Confidence on a bike. Advice needed

[MAC0000]

Hi, my daughter is 5. She was really confident on a balance bike but since moving to a pedal bike she has lost all confidence in riding, to the point that she now refuses to go on the bike (unless bribed!). We are debating whether to go back to the balance bike for a while and try the pedal bike again when she is older. But this feels like a backwards step. What would you do?

I have just had this issue with DD and resolved it. What worked (DD is a year younger, so possibly less logical):

1. Getting her to go out for very short practice sessions round the block as often as I could, with lots of praise for trying and pointing out improvements.
2. Holding her by holding onto her clothing. Started with gilet armhole, then progressed to back of jumper, then hem of dress. At this point I was making no difference to the balance, she was doing it, but it took a few weeks to move to point 3.
3. In the park, she decided one day that cycling on the grass without me holding wasn't too scary. HUGE praise from me for this epiphany. Turned out she was fine..
4. After a couple of days was confident enough to cycle on pavements unaided.

I'll be honest, it was occasionally frustrating, but we got there. Whole process took 6 weeks or so, most of which was getting her confidence rather than the physical skill.

I also took her for a few trips on the balance bike, to remind her that cycling was fun - and told her how she had needed time to get used to the balance bike too.

Thanks for the advice, really appreciate it. Our daughter is able to ride with pedals, it's just that for some reason she hasn't grown in confidence with it, it seems to be the opposite, she now doesn't want to go on the bike at all. She is naturally a little anxious about physical activities and she just isn't growing with confidence on the bike even with our praise and the fact she can actually do it. I'm wondering whether continuing is now doing more harm than good and maybe going back to the balance bike and then reintroducing pedals later would be best.... So difficult to know

Having the same issue with my 3YO. Learned to ride her pedal bike really well and now suddenly won't touch it. Have tried bribing with ice cream, being touchy feely and offering tonnes of cuddles and reassurance but she's having none of it so for both our sanities I'm just having to ditch the bike for a bit. I guess she'll come back to it when she feels ready. What I do find helps is taking her out with older cousins. Once she sees them doing it all fear and doubt go out the window! So if there's any kids she looks up to try taking them all out on their bikes.