...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!!!

It looks like this road race required helmets. I spend a lot of time in Holland and no one normally wears a helmet, though everyone cycles everywhere. My friend tried to get her kids to wear helmets as they cycled alone to primary school. They were the ONLY children in the entire school with helmets.

Frog spoon that was a wicked thing to say of course the op or anyone who lost a child would be due sympathy.

Look at all those cycle stands!!!

Holland's not really a sensible comparison though is it?

make them wear one please. There was a case of a woman DH worked with falling off her bike in Morrisons car park and banging her head. she died. I really would not want to take that risk with children whatever the research says. If they wear them while they are young then there won't be a battle later, DH always wears his, my boys really argue about it and often don't (17 and 20)

Holland's not really a sensible comparison though is it?

what does that mean? compared to what?

Look at all those cycle stands!!!

imagine if they were cars!!! imagine the traffic flowing freely with bikes rather than cars

DS has a balance bike, he has managed to damage his helmet twice through accidents. Once going too fast down a hill, tried to slow down and went over the handlebars resulting in the front of the helmet being cracked and grated off by the Tarmac (would have been his skull being cracked and face grated off) and once riding into an upturned bit of kerb, again cracked.

I can't see why you wouldn't get your child to wear a helmet, downside is flat hair, upside is much lower risk of injury. I thought I was being a bit paranoid making DS wear his as he only rides in parks/pavements - rule is no helmet no biking as I wanted him to get into the good habit before he really needed it - but I shudder to think of what would have happened otherwise.

I know ivykate!!

I'm in awe. Didn't mean anything negative

Me and kids cycle and I'm forever looking hopelessly for something to lock our bikes to!

Sorry ivykate, meant wrt the poster saying people don't wear helmets in Holland - so much more cycle friendly there! The roads are far more dangerous here. But head vs pavement/road can happen on the safest of streets .

A friend of mine popped out,on his bike, to post a letter. The bike hit a stone in the road, he went over the handle bars and was killed instantly. A helmet would have saved him apparently.

Having seen the damage done to my friend's son cycle helmet when he came off a few weeks ago breaking his collar bone in an incident not involving anyone else. The impact that must have occurred to the helmet would have almost certainly cause a fractured skull. He fortunatly got away with concussion.
He is also lucky the particular brand replace your helmet at cost price if it had been involved in an accident.

Having come off my bike myself this year, I will not get on one without a helmet, let alone allow a child to do so.

Wearing a helmet at the time of that crash (caused by pure circumstance and no one's fault) didn't prevent me being knocked out for 5-10 minutes, and I can't say for certain whether or not it saved my life, but I can be sure that the piece of gravel 1/2 cm by 1 cm cubed was embedded flush in my helmet, not in my skull.

There are lots of anecdotes from people claiming that helmets did this or would have done that, but I think they are meaningless because you cannot repeat the accident, there are infinitely many variables, and changing any one of them might result in no accident at all, a different point of impact, or many other things.

Aggregate statistics show that helmet compulsion reduces cycling participation, and as a public health issue, it is far better for people to cycle, helmetless, than it is for them not to cycle, because cycling has massive health benefits.

E.g.,

www.cyclehelmets.org/1250.html

Fewer children cycled, more injuries per cyclist.

Bad news.

I always wear a high vis and helmet when cycling. So do my kids. They dint wear high vis when scootering though.

Your children, your choice. But I would.

Everyone's talking about Holland, but are ignoring that Australia made it law

The drop in death stats caught me eye. BTW and for what's it worth, both my LO's wear helmets.

i know two people who have had accidents, helmets were the only thing that stopped it being more serious.

Holland's not a sensible comparison because they have a longstanding culture of cycling, amazing provision of cycle lanes and laws that automatically put the fault for any collision between car and bicycle onto the driver - it makes drivers a lot more careful.

Cycle helmets have saved us many trips to A&E over the years. Worst was when DD was on her stabilisers, she got into a "speed wobble" (at walking speed!!!). She fell onto a small sharp stone which lodged right into the front of her helmet. Instead of any damage to her face from the concrete and a hole in her forehead - she just got up, shoke herself, jumped on the bike again and rode on! The helmet is still in the garage, complete with big crack and track of the stone for anyone who won't wear a helmet to see.
It had been easy to get the DC to wear helmets, as they always have, and everyone on the house wears a helmet.
You make your own decision according to your perceived risk, and manage any consequences!

From Wiki

"Strict liability", supported in law in the Netherlands, leads to driver's insurance being deemed to be responsible in a collision between a car and a cyclist. Dutch drivers are trained for the interaction with cyclists, for example by checking and re-checking their right-hand side before making a turn to the right.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_in_the_Netherlands

Actually, my uncle works in the cycle industry and he said that they were considering making it illegal to sell a child's bike unless either brought with a new helmet, or with you bringing existing one to show it exists.

Not sure how they would prove who was wearing what and why not adults but I think it's a good idea in principle.

I and my 3 siblings lived a free and adventurous life: climbing trees, sliding on ice, scrambling over rocks. It would have been a strange day in which one of us, at least, did not fall off something or trip over something. The only time any one of us ended up unconscious in hospital was from coming off a bike, happened to my brother twice.

A couple of months ago my three year old was on her bike with stabilisers, on the pavement, at fast walking pace, next to me. She went round the corner and the bike tipped over sending her crashing into a postbox head first. She hit her head very hard and bounced off onto the floor.

After crying for a couple of minutes she got back on and cycled off.

Without a helmet she would have almost certainly been knocked out, if not brain damaged.

You don't need roads or high speeds to cause head injury!