I feel like I may be in a unique position to answer this, because my brother nearly died in the early 90's when he was in first grade because his coat hood strings AND - this is the important part - the little push-button clasp to adjust the coat strings - got caught as he was about to go down the slide, and he nearly choked to death. Two quick-acting kids, one to untie the coat string and one who went to get a teacher who called 911, saved his life.

After this incident and similar incidents around the country, manufacturers made some changes to the design of coats so that the hood adjuster things were not as large and less likely to catch if the string got caught in something. A string on its own without a clasp, which is what you usually see in hoodies, is very unlikely to get caught - it's just too thin to get stuck in the size of holes in most equipment. I'm a parent too now and despite this happening to my brother, I'm not scared of hoodies. I do however pay attention to any kind of large dangly object around the neck. My son loves to wear my necklaces but I don't let him run around unsupervised in them. It is something to be careful about, but I don't think you need to be worried about a regular hoodie.

I've literally never thought once about this.

Sometimes I lament that we know all the rare things that can kill our children. It keeps them safe, and keeps parents anxious.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes parental anxiety is weird and specific. But... what do you do in the winter? Does your kid wear a jacket with a hood? The thing with hoodies and hooded jackets is that if your kid hates wind and cold, they really, really help cut down on it. Hoodies basically make it possible for my kid to play outside in the winter.

OP here - I put him in hats. May add a dickie this winter since he's starting elementary school and will be spending more time outside.

A dickie? I was just transported to the 80s 🤣

I am scared of my 10 year old son wearing hoodies because I don’t want him to get shot.