Safer Child Products

This summer, my 8 ½ y/o finally learned to ride a bike without training wheels!  This was a big celebration in our house.  I knew that confidence was half the battle with her. I suppose the other half was just practice.  Around the same time, her 4 ½ year old cousin learned to ride as well.  Sometimes it bothers her that younger kids are able to do more than she can, but it is so individual. 

What’s been nice, is that we live in a fairly quiet subdivision and there are lots of kids, so they always have someone to play or ride with and I am now comfortable letting them go out around the neighborhood alone during the day, as long as I know where they are going and who they are with (never solo).

When they were much younger, I had my kids ride their tricycles back and forth on our back deck!  Whatever the age, be sure your child is wearing a properly fitting helmet (http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/bike/easystepsweb/). Shop around for a helmet that not only fits, but that your child likes.  If they don’t like how it looks, or how it feels, they will not wear it. To check to see whether your state mandates bicyclists to wear helmets, go to http://www.helmets.org/mandator.htm .

Closed shoes are also important; Flip flops can slide off or get caught and even open sandals can allow their feet or toes to get scraped up.

Although more and more bicycle paths are popping up in our area, I would not feel comfortable taking my kids out riding on the main street with so many cars.  We often forget that children cannot do all the things that adults can do, and often do not react as quickly as adults do. One example that NHTSA points out is that children “do not automatically use sound to determine traffic location. Children automatically use their vision to identify traffic and do not typically think to use sounds as a strategy to determine where traffic is coming from.”

Check your child’s bike before they go out riding to be sure the tires are filled up enough and that the brakes and chain are working properly and free of rust.

Let’s get out and get active and still keep our children safe!