...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!!!

When I was a child I flipped over the handle bars and was concussed (no helmet obviously). Both my dh and a friend have had cycling accidents, both completely the fault of others, where if they had not been wearing helmets they would have been seriously injured at the very least.

Both my kids wear them, the rule hear is no helmet, no bike. Just not worth the risk IMO.

And actually, tbh you don't seem all that convinced to me. You are weighing up the pros and cons. You've asked, I've given my opinion. "People whose opinions are changed against their will, remain of their opinion still" it takes a lot to actually change an opinion usually it takes unbiased facts rather than more opinion. Night folks.

Hahaha!

"I am the OP so perhaps you should"??!!??!

Don't you think a lot of yourself?

PMSL

If the app don't update love then there's jack shit I can do about it!

Words on a page

Nighty night!

My point was if you are going to respond, you should at least know what you're responding to.

I wasn't even sure that you knew we were talking about bicycle helmets.

Well, I've just been having a similar discussion with my DH over helmets for 3yo DD.

Only it wasn't about whether she should be wearing a helmet at all but whether children should wear full-face ones (DH thinks they should, I think they don't do enough looking and listening as it is...)

I can't believe that your 5yo doesn't go fast enough to cause himself injury. My DH's comment about full-face helmets was prompted by the sight of DD going downhill on her balance bike faster than he could chase, with her feet on the handlebars, yelling 'look, only one hand!' - and the hand left on the bike was not on the brake side. She was in the park, nowhere near a road, but the wall she was heading towards was just as great a risk (fortunately she realised in time, grabbed the brake and did her first big skid - 2m skidmark ).

A few years ago I had a cardiac seizure during a cycling road race. Judging by the state of my helmet, I was lucky my injuries weren't more severe. I also say no bike, no helmet and that has always been the rule for DD so she doesn't argue. Anyway, she's proud of her grown-up cycling gear - she's got a miniature version of my helmet and I've just ordered her cycling mitts and a jersey ready for family TdF watching/emulating!

OP, assuming that you are in the market to here opinions and maybe swayed, I'm going to tell you about what happened to DS. He was 4 and a half and out with his nanny and sister. His brilliant nanny got him out of the car near to the playground and told him not to get on his bike as it was a hill down to the playground. She nonetheless put his helmet on him and then got his sister out of the car. In the 30 seconds that she turned her back to do that, he hoped on his bike and sped off down the hill. As he gathered speed, he realised that he was totally out of control and unable to stop. Eventually he came off the bike and landed on his headed. His helmet cracked open and he took all the skin off his face and upper body. He was rushed to A&E where the doctors told me that the helmet saved his life. Had he not been wearing it, it would have been his skull which would have split open and the injuries would have been far, far more serious. As is, he is left with some bad scarring but I thank god every day that his nanny put his helmet on him. I can't bear to think of the alternative.

Please put a helmet on your kids. You can't foresee every situation and you won't forgive yourself if they suffer a preventable head injury because you didn't.

hear not here.

I have just been having this fight with my DD1 (12) - she doesn't want to wear it - and yesterday and today she has seen her peer group out not wearing them...I gave her a lecture - but then I do understand that she doesn't feel cool...and they do make your head sweat...
(I was v. shocked about one of the boys we saw- same age as DD1 - he had a motorbike style helmet when he was younger because he has an uncle with brain damage the result of a bike accident!)

I have seen a helmet save someone's face - a boy about 7 yo - went down a steep hill on his bike, braked near the bottom but because grass was wet he slid straight into a stone wall ... he had slowed a bit but his face hit the wall - or it would have done if it wasn't for the visor on his helmet ...as it was a few bruises and a cut to his leg .. no real harm done..

I got disapproving looks today from other parents - because I wasn't wearing a helmet ...
I just got a second hand bike to keep up with DDs and had told them I'd take them for a short ride today (off road cycle path) ...loaded all bikes up, picnic etc and then realised I haven't bought a helmet yet...it would be too late to go if we went for one- explained to my DDs - we weren't going on the road and I wouldn't be going fast and I don't have my whole life ahead of me ...I would take a calculated risk...

Seatbelts. Check.
Passive smoking. Check.
Carseats. Check.
Asbestos. Check.
Processed food. Check.
Helmets for sport. Check.

These developments are keeping our children safer and healthier. Do you flaunt the other regulations OP? Or do you allow your children into smokey environments, drive in cars without a seatbelt/carsets, eat processed foods, live in a house with asbestos/lead paint?

Surely not?

For younger children, yes, I agree they should wear a helmet.

My dad also thinks everyone over reacts to everything....yes, at a camp, my kids had to wear a helmet while they rode a horse!

So, school buses here have no seat belts, and that's okay?

Also, they have recently passed a law here that anyone under 18 will be ticketed for not wearing a helmet! Okay, how are you seriously going to enforce that? How many rebellious teens would be happy to wear a helmet? Do you really think it's fair that the parents are responsible for that ticket getting paid? (even if you took their bike, they could borrow a friends, etc)

We did alot of things in the 70's. People didn't freak out over every single thing...from food in the lunch boxes, to helmets...etc.etc.

We should also have a right too.

Children are more likely to suffer a head injury when walking, so for consistency all those insisting that they should be worn when cycling should ensure their children also wear walking helmets.

Children don't walk at 30mph though

Can't believe this is up for debate. It is totally lazy and neglectful to let your kids go without a helmet. My son refuses to wear one. So he's never been out the house on his balance bike. I doubt he would be ever be going too fast and he's a very cautious at three year old, but it just takes one accident.

