How to get 9mth old to year a helmet?

Tinkerbelly

My son has never enjoyed wearing hats and always pulls them off asap - I thought of this as an inconvenience until now when we want to take him out on the bike. Has anyone got any advice on how I can get my son to wear a helmet without a lot of tears?
Many thanks
Simon

juggling mum

Not of any help but maybe some comfort.

My daughter (now 8) used to srceam when we put hers on around I think 12 months - but as far as we were concerned there was no choice - it did become a 2 person job at times! Once it was on she was OK.

We regularly took her many miles on the back of the tandem and she loved it - sadly she has now stolen my seat on the tandem.

I have come across people not prepared to do the battle and to go without - particularly when using a trailer but we felt a helmet was essential.

fnegroni

My view on helmets is that for kids, they do more harm than good.
But I am sure someone will come around with examples of brains splattered on tarmac...

The helmets we tried, at that age, were so ill fitting, I was more concerned about him getting strangled than hitting something.

Honestly, I think helmets for kids are a joke.

A well designed helmet is useful. If you can find one. All the ones I looked at are rubbish.

baudman

If you want your child to wear a helmet (which I do, but principally coz it's law in Australia), do you wear one yourself?

My daughter sees me put mine on each and every morning. I remember, only once or twice, saying, "No helmet, no bike". Beyond that, it was smooth sailing.

redvee

The weight of the helmet is an issue too. Kids that age can just about support their head on their developing neck muscles, I was on the Bristol to Bath cyclepath yesterday and I saw plenty of young kids, 3-4 ry olds, with their heads lolling over to one side as Dad pedalled along.

Underscore

fnegroni wrote:

My view on helmets is that for kids, they do more harm than good.

Interesting. My understanding is that the only age group in which they have been shown to prevent serious head injuries is in children.

Both my sons have MET helmets, which have sufficient adjustment, IME, to enable a good fit to be achieved. My elder son has tested his several times on his balance bike and his bonce is still intact (though he now has 2 teeth mssing!); whether he would have been better or worse off without, I don't know but the statistics show that they reduce the chance of a head injury so I encourage (actually require) them to wear a helmet when on a bike - either as rider or passenger.

I had no problem getting the boys to wear their helmets. My wife and I always wear one - leading by example - and they've both been so excited to go for a ride in the bike seat that they could get the helmet on quick enough.

_

Mike Healey

6" nails

redvee

Mike Healey wrote:

6" nails

No nails is less painful

colt

Another vote for MET helmets here. Struggled to find a good fitting helmet for my 2 year old until I decided I might have to pay a little more and then brought a MET which fits perfectly, plenty of adjustment left as well so he shouldn't outgrow it too soon.
Looks forward to putting it on now, as he knows it 's bike time!

fnegroni

baudman wrote:

If you want your child to wear a helmet (which I do, but principally coz it's law in Australia), do you wear one yourself?

My daughter sees me put mine on each and every morning. I remember, only once or twice, saying, "No helmet, no bike". Beyond that, it was smooth sailing.

Indeed. I don't put mine on when I am with my son, while he is on his bike.
Essentially because if I am riding with him, we are going so slow. When he falls, which he has a few times, the head is the least of my concerns: fingers, knees, elbows, and most of all, his ability to lift his head and learn to fall without serious harm, those are my priorities.
I have been a kid too, and cycled all my life.

To those of you who have been shoked by that, let me tell you that this morning as we were cycling to school, my son wanted to use his electric trike, but ran out of battery half way to school, so I just put him on the top tube of my bike and were on our way. Now go and file a complaint... ;-)

If I carry him on the back with a child seat, I do put a helmet on him, and I wear one, just because I am concerned that if the bike falls, and my son with it, there is essentially nothing he can do to prevent his head hitting the ground (or anything else by that matter).

I don't remember hitting my head when I was cycling as a kid, and I cycled a lot as a kid, probably more than most kids these days.

Infact, I will tell you that the most terrible thing I remember happening to a friend back then when I was eight, his handlebar flicked and he fell on the top tube and lacerated his ball sack.

ince

We gave my son a helmet to play with, stuck it in with the toys and made a game out of it. I think that along with him seeing me with mine helps alot.

Its now something he wants to put on to go out on the bikes and can some times be hard to get off when it time too.

Downwardi

We have the hamax siesta.
Our nearly 4 year old has a helmet but the 11 month old doesn't.

Have had one fall and the way the seat is meant that at a slow speed topple the only part that hit the tarmac was the arm rests.
A helmet on her may have caused more harm jarring her neck.

