MRSA-Sharing helmets??

That is a very good question...and as a Certified Athletic Trainer...one I had never thought of. I would see nothing wrong with getting him his own helmet, but perhaps some of the coaches on here could weigh in. The biggest issue, though, is personal cleanliness...taking showers either at school or as soon as your son gets home and making sure his practice clothes are washed on a daily basis.

I have also asked a couple of athletic trainers working in HS and college baseball to see what they are doing in regards to this.

I think it is becoming more common for players to get their own helmet unless of course the team has a specific design. Some have for example, an orange bill with a black shell. If it's a plain helmet, I see no problem with players getting their own! Heck, our catchers supply their own gear, why not have players grab their own helmet?

I know here at college, our softball team each has their own helmet. Don't know about the baseball team..

Thanks==I'll keep checking back in on the post.
I'm just going to see if I can buy a helmet--I'm sure that most of the other parents would be in agreement.
One thing I am going to do is buy the team a big jug of hand sanitizer and make certain that showering and laundering uniforms becomes a priority after each game.

"MRSA MRSA Me"

With thanks to Marvin Gaye


Oh,MRSA MRSA me.
Oh, things ain't what they used to be.
No, no.
Where did all the helmets go?
Poison inside the brim really blows.
From the foam, north and south, you see.
Oh, MRSA MRSA me.
Oh, things ain't what they used to be.
No, no.




Seriously...do be careful with this. It nearly killed me three years ago.


.

what a great question... i'd be willing to bet most high school coaches haven't even thought about this issue. i'll definitely bring it up with our team.

This IS a great question. Thanks for asking it.

Great advice from JT regarding washing practice clothes, too.


MRSA really is not fun to deal with. In fact, it is down-right scary. And VERY hard to get rid of. Do whatever you can to avoid it.

I hate to be obtuse, but what is MRSA? Lice? Or is it the meningitis that goes around among young athletes??

It's a very nasty staph infection.

That is DEADLY and very hard to kill with all but the strongest antibiotics. Worse yet, it mimics the flu, so by the time you realize you might have something worse and you need to seek a doctor, you are very very sick...

Check out strikeoutinfection.com -- Terry Francona is the spokesperson. This disease is SCARY.

Krak,

MRSA is Methicillin-Resistant Staphlyococcus Aureus or "staph" which was first found in a hosptial setting. It has since spread to the general population as CA-MRSA which is Community Acquired MRSA.

Most (all??) of us live with staph in our bodies all the time. It's found in the nose among other places. Oftentimes it is a simple skin infection, but if it gets into the blood, it can go systemic which is BAD.

It is a bacterial infection which if you want to think positively, I'd guess being bacterial rather than viral is a good thing It is normally spread skin-to-skin, but can also be spread indirectly. It looks like pimples on the skin.

I have a friend here at school who chronically gets staph infections. She has scars all over her body from having to get the infections cut out. It's not exactly exciting stuff.


I know that if anything I have posted here is wrong, somebody will correct me.

Bulldog is right---a staph infection has to be cut out. And you have to take incredibly strong antibiotics intravenously. It's really awful.

Three years ago, my husband contracted "hospital- acquired" MRSA in his sternum (open-heart surgery) and had to have two additional surgeries to scrape it all out of his bone. He came very close to not making it. We knew two people who have died of it.

To help prevent staph infections, make sure that you clean and then cover cuts and scrapes with a band-aid. Keep them clean. Wash your hands often.

And this really isn't funny, but when you go to the doctor, make sure the doctor and nurse wash their hands before examining you. Or uses liquid anti-bacterial hand-sanitizer, just as effective.

I used to discount the warning for surgery--"the risk of infection". Well, I learned the hard way that even in the best hospitals, the "risk of infection" is very great. And not to be taken lightly at all.

Typically you need to have an open wound or abraded area to get MRSA. It is possible to transmit from player to player if an open wound is present.

Personally, son has always had his own helmet and doesn't let team-mates borrow it. They aren't very expensive and it is not very hygenic to share.

Hmmm.....we all share helmets, too. Do you think private "doo rags" slipped on before putting the helmet on would do any good??

There is a product called Spray Nine that we use at work that says it kills MRSA in 45 seconds. We have used it for years in the automotive industry. You can get it at Napa Auto stores, and I think I've seen it at Home Depot. spraynine.com

We have always provided all of our players with their own helmets. I started this right after LL because I hated carrying around equipment bags. Before the summer season, every player gets a helmet with their number on it. They transport it with their bats and gloves and I know that the player at the plate is protected since the helmet fits him.

Aside from the above mentioned germ factor, a greater risk to the player is getting up to bat with a helmet that's to big or to small. Taking a pitch or errant throw in the head could be devastating. Running the bases, the helmet fly's off or is not seated properly on his head.

Some teams carry 5 or 6 helmets. Bases loaded, kid gets up with whatever size hemet is left often times having to wear his hat under it. Not good.

My son carries his own helmet.

It seems that catching MRSA from a helmet is nearly impossible.

From the Mayo Clinic...
Staph bacteria are generally harmless unless they enter the body through a cut or other wound, and even then they often cause only minor skin problems in healthy people.

I don't mean to belittle the infection, but there are plenty of things that can kill us, the key is risk. The alternative to assessing risk is blanket irrational fear, which turns us into germophob's.

There seems to be no reasonable risk to catching MRSA from a batting helmet from the little research I did.

son's team is required to wear team supplied helmets - we have the six helmet scenario, where often a baserunner has to come switch helmets because the ones that are left don't fit the batter or on-deck player. I want to pass some info on to our coach and AD so we can make some changes.

I frequently followed the football team out of the building as they walked to the practice field and the smell was horrendous, literally nauseating... they took great pride in NEVER washing pads and only washing practice gear "a few times". I can only imagine the crud growing in there. Staff complained constantly about the odor - the coach finally made them walk out the back door of the building and around to the field but did not address the real scary issue of bacteria and possible MRSA infection.

Our son had such a big head and on top of that he wore Sports Glasses, so he had to have his own helmet. None of the other helmets would fit right. We talked to the coach when he first started baseball and since that time we have bought his helmets.

In fact, he got so attached to one of his last highschool helmets until even after someone hit him in the head with a pitch and cracked it, he used white athletic tape to repair it. I'm sure at the PG event in Fort Myers in 2001, everyone was feeling sorry for this "poor" kid who had to wear a cracked helmet. His pictures from that event are hilarious. His performance was among the best. Lucky helmet?????

Catfish


I am surprised the home plate umpire permitted him to use it just from a safety aspect alone

I think the umpire did look at it and deemed it safe to wear. Son didn't say this, but if the umpire thought about making him use another one, he probably saw in my son's eyes his attachment to the helmet,and let him keep it. Everything turned out fine. He had done a pretty good tape job!

Im Kenucky High School baseball, it is a rule that every kid has to have their own helmet, but I think it is very lightly enforced.