The joy of watching your kids riding a scooter is without limit. My wife and I are always excited whenever we watch our son ride a scooter.
Scooters (also known as kick scooters) remain one of the favorite gifts for kids because they are easy to step in and ride.
It has an effective brake and with low speed that’s always under the control of the kids.
Scooters help toddlers to develop their motor skill.
However, how safe it is for a toddler to ride is something many parents are not too sure about.
Because toddler motor skill is still in the developing stage and the willpower to exercise full control is not strong.
Are scooters safe for toddler? Scooters are safe for Toddlers because they have an effective brake system, controllable speed, and low to the ground — which makes them easy to get on. However, toddlers have to be properly trained to safely use scooters.
If you’re concerned about the safety of your kids when riding a scooter, we’ll discuss a complete scooter safety guide that makes it safe for toddlers.
Scooter Protective Gear For Toddlers
Safety is number one thought when you want to introduce your kids into scooter sport. Preventing them from fall is under probability but ensuring they are safe when they fall is important.
That’s why protective gear is important for kids who want to ride a scooter. This gear offers a certain amount of protection to a toddler when riding a scooter. Especially those who are not skilled at it yet.
Riding without protective gear exposes your kids to numerous and dangerous injuries. According to the Consumer Protection Safety Commission, an average of 50,000 kids went to the emergency room because of scooter related accidents.
Most of the injuries occurred on manual scooters. Putting on protective gear will help to stop or reduce these injuries. Scooter gear is essential and vital just as the scooter it is to the kids.
One of the sure ways to guarantee your kid safety when riding a scooter is by putting on protective gear. Kick scooters are safe means to get a toddler build up confidence in life activities.
The major part a toddler needs to protect when riding a scooter are: head, wrist, elbows and knees.
Part of the safety measure is to get your kid with a scooter that has a brake, bell or horn, and for night uses, a functionable lighting system, white light for front view, red light at the back, and red reflector light also at the back.
Scooter protective gear makes riding a scooter safer for kids to have fun and enjoy the outer breeze while exercising their muscular joints.
Let’s dive into the scooter protective gear:
Helmet
Safety measures are very important because they help to make your mind calm while watching your kids riding a scooter.
Wearing protective scooter gear will not take away the incident but it will protect your kid from sustaining either major or minor injuries.
You can provide all the guidance to your child but you may not be able to stop them from taking risks especially when riding a scooter.
Head is one of the most important parts of our body that needs to protect against any incident.
Because slight damage can trigger some serious problems. Although our skull is strong, one can’t take chances not to protect the brain all alone.
Helmet is one of the protective gear that you can get for your kid who wants to ride a scooter. Helmet does an excellent job by protecting the head from getting banged.
Helmet coats the head and makes any occurrence of incidents less vulnerable. A child should wear a recommended helmet while scooting around because collision to an object can take place anywhere and anytime.
Helmet saves the main body part from many incidents. It serves as an indemnity to the head. Putting On helmet is not a choice but it is compulsory if you want to protect your child from any head injury.
Shin Guards
The force to push some type of scooter forward lies on the foot and kneel. Mainly, the leg is what is used to control the scooter.
Most times, when an incident occurs it usually affects the in between the kneel and foot. These parts of the body need to be protected against injury.
Protective gear like shin guards offer maximum protection to this part of the body. Shine guard covers from the kneel to the foot.
The bone from the kneel to the foot is highly sensitive that a little blow can cause some severe injury. Getting shin guards for your kid to wear when riding a scooter is one of the safety measures.
Shin guards are designed to be easy on kids legs and make them flexible to move about. The inner material is soft and it is light in weight.
It has a thick padded layer covering the shin and instep. The padded layer of the counterpart protects the kids from sustaining injury when they fall.
Providing a shin guard for your child is a way to make scooter more safer to ride. This protective measure gear is safe for kids.
Knee Caps
Knee caps are a special protection gear for the knee. It protects the knee from injury when there are any clashes.
