10 Tips to Get Your Child to Wear a Bike Helmet

Read on for 10 tips to get your son or daughter to wear a bicycle helmet. It’s tough to get kids to wear their helmets and tougher still to get them to wear their helmets ALL the time. Here are 10 easy tips to make it happen.

Each year, there are approximately 140 children killed as a result of bicycle accidents and another 275,000 who suffer non-fatal bicycle injuries. Of the deaths, 44% are due to head injuries.

Helmet use can reduce the risk of head injury by 85% and severe brain injury by 88%. Despite the effectiveness of helmets, however, only 15-25% of child bicyclists use helmets.

Universal use of bicycle helmets by children ages 4 to 15 could prevent between 135 and 155 deaths, between 39,000 and 45,000 head injuries, and between 18,000 and 55,000 scalp and face injuries annually.

As parents, it is incumbent upon all of us to make sure that our children wear helmets every time they ride their bikes. Here 10 ten tips you can use to get your child to wear a helmet EVERY TIME they ride their bike:

1. Start them wearing a helmet as soon as possible, even if they’re only on a tricycle.
2. Let them choose their own helmet. All that matters is that it fits properly and is safe.
3. Lead by example. Wear a helmet yourself.
4. Encourage your child’s friends to wear a helmet.
5. Teach your child the importance of the brain, as well as the importance of protecting his or her head.
6. Give your child a short course in bicycle safety to show that wearing a helmet is not a rule you invented.
7. Show your child that professional bicyclists wear helmets.
8. Take your child to bicycle races where all the participants wear helmets.
9. Praise your child openly for wearing a helmet.
10. Be firm and consistent in your demand for helmet use. No exceptions.

By encouraging the use of helmets, you can prevent our children from suffering serious bike accident injuries.

This is a message in bicycle safety from the bicycle accident lawyers of Purchase, George & Murphey, P.C.