A Good Fit For Bike Helmets

As the school year quickly approaches and kids are getting ready to start riding their bikes back to school, it's important to be sure that they and parents are wearing bicycle helmets properly.

A recent study appearing in the August issue of Pediatrics showed 96 percent of participants do not know how to fit a bike helmet, despite thinking it's very easy to do.

To help alleviate the confusion, The Early Show Medical Correspondent Emily Senay and her son Harry give a demonstration Friday to show how to fit helmets on children.

Senay says more children are wearing helmets when cycling, but most wear them improperly. She says children had difficulty wearing helmets because they rested too high on their forehead, the strap did not fit around their ears in a "V" shape and the helmets can slide too easily forward or backward. All of these factors expose the frontal region, the most common site of impact in bicycle head injuries, according to the Pediatric study.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, CPSC, says 900 people -- including more than 200 children -- are killed every year in bicycle related accidents. Around 60 percent of these deaths involve head injuries. The CPSC says that wearing a helmet can reduce the risk of head injury from bicycle-related accidents by 85 percent -- but only if you are wearing it properly.

Senay suggests the following to fit helmets properly on children:

Wear the Helmet Flat Atop Your Head

1. Find the smallest helmet shell size that fits over your head.
   
2. Move it down the forehead - less than two fingers' width above the brow.
   
3. To be effective the helmets have to cover the skull as completely as possible.
   
4. The wrong way to wear the helmet is tilted back at an angle.

   Note: An infant's or child's helmet should fit for several years. Most models have removable fitting pads that can be replaced with thinner ones as the child's head grows.

1. Make sure the helmet fits snugly, making a "V" around the ear and it does not obstruct the child's field of vision.
   
2. The straps should be joined just under each ear at the jawbone.
   
3. A common problem is the straps are not adjusted correctly.

1. When you think the straps are adjusted properly, shake the head to see if it is too loose.
2. Put your palm under the front edge and push up and back. Then reach back and grab the back edge while pulling up. The straps need to be tightened if you can move the straps more than one inch.
   
3. The chin strap should be snug against the chin so that when you open your mouth very wide you feel the helmet pull down a little bit.
   
4. The straps are too tight if it cuts into the chin and is not comfortable.