# Protective Parents or Over Protective Parents?



## Max-the-Dog (Sep 21, 2015)

My wife and I are safety minded and risk adverse in general. When we ride bikes, we always wear helmets. When we are in a car, we always wear seat belts. Etc. 

When our baby started eating solid food, (coupled with putting practically every object he found in his mouth) we realized that our first aid, CPR and infant choking training was either non-existent or insufficient in case the baby choked on an object. I offered to pay for the training, testing and certification by having an American Heart Association trainer come to our home and give the training to family members that wanted it. 

In the state where I live, this training is one of the minimum requirements for any licensed caretaker for children. 

Average EMT response times in the area where I live are greater than 5 minutes. This means, that without immediate CPR, the child will be brain dead without a parent or caretaker being able to administer CPR effectively and immediately if a child is choking on an object or piece of food.

We haven't had to use it yet but it's comforting to know we know how when he's with us and when he's at the daycare and our baby sitter (who also has the training and certification). 

In my opinion, being able to save your child's life seems like a reasonable and responsible thing to do. An obligation when you get down to it. 

What's your opinion ? 

Thanks in advance.


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## blessedwithboys (Dec 8, 2004)

Max-the-Dog said:


> My wife and I are safety minded and risk adverse in general. When we ride bikes, we always wear helmets. When we are in a car, we always wear seat belts. Etc.
> 
> When our baby started eating solid food, (coupled with putting practically every object he found in his mouth) we realized that our first aid, CPR and infant choking training was either non-existent or insufficient in case the baby choked on an object. I offered to pay for the training, testing and certification by having an American Heart Association trainer come to our home and give the training to family members that wanted it.
> 
> ...


I am BLS for healthcare workers certified (chest compressions/CPR, choking, first-aid, AED) but before entering healthcare I only was certified for a year or 2 in junior high as part of my life management course. I didn't retrain/certify when my kids came along.

It's certainly a great idea but I do have to respectfully say that I have read some of your other posts and I think you are way over-concerned with safety topics in general and I do so hope you are able to be relaxed enough with your kid(s) so that they are able to run and play and swing and climb and scrape the skin off their knees and bonk their heads and get filthy dirty, and yes, even ride their bikes without a helmet. Germs and a certain level of danger are necessary for kids to grow up normal and healthy.


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## Max-the-Dog (Sep 21, 2015)

I agree that kids should play in the dirt, run and fall and be free to be kids. However, as a cyclist that has put in many years of 10,000 to 20,000 miles and ridden with groups and friends for the last 40 years, I have seen first hand my share of accidents and head injuries and traumatic brain injuries and disagree strongly with your statement on allowing kids (or anyone) to ride a bike without a helmet.

The problem is that bike accidents occur at greater speeds and g-forces than humans are designed for. They happen so suddenly, unpredictably and with such force that additional protection in the form of a helmet designed to lessen those g-forces to the brain is used to help protect the brain from a TBI.

One of the best bike handlers in the nation and a former world champion in mountain biking recently suffered a TBI and has been documenting his experience here - http://stevetilford.com/2016/10/15/in-hospital/

He's lucky in that he's still able to talk and move about but his injury was very preventable.


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## mumto1 (Feb 17, 2016)

*wearing helmets on a bike*

On this I agree. It really is best to avoid getting multiple concussions period. Also, I can get cavalier when riding a bike (I ride a lot), I fairly recently got flipped off my bike and face planted onto the pavement. If I had been wearing a helmet I might not have ripped my face open quite so badly and would maybe have recovered sooner, well now I've got scars right smack dab in the middle of my face. I also jarred my teeth so badly it felt like I was going to lose some, but thankfully I did not. I think at least one tooth is cracked now. Most of my accidents have been self inflicted, falling asleep on my bike (I kid you not), hitting a deep crack, hitting rail tracks when wet, riding on ice, riding in snow, carrying too much crap, but I was going fairly slowly in most of these scenarios and a helmet would have been good if I wasn't wearing one. In a high speed collision with another vehicle I'm not sure how much it would have helped though.


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