[Helmets] Thudguard

Bertie Wiggins said:

At last, the protection every child deserves!

http://www.thudguard.com/

Oh ffs, it really IS a walking helmet!

Bertie Wiggins <cycling_remove_bertie@yahoo_dot_co_dot_uk>typed

Quoted message said:

At last, the protection every child deserves!

Quoted message said:

http://www.thudguard.com/

How horrible!

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

Bertie Wiggins said:

At last, the protection every child deserves!

http://www.thudguard.com/

I see they've revamped the site since the url first surfaced. They seem
to have downgraded the target age range as well.

Interesting (to urc) quote found on their "expert" opinion page:

""... should make a valuable contribution to risk reduction in a similar
way to cycle helmets..."

David W. Jenkins
BA MPhil(Eng) PhD DCA FTSI
Product Safety Adviser to RoSPA"

Sounds like it may do more harm than good...

'Thudguard has strategically placed ventilation holes to allow heat out
but REMEMBER, wearing any headgear can become hot and uncomfortable
after too long.

It is the parent's responsibility to monitor for overheating -
especially in very hot weather. NEVER allow a child to sleep with the
hat on. Make sure children get plenty of fluids. Water is best before,
during and after prolonged activity. Encourage a "cooling-off" time in
the shade if possible. '

CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE LEFT ALONE. CLIMBING CAN CAUSE CHIN STRAP
SNAGGING.'

Perhaps they should have said 'This foam hat may reduce the impact of
the small falls which are a part of every child's learning experience.
However it may also cook their developing brains or strangle them.

I certainly won't be getting one for my little girl!

Zog The Undeniable <[email hidden]> sd / msg
<43568b30.0@entanet> dtd Wed, 19 Oct 2005 18:56:56 +0100:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

http://www.thudguard.com/

Oh ffs, it really IS a walking helmet!

Indeed. I think I first saw it circulated by Bob Davis last year - I
have not the words.

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

Helen Deborah Vecht said:

Bertie Wiggins <cycling_remove_bertie@yahoo_dot_co_dot_uk>typed

Quoted message said:

At last, the protection every child deserves!

Quoted message said:

http://www.thudguard.com/

How horrible!

My son has proprioception problems which means he falls over a fair bit
more than most other kids. I wouldn't dream of sticking one of these
monstrosities on his head! He runs/walks along, falls flat on his face,
gets a bump on his head, he gets up again. Without a "thudguard" (or
similar) he's now got to the stage where if he falls (which is getting less
common), he almost always protects himself so that his head doesn't contact
the ground. I'm pretty certain that with one of these lumps of foam he
wouldn't have developed to that stage anywhere near as quickly, if at all.

Graeme

Graeme Dods said:

My son has proprioception problems which means he falls over a fair bit
more than most other kids. I wouldn't dream of sticking one of these
monstrosities on his head! He runs/walks along, falls flat on his face,
gets a bump on his head, he gets up again. Without a "thudguard" (or
similar) he's now got to the stage where if he falls (which is getting less
common), he almost always protects himself so that his head doesn't contact
the ground. I'm pretty certain that with one of these lumps of foam he
wouldn't have developed to that stage anywhere near as quickly, if at all.

I think the learning aspect is a good point.
There recently was a tv series on children with various handicaps, and one
boy was wearing a helmet, because he had very frequent epileptic fits
which could make him fall over at any time without the option to break his
fall, and without any possible learning. I didn't see all of it, but I got
the impression that he didn't wear the helmet when he was small, and only
started using it when he was taller, with further to fall, and in more
serious situations, not just a toddler walking about.

Roos

Graeme Dods said:

On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 19:09:07 +0100, Helen Deborah Vecht wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Bertie Wiggins <cycling_remove_bertie@yahoo_dot_co_dot_uk>typed

Quoted message said:

At last, the protection every child deserves!

Quoted message said:

http://www.thudguard.com/

How horrible!

Quoted message said:

My son has proprioception problems which means he falls over a fair bit
more than most other kids. I wouldn't dream of sticking one of these
monstrosities on his head! He runs/walks along, falls flat on his face,
gets a bump on his head, he gets up again. Without a "thudguard" (or
similar) he's now got to the stage where if he falls (which is getting less
common), he almost always protects himself so that his head doesn't contact
the ground. I'm pretty certain that with one of these lumps of foam he
wouldn't have developed to that stage anywhere near as quickly, if at all.

I remember talking a stroll with a young girl friend of about 4 years
old. After falling over, which she did quite frequently, she asked me
how often I fell over. I thought about it, and simply couldn't
remember when I'd last fallen over while walking or running. Quite
possibly it was more than ten years ago.

She was immensely impressed by how good I was at not falling over. I
assured her that after ten more years of everyday practice she'd be
pretty good at it too.

I do think the everyday practice is important. It's not an easy skill
to master despite being something that almost everyone can do well
enough to get by. In the summer when the city is full of perambulating
tourists it's easy to spot those who don't usually do much walking,
simply because they're not very good at it. They walk in a slightly
lumpy, awkward, and inefficient way and are easily thrwon off balance
by unexpected obstacles. As pedestrians they're clearly still in the
learner category. OTOH you sometimes see someone walking along with
such fluid grace that they obviously do a lot more walking than the
average, possibly being a hill walker or something.

