advice for babies

mailmannz

With my wife due to return to work in September after our baby arrived in February Im quite keen on dropping bubba at day care as I cycle in to work.

So...what kinds of carriers and helmets would be suitable for a baby? Do people make those buggy things to take car seats?

Bubba is coming up to six months in a few days and the commute to day care would only be a few minutes as its just down the road here in Canary Wharf (over by the Audi sales centre).

Any advice would be most appreciated.

Regards

Mailman

ddraver

I'm not giving you any help u till you rename you re child


Bubba indeed...... :P :?

baudman

Here in Australia its law for anyone on a bicycle, child seat or bicycle trailer to wear a helmet.

We got a Croozer 737 trailer. We chose a trailer over a bike seat for a few reasons. Firstly, most of the research I read said that it is far safer. Secondly, it can be used for a variety of purposes (groceries etc). The Croozer also comes with a trolley-style wheel so you can use it as a stroller, and a better wheel so you can use it as a jogger, which we have on many occasions.

There are a variety of children's helmets out there that will fit very small heads. We bought a Giro. However, when you have it adjusted down so that it fits 'bubba's head, the helmet is still very large on their head so there's a lot of leverage and strain on a little neck.

Most of the studies I read say that you shouldn't mix bikes and kids before they turn one, and from my observations with the helmet, I'd tend to agree. She loved it, but we only went out a few times before her first birthday. She's now 18 months old and adores it. Now that the weather is warming up again in Australia, we'll be using it more often

I only live a 3 minute walk from our Childcare Centre, so I use her normal stroller and juggle wheeling my bike with the other hand and then ride to work from there. (It's an old heavy POS, so it has been dropped on two occasions). That probably won't suit your needs that much though.

Gambatte

baudman wrote:

Now that the weather is warming up again in Australia, we'll be using it more often

Rub it in whydontcha


My kids are 6 & 4, using their own bikes. 6 year old getting used to not needing stabilisers and the 4 year old with. Because of this I put the trailer on Ebay earlier in the year.

Mini me No3 is now on the way

SlowingDown

Essay time!

I used a Co-Pilot Limo child seat for taking my young chap to nursery (and on leisure rides). He was 10 months old when I first used it but I think the Limo is fine from 6 or 7 months as long as your baby is ok supporting its head (which they generally are at that point).

I picked up the smallest possible toddlers cycle helmet available and it fitted my lad fine (but he is a bit of a mekon!). The good thing with the Limo seat is that it is high-backed and wraps around the sides meaning that your baby has extra protection from that too.

The seat attaches to a blackburn rack (included in the package) and you can take the seat off quickly if you want to leave it at nursery or wherever.

It also has good gel padding for your child to sit on and the seat can be reclined to a number of positions. It has the usual harnesses to secure your child and a solid bar that flips over to further secure them in. Co-Pilot also claim the seat can be used as a chair when off the bike (by flipping said bar back over, creating 'feet) but it always felt a bit wobbly to be of much use like that.

The only negative thing I can say about it is that, other than the gel padding, there isn't much protection from bumpy roads - then again, my lad seems to enjoy the bumpy bits best anyway!

BentMikey

At six months I would say your only option is to put baby in a car seat in a bike trailer. I think trailers will be considerably safer than having a child in a child seat at any age for which they're designed.

Here's a safety article about trailers:
http://www.londonskaters.com/cycling/ar ... safety.htm

mazcp

I still can't bring myself to put a child-seat on the bike for my youngest...I'd never forgive myself if I ever fell off the bike (not that I fall off that often). A trailer sounds like a much better option, and (I imagine) commands a bit of extra room from other road users...even if all it contains is the week's groceries from Asda!

@Gambatte...congratulations!!

mailmannz

Yeah, sorry I meant to say that bubba wont be going on a bike seat but in a trailor thingy

DDraver, bubba likes shrimp breastmilk, shrimp toast, shrimp baby rice, shrimp water, shrimp fruit and shirmp rusks

Regards

Mailman

Gambatte

I found with a 'male' bike kiddie seat awkward to load/unload.

