Five Tips to Successful Mask Wearing for Kids

Increase Mask Effectiveness and Make Mask Life Easier on Your Family.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought new challenges for caregivers and parents who want to leave the house with kids. Wearing a mask is a new experience for most children, but we hope that with these tips and a little preparation, we can help you to make the experience a bit easier for everyone. We don’t claim to have all the answers but these tips and tricks have helped in our personal experience.  

We always recommend in matters of science and public health that you consult the Center for Disease Control and Prevention or other appropriate official organizations or resources to clarify why wearing a mask, social distancing, and following other guidelines are acts of kindness and compassion towards the entire community. The CDC offers clear guidelines on why it’s important to wear a face mask and how to wear one properly.

Buy The Correct Size

This one is obvious, but if you have a small child, make sure to order masks specifically sized for small children.  Some masks that we have tried and liked are from Cub Coats and the school mask pack from Crayola.  The Crayola school mask packs come with five masks, in five different colors, one for each day of the school week. They also come with a zippered mesh pouch to keep them all together.  

For older children, you may have to try both children’s masks and adult masks to find which one fits correctly.  We did find at least one source that also sells tween size masks.

Label Your Child’s Masks

We recommend labeling your child’s masks, especially if your child is attending in-person school or camp. In fact, while you’re at it, it’s probably not a bad idea to label everything that your child will take to school. We ordered simple, rectangular stickers from Mabel’s Labels, but Etsy is full of other affordable options.

Adjust The Mask’s Fit

The elastic on some of the children’s masks that we purchased were still a little loose.  We found these little rubber adjustors on Amazon and they help to ensure that the masks aren’t too loose. 

Buy a Mesh Laundry Bag

Let’s face it…we are going to be washing a lot of masks for the foreseeable future.  To keep the masks together and prevent them from getting lost and tangled in the wash, we recommend purchasing a set of mesh laundry bags.  

Keep Masks Clean

We watched our five-year-old’s mask hit the ground several times before we decided to find a solution. We went with a pack of old school pacifier clips from Amazon which we could clip to her shirt and loop around the elastic on the mask but there are other great options.  If you’re crafty, you could buy some beads (including some with your child’s initials or letters to spell their name), and make a personalized mask chain. Crayola also sells sets of mask straps.

As a bonus tip, consider setting up an area near the entrance to your home where your kids can grab clean masks from a labeled bin and also place dirty/used ones directly into the laundry bag when they return home.

We hope these tips help. If you have other great tips and tricks, please share with us at team@happyly.com.

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For more inspiration, check out recent features, such as Let’s Go To The Zoo or Family Bike Rides. Perhaps enter the rapidly growing world of Stand Up Paddleboarding,  or bring out your inner camper and Find a Campsite near you! For a fun activity at home, check out our list of Chalk Games.

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