It occurred to me that the same thing ought to be true of bikes and
accidents, especially since the accident statistics show that one of
the most common cycling accidents is crashing all by yourself without
any assistance from other people. That suggests that the cycling
population includes a lot of people who haven't quite got the hang of
it yet.

--
Chris Malcolm [email hidden] +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

Quoted message said:

Sounds like it may do more harm than good...

Quoted message said:

'Thudguard has strategically placed ventilation holes to allow heat out
but REMEMBER, wearing any headgear can become hot and uncomfortable
after too long.

Quoted message said:

It is the parent's responsibility to monitor for overheating -
especially in very hot weather. NEVER allow a child to sleep with the
hat on. Make sure children get plenty of fluids. Water is best before,
during and after prolonged activity. Encourage a "cooling-off" time in
the shade if possible. '

Quoted message said:

CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE LEFT ALONE. CLIMBING CAN CAUSE CHIN STRAP
SNAGGING.'

Quoted message said:

Perhaps they should have said 'This foam hat may reduce the impact of
the small falls which are a part of every child's learning experience.
However it may also cook their developing brains or strangle them.

I've wondered about this overheating business. The range of
temperature at which the brain works properly is very narrow. We do
lose a lot of heat in cold conditions from our heads, because the body
refuses to shut down the peripheral circulation in the head in the way
it does for feet and hands, because it's important to keep the brain
warm enough. Baldness is common enough in men, despite being
unattractive to young women and thus reducing one's chances of
spreading one's oats around, which suggests to me that it might be
conferring some compensating evolutionary advantage. Perhaps it helps
to stop the brain overheating?

We have the common phrases "feverish thinking" and "feverish activity"
which describe what happens when the brain is slightly overheated.

I wonder, could slight brain overheating be not only uncomfortable,
but derange one's thinking slightly? Could it possibly make one
slightly more likely to have an accident?

--
Chris Malcolm [email hidden] +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

Chris Malcolm said:

I wonder, could slight brain overheating be not only uncomfortable,
but derange one's thinking slightly? Could it possibly make one
slightly more likely to have an accident?

According to studies on reaction times and similar measurements, yes.

A number of top F1 drivers undergo heat acclimatisation training. ISTR
a prog featuring Mark Webber (Williams driver) doing tests similar to
those used for assessing fighter pilot potential before and after
exercise at extreme heat (running on a treadmill in his fireproof suit
at 40C). His performance in the tests dropped significantly. Obviously
they can't do this kind of test with mere mortals as they cannot cope
with the physical exertion (and many can't cope with the mental
exertion either).

...d

Chris Malcolm said:

Quoted message said:

Sounds like it may do more harm than good...

Quoted message said:

'Thudguard has strategically placed ventilation holes to allow heat out
but REMEMBER, wearing any headgear can become hot and uncomfortable
after too long.

Quoted message said:

It is the parent's responsibility to monitor for overheating -
especially in very hot weather. NEVER allow a child to sleep with the
hat on. Make sure children get plenty of fluids. Water is best before,
during and after prolonged activity. Encourage a "cooling-off" time in
the shade if possible. '

Quoted message said:

CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE LEFT ALONE. CLIMBING CAN CAUSE CHIN STRAP
SNAGGING.'

Quoted message said:

Perhaps they should have said 'This foam hat may reduce the impact of
the small falls which are a part of every child's learning experience.
However it may also cook their developing brains or strangle them.

I've wondered about this overheating business. The range of
temperature at which the brain works properly is very narrow. We do
lose a lot of heat in cold conditions from our heads, because the body
refuses to shut down the peripheral circulation in the head in the way
it does for feet and hands, because it's important to keep the brain
warm enough. Baldness is common enough in men, despite being
unattractive to young women and thus reducing one's chances of
spreading one's oats around, which suggests to me that it might be
conferring some compensating evolutionary advantage. Perhaps it helps
to stop the brain overheating?

We have the common phrases "feverish thinking" and "feverish activity"
which describe what happens when the brain is slightly overheated.

I wonder, could slight brain overheating be not only uncomfortable,
but derange one's thinking slightly? Could it possibly make one
slightly more likely to have an accident?

It's been shown wrt cricket helmets, I think (that was publicised not
long ago). I'm not sure the research was absolutely beyond all doubt as
far as extrapolating to cycle helmets, but it certainly seemed
consistent with the basic principle.

James
--
James Annan
see web pages for email
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/
http://julesandjames.blogspot.com/

Chris Malcolm said:

I remember talking a stroll with a young girl friend of about 4 years
old. After falling over, which she did quite frequently, she asked me
how often I fell over. I thought about it, and simply couldn't
remember when I'd last fallen over while walking or running. Quite
possibly it was more than ten years ago.

Quoted message said:

She was immensely impressed by how good I was at not falling over. I
assured her that after ten more years of everyday practice she'd be
pretty good at it too.