One of the little boys we had in care with us had ADHD so quite often did things on the spur of the moment. We had a helmet must be worn rule but he just jumped on the bike & took off up the path out the front with no helmet. I saw him go past the kitchen window but in the time it took me to run out the back door he was walking back to me with blood pouring down his front. He had overbalanced & gone sideways into a recently pruned bush with sharp branch ends & sliced his head open needing a hospital trip & his head being stuck together (he fought too hard to manage stitches so they had to use glue) If he had fallen the other way onto the concrete path I dread to think what would have happened. Kids didn't wear helmets when I was a kid, lots don't now & don't get hurt, but I am not willing to take a chance. Our rule still stands, no helmet, no bike ride. That little guy never rode without a helmet again, he didn't want to get hurt like that again.

I would make a child wear a helmet as they are most likely to sustain injuries where a helmet will offer protection.

The law as it stands with helmets being optional is fair.

I dont think there's a single parent who would say 'oh well, that's the risk...' If their child took a tumble and cracked their head open or worse. They're more likely to say 'a helmet could have prevented that'. Kids fall over - a lot.

Yes, you are being very unreasonable.

sashh bicycle helmets are designed for low-speed impacts, not 30mph.

There is no reason why they would be less effective for pedestrians than cyclists.

Moominsarehippos my son fell over while playing in the garden. No bike was involved. Was I being unreasonable?

Being on wheels is very diffrenet to walking, that is why scooters, roller skates etc, are banned indoors in shops etc.

It is interesting that skaters in other countries (where you tend to see them more regulary on pavements, than in the UK), wear helmets.

Also, you don't just "fall" when coming off a bike, you "bounce", are thrown or slide. Because your hands are on the bars, and you have a big metal object between your legs (and possibly hitting you), the whole experience is different.

We horse ride and even being thrown from a horse is slightly more predictable than a bike accident.

"It is totally lazy and neglectful to let your kids go without a helmet"

We all take risks, every hour of every day, wrt our own safety and the safety of those in our care and the helmet/no helmet is just another element of risk. Until helmets are compulsory people are free to make the judgement call themselves, as they should be. Statments like the one above are just rude and inflammatory, imvho.

My DS1 has done far more damage to his head in the playground at nursery/school/our garden than he has done whilst using a bike (so far bike nil, other areas of play 5) and has one lot of glue and two lots of stitches for his troubles. Should I make him wear a helmet to school? Or in the garden? I don't think so. But, as the risk of a serious injury is greater at speed, then bike helmets make sense (and since my DS2's tumble yesterday, will be compulsory here now). But there is nothing to be gained, and in fact the argument can actually be weakened, by being rude about other people's choices, especially if they do not have a direct impact on your own life.

This to everyone who is being a bit preachy about the choice of others and not just the quote above.

Basically it's your call as a parent.

I'm bemused by the people on here saying 'well they're not qualified to comment' to posters who say that they/their friends or relations work for the police/hospital/a+e and have seen numerous head injuries as the result of bike accidents (with and without helmets).

I don't think a child tripping over in the garden is quite the same as a 2 foot fall from a moving bike/trike/scooter. Kids fall off slides/frames but most parks seem to have soft surfaces for them to bounce off.

It's really interesting to see how emotive this subject is.

It seems to me, having read the whole thread, that several themes are recurring:

1. Someone known to a poster had an accident whilst wearing a helmet, and the helmet is then said to have saved the accident from being much worse. But how could we know exactly what might have happened had the person not been wearing a helmet?

1. A HCP or police person has said that they have seen head injuries which would have been worse if a helmet had not been worn. See above.

1. A HCP or police person has seen serious head injuries in a person wearing a helmet, and has said that they would have been less serious had the person been wearing a helmet. See above.

1. A poster testifies about an accident they have witnessed in which the helmet was damaged and speculates about the same kind of damage having happened to a head. Helmets are designed to shatter on impact, so that they absorb the shock of the impact rather than transferring it to the head. A head would not necessarily be damaged in the same way by that impact -- though it would be damaged in some way. Again, exactly what this is cannot be known exactly.

1. Head injury is so serious that we must take precautions against it. True: head injury is serious, and the risk of head injury is one of a number of risks we have to weigh up.

1. People who do not make their children wear helmets for cycling and/or scooting are irresponsible parents.

No helmet will protect someone from serious injury if they are in collision with a car. They are designed to protect from low-speed impacts. They are pretty good at this, but not so good at protecting cyclists who are in traffic accidents. Racing cyclists have to wear helmets to comply with the public liability insurance of race organisers, not because all racing cyclists think they are safer while wearing them.

Both my children have had accidents while scooting at speed and not wearing helmets. They have bad grazes and bumps to the head: perhaps a helmet would have avoided this and maybe it wouldn't), but these don't seem to me to be so serious that they require protective clothing. The most serious head injuries we have had as a family have come from falling downstairs -- in one child's case, over a safety gate, ironically enough. That caused quite a serious concussion!

Life is full of risks, and we are very bad at weighing risks against each other. We think some things that are relatively safe are very dangerous, and some things that are much more dangerous we take in our stride. We tend to overestimate the safety of things that we 'have' to do, and to overestimate the risk of other things that seem dangerous but are relatively safe. One of the reasons, I suggest, that cycle helmets are an emotive issue is that we overestimate the risk of serious brain injury, and because we feel we can control the risk by making children wear cyclle helmets.

We don't have robust research to tell us whether they do in fact protect in the way we want them to. In the meantime, we have to weigh up the risks we are prepared to have our children take, and to what extent we feel compelled to intervene.

For on-road cycling, my children wear helmets, otherwise they don't. I think that's illogical, but it's how I weigh the risks.

(I meant, I don't think it's logical, not illogical)

I'm fascinated by how this has run. After seeing the deaths i mentioned upthread, there is NO WAY any child of mine or a child playing under my supervision rides without a helmet. There hasn't been anything on this thread that has come close to changing my mind.