id bracelets for kidsMedical alert bracelets can save your life by passing on valuable information to doctors and medics in the event of an emergency. Unfortunately, as with most things that have health benefits, kids often find them clunky and annoying, and are reluctant to wear them. So how can you encourage your child to wear his or her ID bracelet?

The key is to try to make wearing the bracelet fun and to engage the child’s imagination. This is easier said than done, but it can make it much easier to persuade your child that wearing their bracelet is a good idea.

Customise id bracelets for kids

Kids love things that look nice. Kids love things that look cool. Kids don’t love things that look clunky and perfunctory and make other kids laugh at them in the playground. Fortunately, there are hundreds of types id bracelets for kids on the market, many of them specifically designed to be enjoyable and fun to wear for kids.

You can even go a step further and customise your child’s medical alert bracelet. Work with your child and turn the customisation process into a fun project for you and your kid. They are far more likely to enjoy wearing the finished product than something that has been mass-produced.

Create a Backstory

Turning the wearing of a medical alert bracelet into a role-playing game is particularly effective in encouraging young kids to wear the wristbands. Use your imagination and be creative, formulate a backstory for the medical alert bracelet based on your child’s likes, hobbies and interests.

If your child is into superhero movies and comics, you can create a story in which the bracelet has unique crime-fighting powers, and act out this story in a game with your kid. If your child is interested in fantasy or magic, a game in which the bracelet becomes a magical amulet bestowed with cool powers can really help to persuade him or her to wear it.

Explain In Depth

As kids get older, they want to be treated like adults and appreciate being told the truth. For older kids, sitting them down and discussing their medical condition with them is a great way to make your child feel more grown up and therefore be more open to wearing a medical alert bracelet.

Don’t patronise your child. Instead, explain their condition to them in depth, conveying to them the medical care they may need and how wearing the bracelet can ensure they receive that care when it is required. Give them the opportunity to view the condition as a facet of their life that must be dealt with, and not something to be shied away from. You will probably find that your child is far more mature than you had first realised!

Invest in Technology

As technology changes, medical equipment and techniques become more advanced, and medical alert bracelets are no exception. To many, the words ‘medical alert bracelet’ are synonymous with a perfunctory piece of stainless steel jewelry with some words inscribed into it, but new and exciting technology has ushered in major changes in the ways these bracelets are produced.

More recent models include QR codes, which can be scanned by smartphone devices to reveal the necessary information, while others have USB devices fitted, from which information can be quickly and easily downloaded. Kids of all ages love to be on the cutting edge of technology, so turning their medical alert bracelet into a nifty bit of tech that they can wear on their wrist makes them far more likely to actually want to wear it.

Have you tried any of these methods with your kids? Can you think of any we’ve missed? Let us know, and don’t forget to share our list with other parents!