# Bicycle Helmet Law cover tricycles?



## Shiloh (Apr 15, 2005)

At ds daycare today they have scooters and tricycles.
No hemets.
We have a helmet bylaw for all "cyclists"....
I make my kids wear them when they were on tricycles to get used to it...
but? WWYD?


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## LynnS6 (Mar 30, 2005)

My kids' daycare has trikes and no helmets, and Oregon has very strict helmet laws. The 'industrial' kinds of trikes they have are really, really hard to tip. At our church preschool, they make kids bring in their own helmets if they want to ride the trikes. It's kind of a pain.

I made my kids wear bike helmets with trikes at home too. They were fine with the difference. Both are riding bikes now and always wear their helmets without complaint.

Unless they get going really fast or have a huge area to ride trikes in, I wouldn't worry about it.


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## Evergreen (Nov 6, 2002)

I have my kids wear helmets on trikes and big-wheels too but mainly to get them in the habit for when they transition to bikes. They don't wear them at daycare, but then again the ground where they ride trikes there is dirt and grass not pavement.


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## Honey693 (May 5, 2008)

I worked at a daycare a few summers ago and we got a grant to buy helmets for the kids when they used tricycles. It was a huge pain to put helmets on 10 kids, but after seeing how fast they can zoom around the gym I'm glad we had them. I'd see if you could leave an extra helmet at daycare for your ds and ask them to put it on her when she rides.


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## MomInCalifornia (Jul 17, 2003)

We don't do any sort of shared hats/helmets at our school due to lice. The trikes & scooters are pretty hard to tip and there are no cars to worry about. We focus on following the arrows so everyone goes the same direction and going a safe speed.


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## Momily (Feb 15, 2007)

If your goal is for the kids to "get used to them" or build a habit while they're young enough to not power struggle, I wouldn't worry about it. That's not to say those aren't great reasons for having those goals at home, but kids do an amazing job of segmenting off home rules from school rules. They expect short order cooking at home and whine when you feed them something they don't like, and then eat the school lunch without blinking. They know they need to hold your hand when they cross the street, and yet they hold a buddy and stay in line on a field trip.

So, getting used to the habit of wearing helmets at home, which is all they need. After preschool there's usually a big break before there's any bike riding at school or camp for a long time, and when it resumes, if it does (e.g. an afterschool mountain biking club) the kids won't really see those situations as the same (riding around the track in preschool, mountain biking club in middle school) and will not generalize the "no bikes rule".

As far as why not just do it -- 1) I think the safety concerns are pretty minimal on a track with rounded corners, with no cars anywhere around, everyone's going the same way, sturdy trikes low to the ground. 2) Lice, as someone mentioned. 3) As a preschool administrator I want my teachers interacting and TEACHING on the playground, I want them in the dirt digging for worms, and helping the kids use the big blocks to make a castle, and teaching kids problem solving skills as they negotiate the shovels -- having someone negotiate the helmets, put them on and take them off, etc . . . would tie up a teacher who could otherwise be doing something productive 4) There are real safety concerns re: kids wearing helmets on playground equipment -- kids can catch a strap on the top of the slide and strangle, for example, it would be really easy for a teacher to have her attention turned to one student (perhaps one who is crying because they want a red helmet and blue is all that's available) and another child slips over to the equipment.

So, I vote no helmets in preschool.


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