Bike helmets

[marmeemarch1]

I have always insisted my two DDs 6 and 9 wear bike helmets. They have recently started meeting our oldest DDs friends and playing around the block. It's a very quiet area but does have some through traffic.

They like to go out on their bikes. I have said they have to wear helmets but their dad and our childminder frequently let them out without helmets.

They say they hurt their heads, make them sweaty and they are embarrassed to wear them as not all of their friends wear them. Our current compromise is if they don't want to go out with helmets they can't take their bikes, but can still play out with their friends.

I have worked with people with brain injury so am worried that my work experiences are clouding my judgement.

Wise mumsnetters what do you think

Interesting then that children are placed in five point harnesses if they are so dangerous to the neck and head

You keep parroting back 'because cars are safer' but give absolute no answers and the answers you do give would suggest that children in cars seats are in a dangerous five point harness, which is rubbish.

It seems the more I question the more rude you become.

I don't wear a helmet in a car and asked the question to those insisting that their children wore one on a bike for safety why would they not then use a helmet in a car if it's for safety. After all it's been pointed out dc spend more time in the car and are more likely to have a head injury in a car than on a bike.

I have questioned this but hasn't gone down well to question and engineers.

TBH I'm not satisfied with the answer ' because it's safer' I wanted further information. Thus have also searched for those answers myself. I m not able to find a conclusive answer that a car is safer than a bike or that I'm more likely to get a head injury on a bike.

I have found a lot of different information about 5 point harnesses, airbags and how helmets work in protecting the head, I've certainly learnt a few things but not from this thread ( often mn can give a source of informative information to challenge a view, but not in this case) which was a shame.

THE answer is because of the protection in cars such as seatbelts, head rests, airbags... are you not seeing those posts? Do you have selective reading issues?

@maeraprocyon I’m sorry to hear that it’s awful 

An acquaintances husband chipped a curb and fell onto it from his bike, hit his head and now he is left with severe memory loss and limb weakness. He can’t remember his parents dying him ever having children the list goes on it’s very sad. I do wonder if he had been wearing a helmet would the outcome have been better.

Any way this seems to have just gone a bit daft this thread. Wear a helmet, if it helps great if it doesn’t if you are ever unfortunate enough to be in an accident I’d rather be in the situation of knowing it didn’t help rather than questioning the what ifs.

I do think the testing of helmets should be more advanced and that they should all meet a higher standard. I think the energy that’s being spent arguing out over why you do t wear one in a car  could be better spent pointing it at the manufacturers and getting them to get more rigorous testing in place to help prevent the loss of our love ones.

@LegoShmego very jealous of your chin scar lol.

Maybe in the future all cyclists will be wearing the Hovding airbag helmet.

bike-uk.co.uk/products/hovding-airbag-helmet?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=googlepla&variant=20483488129&gclid=CjwKCAjw3rfOBRBJEiwAam-GsEhwNN7VyMkwXUhqcM3FAkqOgc8dYEWqJ6kaX8Sr6y7CaeJgATEEMhoCynUQAvD_BwE

I want one! (But not as much as I want a network of safe cycle routes separated from motor traffic.)

Interesting then that children are placed in five point harnesses if they are so dangerous to the neck and head

Because they have and neck restraints built into them [[http://www.mothercare.com/highback-boosters-without-harness-group-2-3/britax-römer-kidfix-ii-xp-sict-highback-booster-seat---cosmos-black/799824.html?CAGPSPN=pla&CAAGID=36909422592&CATCI=pla-334704820535&cm_mmc=Google--Car%20Seats--MC-UK-G-Shopping-Car%20Seats-High%20Priority//Car%20Seats%20-%20All%20products-_-+-+&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=CPC&utm_category=Google+-+Car+Seats&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhpu81aDK1gIVAhIbCh2tkQ6PEAQYBCABEgJ-2_D_BwE&utm_content=PLA]]

Can you think why such an arrangement may not be super practical for adults in the driver and passenger seat?

To the OP - were most of the people you’ve worked with who had brain injury riding bikes?

I do make my DC wear helmets and wear one myself. I don't make them wear helmets in the car, but probably would if a child was driving. Children's reactions and anticipation are poor. Helmets keep them a bit safer.

DC1 recently had a cycling accident, broke a limb and damaged the helmet. Every single doctor and nurse in A and E asked if she had been wearing a helmet and told her how much worse it would have been if not.

To the OP, yes I would make them wear their helmets.

Wow, so much hatred towards helmet wearers. Wear them if you want, don't wear them if you don't want, what's the big deal.