You need to make sure that their bicycle helmets fit properly. A survey found that when crashes take place, riders whose bicycle helmets don't fit right are at twice the risk for serious head injuries compared to those whose helmets fit properly. The survey was of bike riders brought into seven emergency departments after bike crashes. The report was published in the September issue of the journal Injury Prevention by Rivara and colleagues at Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound and Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center. Among children, much of the problem was with helmets that were significantly wider than the child's head.
Researchers figure that part of the problem is that parents are buying helmets that are too large.
This is the same money-saving strategy that parents employ when they buy pants or jackets in large sizes, expecting the child to grow into them. But using that same strategy with bicycle helmets is a dangerous gamble. Head injuries account for 43 percent of all deaths among children ages 5 to 9. Bicycling is a leading cause of such injuries. Pioneering studies done by the Injury Prevention Center and Group Health have shown that wearing bicycle helmets reduces the risk of serious head injuries by 85 percent, and brain injury by 88 percent.