daughter with MCADD. We have been talking about getting our daughter an iD bracelet for awhile and this really helps. I just found your blog and just started reading . Can't wait to read more! Thank you!

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  2. thank-you! I have a 5 year old son who started Kindergarten this year and I was having a difficult time in what exactly to put on the MedAlert tag.... it is such a complicated disorder, appreciate your advice!

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