It was much easier to fit it to our lasses dropped bar bike. I'm not too macho to use that occasionally.

Trailers allow you to lay your bike on the ground whilst sorting junior out.

SlowingDown

Yeah, I'd have to confess that unloading needs some care if you're using a child seat but I've not had any mishaps (yet!).

I tried out a friends trailer before I bought the seat and I just didn't get on with it. I know there probably isn't really anything in it but I didn't feel comfortable with my son being down at that level. I know any contact from a vehicle would be just as bad if they're in the child seat or a trailer so I dunno what my problem was. Possibly I just felt that the trailer made the bike a bigger 'target'?

Anyway, the other consideration for me was storage - both at home and at nursery. I know my lad's nursery wouldn't have been happy for me to leave a trailer there all day.

BentMikey

Slowing down, you need to read that safety report translation above!!

Gambatte

If anyones considering a trailer, be aware of one point. I had a Koolstop Papoose Caboose. Thanks to a not very savvy ebay seller I managed to get a second hand £230 trailer for £36 and local enough for a pickup. This and many other trailers has a mechanism that clamps onto the left hand chainstay. Fine with ‘V’s. Potential clash with the rotor if you’ve got discs.

Best to check it out.

baudman

I got my Croozer cheap on eBay too - I don't think it'd ever seen any terrain apart from carpet.

The article that Mikey posted is great. As it suggests, and I really did notice today, a trailer does mean drivers give you a LOT of room. Google will provide many more articles BTW.

As luck would have it, it became convenient today for me to use the bike trailer today. If you are going to go for a trailer, take a good look at how it attaches to the bike. I really liked the way the Croozer had a coupling that bolted onto the bike (using the Quick Release or, on my old heap, the nut that attaches to the axle bolt). Then, as a safeguard, it has an extra strap. Take a look at the link. I've also used it on my dually (Norco Fluid 3) and it didn't get close to the disc.

Whatever you do choose, I can also heartily advocate a rear-view mirror. I bought a couple of Zefal Spy mirrors while they were on special once. I used to have one positioned on my frame (down tube) but once when I was towing the trailer I realised this was a pretty useless position to check my passenger, so I moved it to my bar-end. It's stayed there ever since.

SlowingDown

BentMikey - it does make for interesting reading but (unfortunately) safety isn't the only consideration. I just couldn't accommodate a trailer at home or at the nursery so my choice was either to radically reduce my time on a bike after our son was born or use a child seat.

Personally I didn't (and still dont) feel that using a child seat was significantly more dangerous than a trailer. I've altered how and where I ride when I'm carrying the lad to help mitigate as much risk as possible. He's wrapped in too much cotton wool by sacredy-cat parents as it is!

mailmannz

Well I think Ill just push baby to pre-school in her pram and leave it there (as it can be folded up and put out of the way) and then carry on to work on the bike.

I think though that when summer comes around next year that we will get a trailor as we are keen to get out and about on bikes as a family. Might even look in to whats possible for the summer holidays for a bike holiday (maybe something along the lines of a couple hours cycling between bed and breakfasts etc...but thats another thread altogether ).

Mailman

mailmannz

BTW thanks everyone for your advice.

Mailman

baudman

BentMikey wrote:

At six months I would say your only option is to put baby in a car seat in a bike trailer. I think trailers will be considerably safer than having a child in a child seat at any age for which they're designed.

"For which they're designed" is a key point here. This article mentions a few things about safety, but the key one that concerned me was about the possible 'shaken baby syndrome' aspect.
http://www.helmets.org/little1s.htm

mailmanzz wrote:

Well I think Ill just push baby to pre-school in her pram and leave it there (as it can be folded up and put out of the way) and then carry on to work on the bike.

I didn't want to get preachy - so let's just say I'm glad you've made that decision for the meantime.

Mister Paul

The "shaken baby" comment was one of the points on the linked page which offered no backing. The comment in itself was a question.