Tinkerbelly

Thanks for all the advice.

Over the last week we have been keeping the helmet with his toys and putting it on him for just a second or so just so that it's not completely alien to him.

Took him out this afternoon, and even though he hated the helmet in the house, when we put it on outside on the bike he was fine. We did keep him occupied with a rusk to start with though. He was fine for over an hour, loving being outside, and on the back of the bike.

We went with a Specialized Small Fry helmet and it seems to fit him perfectly with plenty of adjustment. Would highly recommend it to anyone who believes in helmets.

steveng

My youngest son is 17 months old and just tear's his helmet off :roll: yesterday i took both of them out in the trailer and he kept it on for around an hour but then he got fed up with it and off it came and NOTHING i could do or say would make the little bugger keep it on :roll:

I am now going to try the toy trick and let him play with it for a while before we head out again

cycle monster

not much help for babies but... Bought my eldest his first proper bike when he was three. big strop in the shop about buying a helmet. I told him it would make him go faster and he has worn one ever since, now 7 3/4s.

baudman

cycle monster wrote:

I told him it would make him go faster ...

Which is probably true.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation

fnegroni

steveng wrote:

I am now going to try the toy trick and let him play with it for a while before we head out again

You do know the general advice with children and strings/straps.

Wearing a helmet while playing in the park and then hanging from it when it gets caught is not something I wish to my son.

TheMaster

In my opinion it is not safe for 9 month child to wear helmet. The development of muscles might be stopped or the baby might hurt himself due to the weight of helmet or due to inconvinence of wearing it.

PBo

fnegroni wrote:

Wearing a helmet while playing in the park and then hanging from it when it gets caught is not something I wish to my son.

aaaawwww sorry, got to call you out on this - just absolute sh1te.

You act all "i'm perfectly capable of judging risk, and don't use a helmet, I've cycled all my life and never hit my head etc" one way to justify not using helmets, BUT then you go all patronising and nanny state about this. Tell me how many children have died of hanging by their bike helmet. source please?

And many people don't wish for their sons to become vegetables after a head trauma.....

any way, OP said he would let his kid play with it a bit before heading out again - not climb trees unsupervised with it on....

Tom Butcher

Whatever you do don't make your kids wear helmets if they don't want to when they start cycling alone - the amount of kids you see riding home from school with the helmet mum or dad made them wear dangling from the bars is shocking - and an accident waiting to happen.

netkomm

The simplest way is to "lead by example" starting wearing the helmet yourself.

The kids will see that is a natural thing to do and will want to follow. If they refuse to wear it, simply state that they cannot go for a ride as it is not safe to do so without wearing the helmet.

They might whine a bit but in the end will follow you happily.

realALBERTAN

PBo
The 1999 Death
On February 4, 1999 a Pennsylvania child was asphyxiated while wearing a bicycle helmet and playing on playground equipment. Evidently he was caught between two overlapping horizontal platforms when his helmet would not fit through the gap between them where his body had already gone. Pressure on his chest as his lower body dangled prevented him from breathing. The gap was measured by reporter Mark Scolforo of the York Dispatch at 8.75 inches. That would not be permitted under the ASTM playground equipment standard, which bans all openings from 3.5 to 9 inches.

not the only one...

Background
While there are still details about the helmet and equipment to be investigated, it is now evident that it can happen here. A few earlier incidents in Scandinavia and Canada had been reported, but none had surfaced in the US. We had attributed that to the US playground equipment standard. But we now know that several incidents have been reported where injury did not result.

Unlike the Pennsylvania incident, the Canadian and Scandinavian incidents were "hangings" where the child was strangled by the helmet strap. A strong strap is necessary to keep a helmet on the child's head during a crash, and helmets with strong straps have saved hundreds or thousands of lives, so these incidents must be seen in that perspective.

baudman

I wonder what the stats are for kids being hung on hoodies being caught on something? At a guess, I'd say a lot higher.

Again - lets keep this in perspective.

NFMC

FFS...it's a 9 month old. Just put it on them.

paul-yokaholnes

i remember my friend telling me that she had to go so sunday school with her mum in her mums sidecar and the helmet she was wearing (my friend) would not come off so her mum made her wear it all the way through Sunday school!! ha ha ha

steve77345

make sure you always have your helmet on and he sees you with it on then its normal. Thats how our wee fella feels about his now and he got to pick it when we bought it (thank god he didnt pick the pink one)

Steve