[Closed] Kids and helmets

I think it's important to foster good habits - don't climb / ride without a helmet

Do you make your lads wear helmets to go bouldering/sport climbing/on walls? They must be really happy about that 🙁

You are soemwhat over egging that "study" mike

Who write it just out of interest as they dont name themselves in it as the author

I also like the bit about cycle helmet use increasing in cambridgea nd numbers of injuries dropping [ they dont mention pedestrians rates there but they flat line in London] but the conclusion being

Cambridge is the British city with the greatest amount of cycling. Helmet use by Cambridge cyclists had reached 33 per cent by 1998 – lower than in London, but still twice the national average.

Fatalities in Cambridge have held steady since 1981, although numbers are very small at just 1 or 2 a year. Serious injuries fell by half from 1981 to 1998 and the severity ratio (Figure 6) has declined steadily for many years. Once more it is difficult to see any improvement in casualties or the severity ratio in later years that might be attributable to the large increase in the use of cycle helmets.

I am also going to suggest that it is better measured in reduced injuries as I assume we all realise a helmet wont stop you being crushed by a truck

Nice use of an impartial site for your evidence there ...thankfully they dont have stance on the issue and cherry pick data
http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1146.html

the one giving the supporting view for helmets
http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1052.html
is about 3/4 of them pointing out whyit is wrong
this is like debating with TJ and the same use of evidence 😉

Again it depends what you look at - will it save your life in a fatal crash* probably not as the speed and the large heavy metalbox are probably the main issue. Will it reduce your injury Probably. Will compulsion discourage cycling, probably

* yes yes I know but you get the point

I encourage my boys to ride bikes, scooters, run about and take risks (within reason of course) and apply as much supervision as possible. I have always told them to wear helmets when riding bikes or scootering but am not militant about it. I always wear a helmet for proper rides but occasionally forget if I'm just pootling up the road with them. They occasionally forget to put their helmets on but make no complaint when reminded, and they wouldn't dream of going on a proper ride without one. They wear helmets, they get to do fun stuff, as do I. Everyone is happy. They get to have helmets they like an put stickers on them and its all part of the fun. Gloves as well.

My almost 4 year old demands her helmet before getting on her bike.

I think part of it is that Daddy always wears a helmet so she see's me wearing one whenever I ride and thus it's the norm.

I'm sure once she starts school the Peer-groups will undermine all our work in a few minutes.

Interesting that so many see helmet use as a conditional/circumstantial thing, while others (like myself are quite Black and White about it). Obviously they are your risk assessments and all, but do you really believe you are less likely to spanner your noggin on a commute (with Cars, Ped's and road furniture about) than in the woods (with trees and rocks)?

I tend to view almost all cycling environments as holding roughly equal levels of potential injury risk, just from different sources.

Obviously helmets are not a panacea, they're a last line of defense when judgement, training and luck have all run out, and may well not yet work sufficiently at that point.
But considering that kids are more likely to have a tumble, and at the sort of lower speeds at which helmets generally perform better, I'd say that getting them to wear a helmet when they are young is the responsible thing to do. Not a criticism OP, just My belief, I don't shout at strangers for their own practices we all make our own choices.

My own decision on Helmet use was made at 17, when I was [I]"just"[/I] Riding Home (helmetless) I had some sort of accident, which I'm still not clear on the details of, but it put a big gap in my memory, bent my forks, and tore both the straps off of my Rucksack, so there was clearly enough inertia involved to cave my skull had it struck the right object, a helmet may not have saved me under those circumstances, but it would have improved my odds of survival, as it is I'm here today thanks purely to dumb luck, which I don't want to test any further than I already have...

How's this for irony? I just went for a ride, got 100 yards up the road and realised I forgot my helmet.

Nice use of an impartial site for your evidence there

Despite the evidence presented by this thread, I have better things to do than trawl through buckets of data 🙂