Starting a child with proper safety habits when using a scooter may save their life. Information on important points.
Safety habits started early in life can literally be a lifesaver throughout. The best age to implement good habits is as soon as your child understands your verbal or visual commands. For some children that is as early as nine months.
As parents or guardians it is important to realize that in order to create a good habit the key is repetition and consistency. You instinctively show your toddler the dangers of a fireplace, hot stove or a flight of stairs. But as children grow and their desires for independence emerge it is just as important to introduce new safety habits along the way, and to be firm, not negotiable.
Today's emergency rooms are reporting staggering numbers of injuries that could easily have been prevented with good safety habits. The right gear is essential! Enforce wearing a helmet for bikes, roller blades and skates, and even the new scooters. Consumer Product Safety Commission says that from January through August of this year there have been over ninety-five hundred injuries reported that have been related to scooters. Of that number nine out of ten of the injured were children. The Commission also states that two-thirds or more of those injuries could have been avoided or lessened if the proper protective gear had been used.
Buy the works with the first bike, starting with a proper fitting helmet. Even the small beginner bikes, the ones with training wheels, can be dangerous to growing bones, teeth and the developing head of a youngster. Head injuries are among the most serious of childhood traumas and a helmet the single most important piece preventative gear. A neighbor friend has a five year old who has never used a helmet, while another has been wearing a helmet sense around age two. Granted and luckily neither has been involved in a serious accident, but should one occur the protected child has a "none to minimal" chance of injury, where the unprotected child's chances for injury are extremely high. As parents try to teach our children all the correct skills for life. We teach good manners, we discipline them and we love them, and above all we try to protect them, but that must include teaching them to protect themselves.
As you coach your child on the dangers of a busy road, be sure to include reflective lights on their bikes, or clothing. Buy a helmet and necessary padding with your first purchase of a new bike, skates or scooter. Do not wait till a later time, or after you think your child has mastered the skills. To get a child off to a good start, simply start them off good, with good safety habits for life.
