Helmets for Young Bike Riders Urged

BALTIMORE — Overzealous bicyclists can strain their muscles or grow saddle sore, but the injuries that most need to be prevented are head injuries, those “that doctors can’t fix,” says a local pediatrician.

“The serious injuries and the ones from which children do not recover are the head injuries,” says Dr. Modena Wilson, a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

The best way to prevent these injuries--skull fractures and often resulting brain damage--is to wear a helmet “from the first bicycle on,” Wilson says.

Should a child hit his head, the helmet protects the skull and the brain by cushioning the impact and spreading the shock around so that it is not all in one spot.

Parents should buy only helmets that have been approved by the Snell Foundation or the American National Standards Institute, Wilson says. If children are reluctant to wear helmets, she suggests that “parents sort of gang up on their kids” by making their area a “helmet neighborhood,” where wearing the protective gear is not only accepted but also required.

“Another high priority is keeping kids off roads . . . until they are old enough to handle that,” says Wilson, adding that children also need to be instructed to follow the same rules of the road that motorists do.

“And children should not ride at night,” she insists.