Should You Take Your Baby Along?

Summary: Babies must be at least one year old before you try them in a bike trailer or seat. After reading this page you might think twice about waiting at least another year.
We get many inquires from parents with babies aged about 6 weeks to 14 months about when it is safe to put a helmet on the child and take them for a bike ride. The question often reaches us as an inquiry on where to find an extremely small helmet.

Nobody we have met in the injury prevention field recommends taking an infant of less than 12 months in a bicycle child seat, trailer, sidecar or any other carrier. Nobody. And we do not either.New York state law prohibits it.

That statement explains why you will not find a child helmet on the market sized for a tiny tot. You certainly do not want to ride with a bare-headed child, and in some places it is illegal. In fact, several states have laws against taking children under one year of age on a bicycle, even with a helmet.

Parents love their babies and love their bicycles, so it is natural to want to put the two together. That thought occurs to every bicycling parent, generally before the child is born. We see messages on the Internet indicating that some parents do put their children in baby seats of one design or another and take them along on trailers starting as young as five weeks. Others use a baby backpack. At slightly older ages, people use front or rear-mounted child seats. A few (mostly in the UK) use sidecars. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. A disclaimer: our purpose here is to cover the risks, so you know what you are getting into. We are hearing more these days about undiagnosed brain injuries, with symptoms too subtle for doctors to detect, but very real to families. And that comes to mind whenever someone asks us about babies and biking. We worry about your six-week-old entering the first grade six years from now with a small but detectable mental handicap.

That is alarmist; this is an alarmist page.
For an official US Government view, we have excerpts from the Consumer Product Safety Commission's age-related guidelines for ride-on toys.

Bike Trailers are perhaps the safest way to take a very young child along. They are lower to the ground, so when you crash the baby will fall a shorter distance, even when you turn the trailer over. One study reported in a medical journal article indicated after examining data based on very small numbers of crashes that trailers were safer. (You can purchase the article for $9 using the link above if your browser accepts cookies.)
But an alert reader of this page notes:
As a trained researcher, I found your conclusion that the AMA article "Tykes and Bikes" found that trailers are safer than carriers somewhat misleading. Carriers are indeed involved in substantially more accidents, but there was no weight given to the relative popularity of trailers and carriers, hence no conclusion can be made about relative safety (i.e. carriers may be far more popular). Safety also is a matter of severity of injury, and the article found that trailers have a much higher incidence (33% vs. 5%) of severe injuries (i.e. those requiring hospitalization). This is probably because trailer accidents are more likely to involve cars (33% vs. 9%), although it may also be because children in trailers are less likely to be wearing helmets. In any case, the article concluded that the same number of hospitalizations were required regardless of method of transportation. If carriers are used much more than trailers, then one could conclude that carriers actually are safer in terms of major injuries. Of course, as you say the sample size is too small (and biased) to draw any firm conclusions.
We would recommend that you do two things before using a trailer: if you can find one that accommodates your weight and size, ride in a trailer yourself for at least 10 miles. Then ask your pediatrician if the child is ready.

Most parents have no idea how rough a ride it can be in a trailer. How hard can you jiggle your baby's brain without provoking "shaken baby syndrome?" Trailer owners report good experience, but how will you know if your child is suffering harm back there? You expect them to cry, but can a baby whose brain is being bruised or neck is being overstressed communicate that quickly enough? While asleep? We often pass trailers whose occupants are crying. Wet diaper, or shaken brain?

Another reader points out that lowering trailer tire pressure can reduce the small vibrations to the infant. Check the manufacturer's instructions for the lower end of the recommended tire pressure range. You could of course fit lower pressure tires if necessary as long as they are recommended for the trailer's rims and don't affect stability.

Trailer arrangements can be better if you wedge the child's head in on both sides with padding so it cannot bobble around. But seated upright or reclining in a trailer the baby also needs a pillow behind them to provide clearance for their helmet in the back. Without the pillow their chin is forced down toward the chest by the back of the helmet. Even if you use a child carrier that keeps the baby perfectly stable, the child will be subjected to a rougher ride than you probably realize.

