The Best Masks We Use for the Kids

Let me be the first to say that I am not an expert or medical authority. I am just a mom who tries to do what’s best for her own kids and the other kids I have at my school. I’ve linked all the masks I like in my Amazon Storefront. You can click here to see them.

Since the beginning of this pandemic, we’ve talked about whether or not kids should wear masks. We know that there are 100 reasons that it’s not a great idea to give a curious kid a mask to cover their nose and mouth, and tell them not to touch it. Or lick it. Or chew on it and the list goes on and on. I get it. But there is 1 over-ruling reason that I’m FOR kids wearing masks and that is that it is on of the best possible ways to help them avoid getting sick. Period. If it’s going to help me keep my kids safe, it’s a done deal for me.

If you would rather not have your kids wear masks, that’s perfectly fine with me. No judgement zone. But my kids will wear masks when we feel it’s necessary. It’s okay if we don’t agree on that and I’m not interested in a debate. If you’re a non-masker, I love you just the same.

This post is strictly for those who mask their kids and who have asked me about the masks they’ve seen my kids wear. We quickly realized that the masks we were able to buy for us were just too big for our kiddos. That’s when we started researching kid-size masks. To be honest, some of the ones we tried were the same size as the adult masks, and all of the kid-size masks are not the same size. We’ve had to do trial and error to figure out which ones work best for our kids. Again, I’m no authority, but I do not mind sharing what I’ve learned and what I’m trying. I can’t say that this is 100%. I’m not sure that anything is, but this is what I’m doing.

1. My kids are vaccinated. Personal choice. It doesn’t really sway my decision at all that people are getting the Omicron variant with the vaccine. People get the flu with the vaccine too, and we’ve always done the flu shot for the kids. They did great with the both shots. If you’re thinking about it, I’d talk to my kids’ pediatrician before you just go make the move. That’s exactly what we did.
   
2. The 1st masks I purchased for my kids came from Diyanu. It’s an online African shop. I purchased the masks from them because they had the filter pockets. I really liked those because you could choose to wear them with or without the filter. I bought several from Gap too. Even the ones that didn’t have pockets clearly had several layers and I knew that was a great help.
   
3. Once we returned to school, I started looking for KN95 masks for kids. From my understanding, N95 masks are best, but highly unreasonable for a kid to wear all day long. KN95 masks are supposed to be the next best thing and then the 3-layer surgical masks. The cloth masks have always been at the bottom of the list, but absolutely better than nothing. The KN95 masks are more expensive and they have to be replaced. Of course, I think they can be worn for more than one day, but tell that to a 6-year old. We rarely get to reuse the KN95 masks although I do “try” to get them to wear them at least twice if they’re not soiled. It’s a “fail” most days.

I have linked all of the kid-sized masks we’ve used and liked in my Amazon storefront. All of the masks I’ve linked have worked well for us and I hope that you find something that works for you and your family.

At the end of all of this, what we’ve got to do is pray. We can only do the very best we can to stay protected, make the best decisions possible, and live our lives. Although the introvert in me is fine being at home a lot, we can’t logically live in bubbles for the rest of our lives. Life has got to move on and I plan on enjoying life as much as I can. I refuse to live in fear. So, we’ve got to do our part and then pray that the good Lord will shield us, protect us, heal us, and deliver us from this plague. He will. Be well, family!