Knee caps are designed with adjustable features that allow the kids to move their leg backward and forward without experiencing any form of pain.
The kneecaps are very important for kids that are setting out to ride a scooter. It doesn’t affect a kid’s movement nor riding a scooter. It protects the knee from slight clash and displacements.
Knee caps are essential scooter gear you can get for your child especially when learning how to ride.
Gloves
Gloves are vital scooter gear protective tools that help children to maintain grip while riding a scooter. It covers the child’s hands and protects it from scratch when they fall during riding.
Gloves help to boost up the grip between the hands and the handle bar. It reduces the amount of friction between hands and handlebar.
It makes the hand safe and free from sweat that could lead to slipping off the hand from the handle bars.
The kids are able to hold the handlebar firmly as a result of the gloves. It makes riding scooters become enjoyable for kids as their hands are free from friction.
These are safety protective scooter gear that you can use to maximise the safety of your kids. These safety gear are designed to protect the kids from any occurrence of incidents.
Your kids are safe to ride a scooter even with under less supervision. For those who are still learning how to ride need to be under supervision even with the protective scooter gear.
Scooter protective gear doesn’t eliminate or remove the supervision of your kids when starting out to drive scooters. The supervision becomes less when the child has mastered how to ride with knowledge of how to use the road.
Which Type Of Scooter Is Safe For Toddler?
Basically, there are two types of scooters. The number of wheels a scooter has is what differentiate it from each other.
Safety among these two types scooter is dependent on the amount of balancing they have to offer.
Toddler needs a scooter with high balancing features to be able to ride safely. Balancing features is one of the factors that determines a scooter that is safe for kids.
However, the two scooters have similar functions and are built to handle different rider’s weights — It has similar features as well. These features are the major determinant when buying a scooter for your kid.
Let’s take a brief study on the two types of scooter before you can be able to tell which one is safe for a toddler. Invariably the two types of scooter are safe for a toddler.
The one that is more safe for your child depends on how the child is able to balance themselves when riding a scooter.
Also, the body structure of the child and their motor skill will determine the ability for them to handle the scooter feature that’ll offer them maximum satisfaction.
Here are the two types of scooter:
- Two front wheels, one rear wheel scooter
- One front wheel, two rear wheel scooter
Two Front Wheels, One Rear Wheel Scooter
Two front wheels, one rear wheel scooter has maximum balancing feature compared to one front wheel.
The weight of the scooter’s rider is at the front. Therefore, the front needs to have more balance than any other part of the scooter.
Most of the two front wheels scooters have an adjustable handlebar that you can adjust to suit your child. Two front wheels have the capacity to support 100 pounds of weight.
Two front wheel scooters offer a more natural way to ride. It makes turning easy and simple for kids because of the excellent turning system built into it. Since they don’t have to steer on the scooter.
It has a high balancing mechanism, wide, and with a grip deck that’s low to the ground floor. The 7-inch front PU wheels help the brake to increase the functionality of the brake.
One Front Wheel, Two Rear Wheel Scooter
One front wheel, two rear back wheels scooter is designed to protect kids who want to speed not to tip over when on top of speed.
It has maximum balance at the back than the front. Hence it’s not designed to help toddlers develop high motor skills in time.
The scooter has an adjustable bar, which you can use to adjust the height to suit your kids. It has an excellent brake system to control the speed and bring it to stop.
One front wheel, two rear back wheels scooter is mainly for kids who are already skilled in scooter sport riding.
You can get this scooter for your child who is already expert in riding a scooter. The turning system of one front wheel, two rear wheels scooter is quite not easy compared to two front wheel, one rear wheel.
Conclusion
Scooters are safe for toddler especially with the use of protective gear. The protective gear is to protect your child from sustaining an injury when they are still in the learning process.
Get two front wheels, one rear back wheel for your child who is getting started with a scooter. Scooters are highly safe for children when you teach them how to ride.
