...to not make my 5 and 3 year old wear a cycle helmet?

[blindasabatenburg]

Am I failing to protect them sufficiently? Nobody wore helmets when we were kids and I don't recall anyonr suffering a serious head injury, though we all came off from time to time.

They could just as easily fall from a climbing frame at the park, but nobody would insist on a helmet for the park!!!

[badguider]

also, those flimsy 'peaks' on the front of mtb helmets break off as you hit the ground face-first but they also slow down the speed of your face towards the ground in that last couple of inches. I can vouch for that personally.

[badguider]

I have hit the ground face first on more than one occassion (I mountain bike) and twice i have cracked my helmet at the front in the middle of my forehead but come away with only a mildly squashed nose and prefectly fine teeth.
It's no guarantee but the helmet does protrude from your forehead by at least an inch or so and does protect your face if you fall forehead first into the ground.

[ILikeBirds]

The vast majority of cycle helmets, which are not full face, will do nothing to protect your nose and teeth. OH knows this to his cost.

[badguider]

I don't know if helmets protect skulls or hurt necks but I do know (from first hand experience) that they protect noses and front teeth!
I'd like to keep my teeth and not break my nose again and I'd like my child to not break any teeth or their nose.

[JenaiMorris]

Child bike seats and trailers are fab - we had one and ds loved it.

But they are subject to bugger all testing from what I can gather - even less than cycle helmets.

The whole situation is pretty shoddy imo and we (parents, consumers, cyclists) should be questioning this more.

[itsblackoveryonderhill]

YABU to not put helmets on your children

DD wears her helmet on the back of my bike in the seat, I also have one, and she also wears it when she's riding her bike.

I ride my bike on a bike lane on a path for 90% of our journey the other 10% is on a very quiet road, but I still make her wear it. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if she clonked her head and she became disabled or died from a haemorrhage or clot. I've seen first hand the resultant disability from a brain haemorrhage (not related to falling off a bike), but still.

I'll do anything to keep her as safe as possible without wrapping her up in cotton wool.

Also, as another poster put, it's not necessary that at a young age they are going at massive speeds, it more to do with the bike = helmet, for when they are older and tearing up and down the street doing wheelies and the like.

[Moominsarehippos]

If you were to take the 'risk factor' argument to the enth degree, then you would never leave the house (although most fatal accidents happen at home).

You could also say 'my gran smoked 40 a day from when she was 14 and lived to 103'.

[notasaint]

YANBU. There are more head injuries suffered by children as passengers in cars, and as pedestrians, than as cyclists. If you don't make them wear a helmet in the car then YANBU to allow them to cycle unhelmeted.

What is more, being on a bike is actually doing them positive good (more so than being driven somewhere).

Also, wearing a helmet increases neck injuries and increases the number of accidents (the overall rate of head injuries is the same for helmet wearers as for non helmet wearers). Those who say they were told that their helmet saved them are being told this by well meaning medics who probably know nothing about how helmets work (eg if they have shattered, then the medics assume they have protected the child - in fact the helmet has failed if it shatters).

Having said that, you might feel guilty if they fall off and hurt their heads....(for no good reason as you would not feel guilty if they suffered a head injury as a pedestrian without a helmet), but you just might...

aldiwhore I do the opposite: evidence is that helmets are useless when it comes to road accidents. They are very light for practical reasons and only afford protection in collisions of less than 5mph eg falling off the bike in a park as a child from a low height. Wearing them on the road merely gives a false sense of safety and also results in car drivers driving closer making an accident more likely.

[niminypiminy]

I know I am applying the principle to a different situation, that is the point I am making. Where do we stop once we start saying 'why take the chance?'

We have to weigh risks all the time, and there are risks with everything. And sometimes, quite often in fact, we take the risk because we consider that it's ok -- the chance is worth taking. That is why people do all sorts of very risky things, like crossing roads, and driving, and being the passenger in a car, and eating shellfish, and going down stairs, and gardening, and so on...

[IKnowWhat]

There is a big difference between falling over without or without a bike between your legs. I have fallen off bikes whilst mountain biking and found that the frame gets in your way wen you try to fall carefully. That is why I think bike falls are potentially more likely to result in head injuries than, say, scooter fall where you have a chance to use you hands and legs to protect yourself in a fall.

