Dad, Stop Worrying So Much about Keeping Your Kids Safe

(Continued)

Another product you see advertised in parenting magazines lately is the "Thudguard" - a helmet to protect your child while engaged in that extreme sport known as toddling.

"It's about time that someone has addressed the diffuse head injuries that are...on the rise for toddlers learning to walk," wrote one doctor in an endorsement of the product.

Oh really? On the rise? Because suddenly evolution made a U-turn and now children are careening into walls and tables like never before?

And even if babies do bump and bumble, are they really in danger of sustaining serious "head trauma," as claims the ad for this $39 helmet?

Let's ask the vice chairman of pediatrics at the St. Louis Children's Hospital, Dr. F. Sessions Cole. His is one of the five largest children's hospitals in the country. "We see 65,000 to 70,000 patients a year," says Dr. Cole. "How many are associated with significant head trauma that resulted from instability as toddlers learned to walk?" he asks.

None.

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