...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!!!

We were in a near accident in Doha, we were almost hit from behind by a lorry into our Escalade into a small Ferrari in front which had had a toddler standing be tween the front seats. I asked my oh who is a physicist what would have happened and the answer was terrible.

If dont care about your children...they go ahead and dont put helmets on them.

We were in a near accident in Doha, we were almost hit from behind by a lorry into our Escalade into a small Ferrari in front which had had a toddler standing be tween the front seats. I asked my oh who is a physicist what would have happened and the answer was terrible.

His answer, you can't argue with physics

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.

Using that argument though, shouldn't you still be putting your DS up the chimney to sweep it?
Unless you're a direct descendant of Valentine Grey, then you'd be doing what your parents did, and what their parents did, and what their parents did - safe in the knowledge that nothing bad ever came of it!

Accidents happen. Not always to you, but sometimes, to other people. One of the benefits of modern society is that we can learn from each other, rather than having to experience something negative first hand before we take precautions against it.

Well, I wouldn't let my children ride bikes or scooters without a helmet. They should take them off in the play park though, not to is dangerous.

Some people don't and that's fine, it's their child.

As others have said, its easier to get kids to wear helmets as they get older if it is an ingrained habit. Start now!

If they will be doing cycling proficiency (bikeability) training at school, helmets will be compulsory then. I know a few children who made a right fuss about this because they had been told for years that a helmet wasn't important.

Pearlywhites- why should I waste sympathy on someone who ignores over 150 posts telling why their child should be wearing a helmet, and still refuses to make their child wear one.

It's horribly unfair on the child, who doesn't know any better. And on the family and friends of the child, as it wasn't their fault, I would have alot of sympathy for them. But none for the OP. If the OP's child has an accident without a helmet and has a serious injury or dies, it is 100% the OP's fault.

To be honest, I'm inclined to think this whole post is a wind up as I cannot believe that anyone who cares about their kids would put them at risk like this.

Sure, why not. Bad Things only happen to Other People. It's rare, except when it happens to your loved one.

My SIL fell off her bike aged 3. She fractured her skull, almost died and still suffers complications from nerve damage 30 years in. why on earth wouldn't you put them in helmets it's not a particularly arduous safety measure?

The argument that says we don't know what the results of some of these accidents would have been if helmets hadn't have been worn therefore we don't need to wear them is ridiculous.

We all wear seat belts because we are all told that we will either kill the person in the drivers seat if we're in the back or we'll go flying through the windscreen if we're in the front. In accidents in which people are wearing seat belts and the above doesn't happen, does it therefore mean that we shouldn't wear seat belts as the awful results aren't guaranteed??

Our DD wears a helmet, has done since she was 1. Is that because she was likely to fall off her smart trike, no of course not but she will learnt that you don't get on a bike without putting on a helmet.

Btw OP YABVU.

I fell of my bike and fractured my skull over twenty years ago, and still suffer some problems related to the accident even now. The first time I got back on a bike was last year, and I certainly wouldn't ride without a helmet. I make sure DH and DCs wear helmets too. No-one else was involved in my accident.

Most of the time kids don't really need then IMO in the park but I am a mountain biker and encourage adventurous riding (learning to go up and down kerbs, over and round obstacles) and I want my screen to learn to ride safely in traffic so wearing a helmet is a good habit to get into.

That's the thing. Most of us know someone who has suffered a serious injury or worse from falling off a bike or scooter. Its not like the OP is saying 'should I put a helmet on the kids in case a meteor falls out of the sky?'.

Brain injury can be caused be a hard bang, or even a relatively small bump. A crack to the temple on a kerb from a low fall can kill.

Even if you think its overkill to pop a helmet on a small child, its a good habit for them to get into. How will you ever get a ten year old to wear a helmet when they never have (and have been told that they aren't necessary) when they start riding on the road? OK so I roll me eyes when I see a two year old with a proper crash helmet and padded up to the eyeballs slowly footing their three/four wheeled scooter through the grass in the park, but hey, they are not my kids. I equally roll my eyes when I see cyclists on the roads without helmets.

I know one family who never wore helmets, even after one child (about 4) had a fall on the road and was bleeding from the head and disorientated (he was brought into school and the receptionist was asked to patch him up and call if he needed to go to hospital). The school refused to let him through the doors. Teaching the kid to be tough or neglectful?

I wear one as do all the children - personally think it should be made law.

Two weeks ago I witnessed a child go head first over their handlebars landed on their head - luckily they had a helmet on. So for that reason alone yes get in the habit now.

Having had to turn off a life support machine for one of my children already, the other two are wearing helmets as long as they are under my care and protection as minors and where I can see that they do (I realise they will hopefully become teens and do things I don't approve of behind my back).

Bad Things happen All The Time. To very good people. Just because you don't know them, doesn't mean they don't.

For me, it's about risk minimisation. What caused our child to be on life support was preventable by no one and nothing (for those who don't know, she died of complications for treatment of leukaemia), and yet still we have guilt about all sorts of things.

I can only imagine if it had all been the result of something that could be prevented.

Its your choice but I have worked in neurorehab for 20 yrs and have treated people young and old with severe head injuries from not wearing a helmet. Some have pulled through but left severely disabled and others haven't made it. All my kids wear helmets because of this.

Last week DD went over her handle bars going down hill and landed on her head.

I'm glad she was wearing a helmet.

I sometimes look at the deep scratches on my DSs helmets and think they were a wise investment.

I left DS1alone at the skatepark once, while I went into the sports center next door. Being big and clever with no Mum watching he took off his helmet. We spent the evening in A&E. It wasn't funny.

I know of dc brain damaged through accidents, due to not wearing helmets.
Mine have always worn them for this reason.
I agree though we weren't so soft years ago.
I can remember going over the handlebars of my bike when I was about 9, and a kind woman calling my mum to collect me from the roadside. I consider myself lucky now, looking back.

When I was 9, a boy in my class was knocked off his bike and killed. A lovely, sensible boy, whose dad saw it all. I can honestly say it's the saddest thing that I've ever known, and our whole class was affected terribly, not to mention his parents, who split up, and his lovely baby brother.

I don't know if a helmet would have saved him, but I won't let DH out without one, and I certainly won't let DS.

(Haven't read whole thread) We have always worn helmets since DH (pre-kids) fell off his bike one day on a nice quiet cycle path at a fairly slow speed and couldn't remember who I was or his own name for half an hour. All was well, but it might not have been. Before that we didn't bother.

My kids both wear cycle helmets (as do I) but those who say the evidence is inadequate as to whether they protect from serious injury are right. It actually annoys me when I hear people (including health care professionals) say that wearing a helmet prevented a serious head injury in a particular incident without any actual evidence because I think these anecdotes reduce demand for greater real research and studies to look at how how helmets can be made more effective.

Don't care what OP does.
I feel it would be extremely terrrible idea if made compulsory, not so long ago the BMA had that stance, too.
I want to say that we always wear helmets, but there's the 1% of occasions when something goes pear-shaped with the plans and one of us goes without. Would make cycling too unreliable as means of transport if we always had to wear helmets or risk legal penalties.

Wise words Expat

When DD did her Bikeability in year 5 she would have automatically failed if she didn't have a helmet.