Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

472 replies

blindasabatenburg · 02/06/2013 11:39

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!!!

OP posts:
amazingmumof6 · 04/06/2013 14:06

treaclesoda - I applaud you!

I'm glad you read this thread and it made you think!Smile

moomins stop checking back and get on with your work!Grin

[hypocrite emoticon]

Moominsarehippos · 04/06/2013 14:09

Finished for the day ahahahaha! Sunshine here I come!

kelli10 · 04/06/2013 14:14

Now I haven't read the whole thread but wanted to add my two pence.

A doctor friend of mine once told me (after I witnessed a cyclist get hit by a car on my way home from work, due to unsafe riding IMO) that a helmet will rarely save a persons life. BUT wearing a helmet could save a person from a mild, moderate or serious head injury. In her opinion, even a mild head injury can result in life changing outcomes.

JenaiMorris · 04/06/2013 14:21

Bun I was referring to why people don't use proper motorbike/motorsport helmets on pushbikes - it was a continuation of a post upthread.

I wasn't terribly clear, sorry.

Motorsport helmets very much do limit both hearing and vision but seeing as you have engines roaring in your ears and can use mirrors to help peripheral vision (most of the time) you're not actually sacrificing anything safety-wise in wearing one.

On the other hand, wearing a motorbike helmet on a pushbike on the road would be daft because you'd be severely limiting your awareness of what's going on around you.

Cycle helmets are flimsy because they'd be more dangerous if they were heftier, basically, for a number of reasons.

I think those airbag type head protectors you can get now, that inflate on impact, look pretty amazing.

Moominsarehippos · 04/06/2013 14:31

The thing is - helmets save when you have a crack to the head - not if you are hit by something much larger/heavier, like a car or lorry (you'd be squashed and a helmet couldn't save you then).

You can have a relatively small tumble (kids do it all the time and I've seen a few road users clip the kerb or hit a pothole and come off) and whack your head. A helmet will protect your head in this case. Small kids are rather head-heavy and more likely to go head first off a bike or trike.

I notice that the cycle police wear helmets too.

A2B · 04/06/2013 14:36

For me, the pleasures of cycling (a lot!) without a helmet far outweigh the chance that I'll suffer a life-changing injury because of my decision. I'm glad to live in a country where people are free to weigh the evidence, assess the risks, and decide for themselves ? and for their children, too, keeping it on topic. I'm in the camp that says a bigger effective head makes for a greater likelihood that you'll hit it in the first place.

I'm not anti-helmet, I'm pro-choice.

cumfy · 04/06/2013 14:57

Another argument is that it is more healthy to cycle without a helmet than to simply not cycle.

ie the health benefits of cycling enormously outweigh the accident risks with or without the disputed helmet evidence.

Should we therefore criticise proportionally non-cyclists for their unwise health choice ?

Mother2many · 04/06/2013 16:07

If I took my kids for a bike ride in the city, park I would make them wear it, just because of the law, busy, safety, stray dogs, etc. Here were I live, no, I don't. I live in a tiny town (about 20 homes, seldom traffic)

I do wonder how parents in the city enforce their adolescents to wear their helmets. As under 18 yrs old there will be a fine. Unless your constantly with them to make sure.

www.gov.mb.ca/healthyliving/hlp/bikesafety/

If you choose not to, then it is up to you. Not fair to your child as they don't know better. However, how many smoke around your children, smoke during pregnancy, etc.etc.etc.

In life there are risks in soo many things. Whether exposure to possible cancer risks, head injuries, or accidental death type things, whether your a child or adult is inevitable.

As a parent it is your responsiblity.
As a parent watching someone parent "incorrectly"...not too much you can do.

PatPig · 04/06/2013 17:42

The one that always amuses me is the bikes with a bike seat, child wearing a helmet, but the adult rider isn't wearing one. Bonkers.

JenaiMorris · 04/06/2013 18:09

It's for appearances, Pat.

A bit like how when people meet up with other parents with their toddlers for a picnic, they bring rice cakes.

For the record I really, really don't have an issue with cycle helmets. I do however have an issue with the fact that they're rubbish and with the way people think parents who don't insist on them are as bad as parents who don't strap their children into child car seats.

I suspect (again I really, really don't know but then nor does anyone else from what I can gather) that we're being sold a pup. Helmets probably do reduce the severity of some injuries, but they are poorly tested (unlike child car restraints).

fwiw I do insist of 12yo ds wearing a helmet (although the one time he came off his bike on the road he wasn't wearing one - thankfully Hmm his abdomen took the impact and he is OK - luckier still he wasn't hit by a car). I also took rice cakes along to picnics.

JenaiMorris · 04/06/2013 18:11

Having said that, small children in rear seats look to me as if they'd be more likely to hit their head with a helmet than not. Again, has anyone tested this? Where are the simulations?

