Our allergist has always recommended we get medical alert bracelets for our kids. It isn’t so important when they are with us, but when they are away from home and family it is wise to have some of that info on them in case something happens. We have always struggled to get Matthew to wear his wristbands, even though I let him pick them out. He would never wear it on his wrist, but we could usually keep it on him by putting it on his ankle. But then he grew and the wristbands would no longer fit his ankle. There was much of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and over time, those wristbands had a tendency to disappear. After a while we would find them and the cycle would start again. But this last time, they did not reappear. Of the three we had, only one has been found and that one got worn once before disappearing again. I’m under absolutely no illusions that this is just a random event. One of Matthew’s classmates mentioned once that Matthew took the wristbands off as soon as he got to school. So I’m sure that the loss of those things was a somewhat intentional accident.
We have been limited in options for Matthew due not only to his unwillingness to wear a wristband, but by the fact that he is allergic to so many things that many options don’t have enough room to engrave his whole list of stuff. But I finally found a small engraved plaque big enough for all the words we need and designed to be laced onto a shoe. After some hard talking, Matthew was convinced to give it a try. When it arrived, Matthew was surprised by how small it is and didn’t fight about putting it on his shoe. Hopefully he won’t
accidentally purposefully lose this one.
On the other hand, Malia is totally stoked about wearing the wristband and bracelets she picked out. (And yes, I realize I just revealed myself as a child of the ‘80’s by using the word “stoked.”) She picked one wristband and then we ordered a separate engraved plaque and she chose beads to make several interchangeable bracelets. The hardest part has been deciding which one to wear.
This is just another reminder that boys and girls are totally different. Cute accessories just don’t make the most important list for boys. :-)