You also get better at falling over in a controlled way (which was part of
judo training back when I was 9 or so).
I fall over occasionally because I have a dodgy ankle. The muscles are
strong (I go orienteering in all sorts of terrain and very rarely have a
problem) but when the foot gets at a certain angle I can't hold it and
will sprain my ankle. To prevent that I have learned to get my weight off
that foot as soon as I feel it in that position. Sometimes that means just
getting it back on the other foot, and sometimes it means a controlled
sideways stumble or fall. (and this is more often when walking on the
uneven flagstones in our garden without paying attention than when out in
the hills)
Or maybe it isn't called falling over if you sort of do it on
purpose 🙂

Roos

James Annan said:

Quoted message said:

I wonder, could slight brain overheating be not only uncomfortable,
but derange one's thinking slightly? Could it possibly make one
slightly more likely to have an accident?

It's been shown wrt cricket helmets, I think (that was publicised not
long ago). I'm not sure the research was absolutely beyond all doubt as
far as extrapolating to cycle helmets, but it certainly seemed
consistent with the basic principle.

IIRC, the cricket helmet study showed that reaction times were slowed,
not that "thinking" was deranged.

BIMNRC.

R.

Richard said:

James Annan said:

Quoted message said:

I wonder, could slight brain overheating be not only uncomfortable,
but derange one's thinking slightly? Could it possibly make one
slightly more likely to have an accident?

It's been shown wrt cricket helmets, I think (that was publicised not
long ago). I'm not sure the research was absolutely beyond all doubt
as far as extrapolating to cycle helmets, but it certainly seemed
consistent with the basic principle.

IIRC, the cricket helmet study showed that reaction times were slowed,
not that "thinking" was deranged.

BIMNRC.

ITYDRC, but within the normal bounds of usenet precision, it's close
enough to what Chris wrote IMO.

James
--
James Annan
see web pages for email
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/
http://julesandjames.blogspot.com/

James Annan said:

It's been shown wrt cricket helmets, I think (that was publicised not
long ago). I'm not sure the research was absolutely beyond all doubt as
far as extrapolating to cycle helmets, but it certainly seemed
consistent with the basic principle.

It's consistant with the behaviour of hat wearing motorists, anyway.

If you're Australian it could also cause you to think the bowler was wiping
sugary spit on the ball!

"James Annan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

snip

Quoted message said:

It's been shown wrt cricket helmets, I think (that was publicised not long
ago). I'm not sure the research was absolutely beyond all doubt as far as
extrapolating to cycle helmets, but it certainly seemed consistent with
the basic principle.

James
--
James Annan
see web pages for email
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/
http://julesandjames.blogspot.com/

Chris Malcolm <[email hidden]> wrote:
| ... Baldness is common enough in men, despite being
| unattractive to young women and thus reducing one's chances of
| spreading one's oats around, which suggests to me that it might be
| conferring some compensating evolutionary advantage. ...

Point of detail, Mr Commissioner: the evolutionist thesis is not
that the baldness confers an advantage per se, but that there is
a correlation with some advantage -- conferred, perhaps, by some
other product of the genetic configuration which leads to it.

Besides which, no young women ever told /me/ it was so unattractive...

Response to James Annan:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I wonder, could slight brain overheating be not only uncomfortable,
but derange one's thinking slightly? Could it possibly make one
slightly more likely to have an accident?

It's been shown wrt cricket helmets, I think (that was publicised not
long ago). I'm not sure the research was absolutely beyond all doubt as
far as extrapolating to cycle helmets, but it certainly seemed
consistent with the basic principle.

I posted this a year and a bit ago:

http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/studien/bericht-28085.html

Excerpt:

=3FHelmet use reduces airflow over the head and this has led to speculation
that individuals who routinely wear safety helmets may be prone to heat-
related stress and tasks requiring a high degree of attention can be more
affected by this.

=3FOur research has revealed that whilst wearing a helmet has no
detrimental physiological affect for the user, it did lead to significant
attentional impairments and slower reaction times in certain test
conditions which could affect those cognitive skills essential for
successful batting performance, just as many cricketers have suspected.

=3FProtective helmets recommended for use in cricket are not required to
have ventilation gaps which would allow for heat to transfer from the
head, although some teams do use them.

=3FCorrect and rapid decision making is essential for a batsman at the
crease and our research could have significance not just for cricket but
for other mentally demanding sports and professions where people have to
wear head protection.

=3FWe do however stress that improved safety when wearing a helmet far
outweighs the small negative effects of wearing one.=3F

Whether the last para is true of cycle helmets, I don't know.

--
Mark, UK

"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."

I propose we design a cotton-wool all-in-one suit (like a Babygro) for
the first morning of the second quarter of 2006. (Maybe Sheldon Brown
would be interested?)

This suit would only have small apertures for the eyes, ears and mouth.

It would be constructed of finest flame-resistant materials (cotton wool
might need much flame-proofing) and have poppers to facilitate
nappy-changing. Available in blue or pink, this would, no doubt, satisfy
many anxious grandparents and first-time parents.

After all, one injury to a baby is one too many.

THINK OF THE CHILDRUN!

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.