At what point should a child start to wear a bike helmet?

[StillStandingOnAMushroom]

Okay, so I know this is a contentious topic and I know there are a lot of strong feelings out there. Let me first tell you what I don't want. If you think your child should always wear a helmet from the moment they first get on a tricycle/ balance bike/3-wheeled scooter, then I know your point of view and I respect it, but it's not going to help me. Thank you very much for your thoughts, but I will very politely ignore you. So please mutter into your coffee about how irresponsible we are and leave it at that.

So our daughter is 7. She has never been one to push the physical boundaries, she's always been pretty slow and steady. We've never put a bike helmet on her, not because I don't believe in helmets - when we go mountain biking she will wear a helmet. When she goes horse riding she wears a riding hat. I think there are absolutely circumstances when a hat/helmet should be worn. But after researching helmet wearing for bikes it turns out that yes you're safer wearing a helmet if you have an accident but you're also more likely to have an accident if you're wearing one, because you think you're safer. When snowboarding, I fell so many more times when wearing a helmet because I was going faster and taking more risks. My head was safer because of the helmet, but my arms, legs, body not so much.

I want her to learn that she needs to take care of her head and her body before she gets too confident and starts doing all the crazy stuff. I think this is a really important part of teaching her safety. Kids under 12 don't really feature in head injury statistics with or without helmets. But. There is also a line where they start doing crazier stuff and going faster. At what point do you say okay they're now going fast enough that they need to start wearing a helmet?

Nobody knows when an accident will happen. For that reason you should always use safety gear.

Both mine (boys) have been speed demons from the second they could ride/scoot. So, they started wearing theirs almost immediately.

I wouldn't let a child use a bike or scooter without a helmet

Thinking from your point of view, when riding alongside or on the road, or else bmx park, mountain biking type stuff with concrete or rocks. Not on smooth paths away from the road or on grass.

But after researching helmet wearing for bikes it turns out that yes you're safer wearing a helmet if you have an accident but you're also more likely to have an accident if you're wearing one, because you think you're safer.

The second part isn’t true at all. You are always safer wearing a helmet. The reason accidents are more likely for helmet wearers is only if they are sharing a road with cars & other motor vehicles. And it isn’t because the rider feels safer, but because cars & other motor vehicles don’t give cyclists enough room or do not slow down. What you wrote is a victim blaming myth that pretends cyclists ride recklessly on roads.

I would put a helmet on her right away so it is a habit, you as parents should also wear helmets.

Did you know you can fall off your bike at low speeds and still die of a head injury? You don’t have to be going fast or doing wheelies or jumps.

My Ds fell off his bike numerous times with stabilisers to the point I made him wear knee pads to go on a bike with stabilisers .

I would absolutely get my 7 year old wearing a helmet .. it normalises it fit them

Both my little ones ( 2 and 4 ) are speed demons with or without the helmet… so both wear them for both bike riding and scootering. A head injury even from a relatively slow speed could be life changing.

No helmet, no scooting/ bike riding. Zero room for negotiation.

Said helmet also stays on at the playground as my child is a speed demon and adrenaline junkie who throws themselves off things.

Just like you make sure she has a seat belt in the car so it's normalised I would make sure she wears a helmet whenever in her bike so she is used to it.

I agree with above posters that it builds good habits. It's going to be harder to explain the importance of wearing one the longer they go without one.

It sounds you want her to learn riding safely first and experimenting later.
I'm afraid it doesn't work like that, at least for me it didn't. The learning is very limited when you are not allowed to take even slight risks. Part of the fun is doing crazy things and part of the safety is knowing what you can get away with.

I cycle a lot. And with my kids since they were tiny. I didn’t wear a helmet for my entire adult life.
noting that helmets are effective at stoping damage when the accident it 12-15mph but would do nothing to stop me from being crushed by an his, etc .

Then in the space of a year one adult friend and my son had accidents on the road which were entirely caused by themselves on very quiet no car roads. My adult friend was cycling for 2 mins from her house when her pedal broke on a traffic free road, she went over handlebars and smash her eye socket and skull requiring surgery.
my 9 year old is a very competant competitive cyclist and fell from his bike on way to school, again no traffic, he landed very hard on elbow, hip and - I later realised head- 3 months on the bruise /scrape on his hip is still a shadow. His helmet had a crack in it.
had he not been wearing it that would have been his head .

so when we replaced his helmet I bought one too .

Stabilisers are the opposite of stable. It's easy to tip a bike with them on. They are only really useful imo until the child learns to pedal if they haven't had pedals before.

Just say no helmet, no cycling it’s fairly easy.

The moment they get on a bike or ride on the seat on the back of their mum's bike.

Not only does it instill good habits, but it protects them. Any child can fall and bang their head.

She's 7, shd could go pretty fast, but equally a car may hit her. So she should be wearing a helmet.

Think of it this way, if she sustained a head injury because you didn't make her wear one, would you feel glad that you had let her ride without one in order to teach her to be safe? Or would you regret your choice?

It really depends on the child and what they are doing. If she's plodding along not near any roads I really wouldn't bother with a helmet she will topple off slowly and her knees and hands will be grazed. Riding fast then yes. Just use your judgement

From
Day
One

Immediately. Gets them into the habit of wearing one straight away.

Put her in one now. The more she feels wearing a helmet is normal the less likely she is to see it as a reason to be reckless. My son has been wearing a helmet since he was 2. He knows- no helmet then no bike or scooter he’s 4 now.

I was meh on wearing a helmet until my friend made me promise to wear one- she works in a hospital and sees a lot of injuries from people not wearing a helmet.

"I want her to learn that she needs to take care of her head and her body before she gets too confident and starts doing all the crazy stuff."

Surely the answer is to teach her that she needs to take care of her head and body in all circumstances, on a bike, on a horse, playing with friends, crossing a road, eating the right food, learning to calm her mind, wearing a bike helmet, wearing something bright to cross roads in winter darkness, not sticking fingers into plugs, etc.
She needs to take care of her head and body because she will only ever get one body and one life.
Wearing a helmet on a bike ride is as much to protect you from the actions and choices of other people as from your own actions and choices.

"Let me first tell you what I don't want. If you think your child should always wear a helmet from the moment they first get on a tricycle/ balance bike/3-wheeled scooter, then I know your point of view and I respect it,"

I don't even know why you are asking this question then. Obviously from day one.

Straight away. No helmet, no bike rides

Given that the worst accident I had was when I was pootling along, chatting to my husband on a traffic free road - from day 1! If you're on wheels (with the exception of small wheels in our tiny back garden) you wear a helmet (including my husband and I).

If my 4 year old was wearing a helmet when she tried her new bike slowly out INSIDE the house, she wouldn't have ended up with a giant horn on her head and spending the afternoon in A&E.