Hearing aids are sensitive to liquids. Unfortunately, several people would like to engage in various body exercise (and sweat-producing) activities while wearing hearing aids.

Such people need to employ some means of protecting their hearing aids from the sweat generated by their own bodies. This page offers several ideas how to do so.

• David James, an avid cycler, offers the following tips in his 15 Feb 1996 message to DEAF-L:

  1. I arrange the hearing aid so that it is on the outside of the sweatband I always wear while cycling. This is good enough for my commute to work.
  2. On longer rides when the sweatband gets soaked through, I wrap the aid in a plastic sandwich bag cut down to size and tied with one of the wire twists that come with the bags.

  In addition to the above tips, David notes also that there are plastic covers specifically made for this purpose, but he has never seen one. School audiologists (or others who deal with hearing aids for children) might have these or know where to obtain them.

  P.S.: And be sure to wear a helmet as well as your hearing aids when you ride!

• Lynne W. Mogilensky contributed at 16 Feb 1996 the following:

  A mother once told me her clever and inexpensive solution to the problem of her preschooler's sweating into his hearing aids. She bought those long, skinny balloons that people use to make balloon animals, cut them to the appropriate length, and pulled them over the hearing aids!

• Michelle Nashleanas, a former ballet dancer, says at 16 Feb 1996:

  You ask:
  Has anyone ever managed to get around the problem of avoiding sweat or moisture getting into a hearing aid?

  My answer:
  Yep, and easier than the plastic sandwich bags.... get a little bit of plastic food wrap (the clingy kind) and snip a narrow, long strip off. wrap it around the aid. Hearing aid dealers used to sell narrow strips of plastic wrap at outrageous prices for this purpose. Also, get a Dri-Aid kit if you can find it -- it is basically dessicant crystals that many hearing aid dealers sell. They're pretty cheap and quite effective when used properly. You have to turn the aid on before you wrap it up, but it worked for me for the 10 years in which I was a serious ballet dancer. I had to use medical tape to keep the aids on my ears so they wouldn't fly off during pirouettes. Hearing aids in flight plus soaking sweat makes for a short half-life of the aids!

• Bowden Wise, a raquetball player, says at 20 Feb 1996:

  My Oticon aid seems to hold up to sweat fairly well when I play raquetball (it is the behind the ear kind) but .. only if I wear a head band.

  My audiologist gave me a box of "Super Seals", made of latex, which are like a sleeve for a behind-the-ear hearing aid. You simply place the aid in the sleeve and wear the aid as usual. The sleeve makes a tight fit and keeps out not only sweat, but also dirt. Super Seals are made by Just Bekuz Products, Co. (303) 688-5153

• Hawkeye, a surfer, told the following refreshing summer story at 17 Feb 1996:

  I went windsurfing, slashed the waves and even dived underwater with my hearing aids on. Screemed AHHHHHHHHHHH on the waterslides! Lets have fun and hear in watersports! At first, I used a narrow balloon , rolled it back, rolled it on the aid and tied it good. Got those yellow foam earplugs, drove a nail in it, put my tubes in it. Squeezed the plug and pop it in my ear and bingo! hit the waves. That foam seals and holds on good!. Don't be afraid to use a dry CONDOM! but FEAR using your best aid. I got lots of old ones and used them. Some got damp and caked up, turned green and fried out, some stayed dried. But my good aids stay at home nice and dry!

  COOL! Give it a try.