Dragonwoman · 04/06/2013 18:35

Just a point about motorbike or horse riding helmets. They are much more effective than cycle helmets. Cycle helmets offer nothing like the same level of protection. Why dont we use motor bike type helmets on cycles? Because if we did we would be at more danger from dying of heat exhaustion than from an accident.

I don't believe cycle helmets offer sufficient protection to be worth bothering with. If you really want to reduce the risk to yourself or DCs it makes more sense to avoid cycling on the road and stick to bridleways and parks only. Sadly in an accident involving a car & a bike a helmet will do little for you. And those are the accidents I fear most. After a couple of near misses I have given up cycling in traffic almost entirely.

JenaiMorris · 04/06/2013 19:10

I don't believe cycle helmets offer sufficient protection to be worth bothering with

I agree.

Bunbaker · 04/06/2013 19:45

"For me, the pleasures of cycling (a lot!) without a helmet far outweigh the chance that I'll suffer a life-changing injury because of my decision."

Really? I don't find cycle helmets uncomfortable. Perhaps you have tried on the wrong size.

I am staggered that some people are petty enough to not want to ride a bike because it means having to wear a helmet.

lljkk · 04/06/2013 19:53

I have to admit I cycle without one, sometimes, but never ever would I let the kids not wear theirs.

That's the part I don't get, lol. I am 99% sure that 80%+ of MNers are the same (no helmet for selves, mandatory for DC). I feel naked without my helmet on.

Car users should all be helmeted too, if we were being completely logical about this. And facing backwards to boot. Even the driver!

lljkk · 04/06/2013 20:00

I am staggered that some people are petty enough to not want to ride a bike because it means having to wear a helmet

I am staggered that a 40yo woman can't go gray without being told she's making herself ugly, that wearing visible socks is profoundly naff, that men get suspicious looks if they grow mustaches, that women are expected to remove all visible leg hair but men aren't: yup, culture is a staggering thing.

ivykaty44 · 04/06/2013 20:04

There is no law in this country to enforce wearing of a cycle helmet, the ctc is for choice to be for each person.

my ex survived a horrendous crash between himself on a bike, he was doing a TT and a car that went into the back of him travelling at 50mph. He had nasty head injuries, but no lasting damage to his brain or head, other injuries were also very very nasty and he still bears the scars, he wasn't wearing a helmet or body armour and yes you can get body armour now for cycling.

I choose to wear a helmet but I don't want to be forced to wear one

ivykaty44 · 04/06/2013 20:06

when I say nasty head injury I mean a brain hemorrhage and over 100 stitches in his head, it certainly wasn't minor

SuperLemonCrush · 04/06/2013 20:11

I read some stuff about this a while ago which was very critical of children's use of cycle helmets - main points were driver perception of the safety of the cyclist (drivers tend to drive closer to cyclists when they are "protected" with a visible helmet), and more worryingly, that while the helmet protected the head in children, it increased the likelihood/severity of trauma to the neck as the force is transmitted downwards. This bothered me a lot.

rubyrubyruby · 04/06/2013 22:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Bunbaker · 05/06/2013 06:53

I didn't know that. It said in the letter from school that they wouldn't let the children take part if they didn't have a helmet.

Glittertwins · 05/06/2013 07:08

We have had the bike helmets on the DTs even when in bike seats on our bikes. We wear them, why shouldn't they?
It is important to make sure they are wearing them properly and by that I mean the helmet is not pushed back angled away from the forehead.
DS came flying off his bike aged 4 and would have badly injured his head had he not been wearing one, it stopped the impact of the ground on his forehead.

Moominsarehippos · 05/06/2013 07:28

I'm not aware that the government is aiming to change the laws and make helmets compulsory. More and more people are wearing them though. A decent one will cost quite a bit though, so if you are going to get a £9.99 one from Argos, then consider paying more and going to a proper bike/skate/ski shop.

Some people just won't and hopefully they will never ever be in the position of saying 'if only'. This also goes for kids cycling on the roads - not all places I know - but we're in central London and traffic is bloody mad. I wouldn't cycle on the roads here.

Ilovemyself · 05/06/2013 07:42

The children in question are too young to decide so I responsible adult should.

If you don't think they help try this. Fall and bang your head on a concrete or Tarmac floor wearing a helmet. It won't stop the hurt, but it will stop an injury being worse than it should be.

Then try it without. If the injury isn't worse than first time round you will have been lucky.

I mountainboarding and snowboard with a helmet on so if I do hit my head the potential injury will be reduced. At least that of cutting or abrasion sim but also of concussion as I wear a suitable helmet with the correct level of internal padding.

If you value your head at £9.99 buy a £9.99 helmet.

I would say that wearing a crash helmet on my motorbike is probably LESS useful than wearing a push bike helmet as the speeds are higher so the chance of survival in an accident is less. Am I allowed to make that choice? No, even though I would like to sometimes.

I have always been against legislation, but sometimes people will find the strangest reasons not to do something that has the potential to save them.

Personally I think you are very unreasonable