Try it if you don't believe me

[aldiwhore]

I always make my children wear a helmet on the roads, but not on the bridle paths near us. My concern is more about the head vs concrete or head vs cars scenario, the risk of head injury (in my opinion) is greater when there's a car involved. They'd have to be very very unlucky to hit their head on a rock on the verges of the bridle paths, so for me, the risk is lesser. As it happens, it's easier to just to get them to wear a helmet whenever they get on their bikes rather than confuse them with my personal risk assessments!

I didn't wear a helmet as a child and was fine (apart from one nasty incident of concussion, after hitting my head!) and I never wore a seatbelt in a car either. I lived.

However, life is not about removing risk, but minimising the risk of serious injury whilst at the same time still enjoying the activities we enjoy, so in that respect, it's not a huge inconvenience to put a helmet on.

I don't believe in 'ensuring safety' because you can't. I do believe in minimising risk of serious injury with a simple solution.

[Signet2012]

My brother was knocked off his bike in August and sustained a serious head injury and was airlifted to hospital. His memory is still dodgy now.

In my mind its mot worth risking.

[Ilovemyself]

Niminy. The trouble with your argument is that you are trying to apply the same principle to completely different situations.

I hate myself for saying this, but if you did a risk assessment of the stairs situation your c

[SaggyOldClothCatPuss]

My friends husband was cycling to work one morning, coasting down the hill where they live, gathering speed to make it up the other side. A DEER jumped into the lane, he hit it and went over the handlebars. He managed to crawl home and she rang him an ambulance. When my friend got there, the doctor showed her his cycle helmet. The outside was intact, the inside was shattered. Without it, his skull would have been shattered.
The thing is, walking/running/playing you are on your own feet. You rely on your own balance and senses to keep you on your feet. Cycling/riding a horse/motorcycling, you have an added factor. You have extra speed, height,a different centre of balance. Why not wear safety equipment? Why take the risk.

[mymagaret]

I was always told as a child my bike would be taken off me if i didn't wear my helmet. I never thought twice about not wearing it, even when all my friends thought they were cool for not wearing them. I respect that my mum stuck to her guns and made us wear them. I had so many accidents on my bike, even banging my head on a concrete road whilst wearing my helmet, and can happily say i suffered no injury because of this. I would never get in a car without a seat belt so i think the same principle should apply, this is your childrens safety at the end of the day. Until they are old enough to make their own decisions on safety , it is up to you to take that responsibility.
To be honest i think this question is just to provoke arguments? What parent wouldn't do everything to ensure their childs safety.

[niminypiminy]

I think the problem with the 'why would you take that chance?' argument is that it takes us back to the question about how you assess risk.

My son fell head first over a stair gate down uncarpeted stairs and had a bad concussion. What are the lessons I should have drawn from that? It's not worth taking the risk of having uncarpeted stairs (carpets would make my narrow, steep stairs more dangerous)? It's not worth having a stair gate at the top?

Once you start saying 'it's not worth taking the chance', where do you stop?

[PatPig]

Now this lady has legitimate cause to wear a helmet:


www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22774496

[PatPig]

My son fell over playing in the garden and banged his head on the path. He had to go to A+E. Thankfully there was no long-term damage, but no-one tells me to put a helmet on him in the garden?

[DewDr0p]

We know a 5 year old who fell off her bike in the park and banged her head on the path and fractured her skull. She was at her gps that day and had forgotten her helmet.

Thankfully for her there appears to be no long-term damage but why would you take that chance?

[amazingmumof6]

Patpig

yes, pubs should sell them!
with the word "HELMET" printed all over in fluorescent dye!

[PatPig]

I always think CE should stand for caveat emptor, but they can have both certifications, no problem, but helmet sales are not driven by safety, so complying to stringent standards isn't worthwhile for the manufacturers, so they don't bother.

[Ilovemyself]

Patpig. The trouble with quoting helmet standards is the only CE standards apply in the UK. I can't legally use a snell certified helmet if it doesn't have the CE stamp

[PatPig]

My phone came with a case, which enhances its grip, so I use it.

TBH I think the best time to wear a helmet would be when walking to the pub. People who go out drinking, quite rightly avoid driving, and walk and/or take public transport.

Such people are at very high risk of head injury as a result of their alcohol consumption, far, far higher than every day cycling (alcohol is a factor in around 40% of pedestrian deaths on the roads), and clearly if you were at all concerned about safety, you would wear a helmet when walking to the pub.

Anyone who doesn't do so is irrationally anti-helmet and probably a Bad Parent as well. (According to the logic in this thread.)

[JenaiMorris]

typos-ahoy there.

I'm multi-tasking

*but not on a bike. That would be silly.