Tiny masks for tiny faces
August 2, 2021 12:30 PM   Subscribe

Help me find what has to be the least fun 2nd birthday present ever. 😷 My tiny twins are quickly approaching age 2 and it seems like we should start (ok, we probably already should have started) practicing wearing masks. This a weird rite of passage. My twins are quite tiny - they are 22 months old, in the 2-5 percentile for height and weight. They just now moved into 12-18 month clothing, which is baggy. Anyone have experience with toddler size masks? Small ones?

Their daycare situation is family and vaxxed and no masks are needed. We're lucky enough that mom and dad still work from home and never take them in stores, etc. They socialize outside, and with known vaxxed family inside - we don't restaurant, mall, airplane.
But wearing a mask is an important developmental milestone today (ugh, this world is birthed this children in). Send me the smallest you've got!
posted by atomicstone to Health & Fitness (9 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
We had lots of problems with this on our tiny kiddo, honestly hand made masks by my mom are what worked best. She's now three, whole foods was selling some child masks by checkout that fit her pretty well now. Pedatric disposable masks are way too big, all brands we've tried have not fit. I. 32 degrees (amazon link, just first thing that popped up on Google) masks worked well because they are stretchy, but they are not multiple ply. We used them without any issues though.
posted by AlexiaSky at 12:40 PM on August 2, 2021


No specific recommendation, but in the beginning of covid I had a lot of luck finding masks from Etsy when they were not available anywhere else. They are where I'd look first if you can't find anything locally. A quick look around shows they have quite a few sellers for toddler masks - this one for example has positive reviews from people with other small childen. You may even be able to get a custom order if the ones available there are still too big.
posted by cgg at 12:56 PM on August 2, 2021


Starting around 1.5 years old, and still fitting now, my son uses some really cute bear, shark, duck masks from old Navy.
We had to make some knots to shorten the elastic, and adjust them maybe twice since. He tolerates them very well, and they fit the best of any we tried.
He's currently asleep right on my head so I'm not going to try a link
posted by Acari at 1:23 PM on August 2, 2021


Response by poster: Thanks for the ideas! Keep 'em coming! Also, anyone have recommendations for a social story-style song re mask wearing on youtube/netflix/other streaming? We LOVE super simple songs, for example, and some songs about how fun it is to put on your mask, played until mom and dad want to cut off our ears, would probably be very helpful!
posted by atomicstone at 2:33 PM on August 2, 2021 [2 favorites]


You could look at guides for making child masks just to figure out the dimensions that you're looking for. You could also try cutting different sizes out of scrap cloth to see what size you want. I think with that information you could shop confidently on Etsy.

I don't know any mask songs but gosh I wish there was a Daniel Tiger episode about masks.
posted by entropyiswinning at 8:49 PM on August 2, 2021


If they are that physically small, you might be able to get away with them not wearing masks for a while longer, as long as it's a situation where their age isn't a known factor (e.g. an airplane or school). I can envision no scenario where someone would challenge a parent of two what-appear-to-be-18m babies about whey they are unmasked, and there's nothing magic about age 2 from a viral standpoint.

That could at least buy you some time for them to ease into it and not have it become a giant toddler crisis.
posted by mccxxiii at 6:17 AM on August 3, 2021 [2 favorites]


Seconding the Old Navy animal masks with knots in the elastic, though my tiny kid was slightly bigger than your tiny kids at that age. The pleated ones Old Navy ones were almost small enough but gapped at the sides.

I've also been testing out kid-size KN95/KF94 in anticipation of daycare. So far, the smallest/most tolerable one I've found is the small Posh KF94 from BeHealthy, but it's still a touch big on my suddenly almost average sized 2.75 year old (I think knots will help, just haven't had a chance yet).
posted by natabat at 8:07 AM on August 3, 2021


This is where I got masks for my two year old last year; they fit well. The key is adjustability in the ear loops.
posted by emkelley at 9:06 AM on August 3, 2021


A pediatrician friend who just started acclimating his 18 month old recommends Happy Masks.
posted by decathecting at 9:13 AM on August 3, 2021


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