Trailers with low-mounted hitches are generally more stable, but unless they are shielded the wheels can snag on obstacles as you pass, and some trailers can turn over with surprising ease if one wheel rides up on something like a curb, or if you just have to take a turn too sharply too fast. We have seen that, and it's really ugly. Any trailer can be turned over by hitting a bump too fast with one wheel--ask the manufacturer--the better ones test that on new designs to make sure they meet the requirements of the ASTM standard described below. You might also want to ask if the trailer is constructed to protect the child in a rollover, which some users report is a common occurrence. Does the trailer have protection for the child's bottom when a rock or obstacle passes between the two wheels? Will you always remember to avoid that and never be distracted enough by traffic or fail to see the obstacle in twilight? Steve Grant asked six trailer users with three different brands how often they had tipped their trailer over. Half had tipped--one with cargo, not kids--half had not.

An interview with one mom revealed that her Chariot Cheetah had tipped over three times. Two were due to turning too sharp, to the right, at very low speed. The rear tire caught the tow bar with sufficient force to tip the trailer. The third tip was due to going over a large rock with one of the trailer wheels. No harm done in any of the events. It is interesting that none of the turnovers was due to cornering too fast.

ASTM has published a trailer standard that will cover some of those points. If you buy a new trailer, be sure it meets the ASTM F-1975-99 bicycle trailer standard and is labeled that way. The standard addresses rollover tendancies with a static test and a dynamic one where one wheel of the trailer is towed over an obstacle. A well-designed trailer and hitch will at least minimize the tendancy to crash from those causes. It may not keep your rear wheel from rubbing on the boom on a tight turn and taking the bicycle down, but at least the trailer will be ok!

A reader who has a stable trailer and strongly disagrees with the above cautions on tipping and rough ride contributed this: "Unknown to riders sitting high above the ground, bike wheels throw up a surprising amount of dirt and grit, even on apparently dry pavement. On gravel, this becomes a veritable shower. Adding moisture makes it even worse. We've been amazed at the amount of crud plastered on the front and even the top of our trailer, despite having full fenders on the towing bicycle. All this debris will fly into the face of an infant in a [forward facing] trailer unless the front covers are in place. Infants may lack the communication skill to report this bombardment, and recognition of the problem may not come before the first eye injury. In addition, breathing swirling street dust cannot be healthy." We would only add dog manure to the list of materials that can be thrown up. Like potholes, you routinely avoid that on a bicycle but may not be able to judge well where the two wheels behind you will roll.
Your mileage will vary. Your trailer's design may be optimal, your riding style careful, the surfaces of the streets or trails may be very smooth, and your child may have been born with a vibration-resistant brain like a woodpecker. Nobody can judge any of that but you. Nobody has measured the risks scientifically, either. At least you now have an idea of the possible pitfalls.
Child CarriersChild carriers are child seats mounted in front or in back of the adult rider. The front mounted ones let you look at the child while riding, and let you fall on the child when you crash. They balance better than the rear-mounted carriers, but many parents find that front-mounted seats also obstruct their riding.

At about the age of one year the neck development of some babies approaches the point where they can tolerate the weight of a helmet while awake. But a baby seated upright in a child carrier seat will go to sleep frequently. When that happens, the parent must stop and wait for the child to finish napping. Most parents don't have that much patience. It is common to see parents still riding, with the child's head lolling around with every bump and wobble of the bike. Ask your pediatrician: that is not healthy for the child! Again, the best advice we can give is take child and helmet to a pediatrician. They often give surprisingly good advice, and can take into account the stage of development your own child has reached.

Parents sometimes have no idea how many jolts and shocks are delivered to the child's body in a normal, slow, careful bike ride. Rear-mounted child carriers are located directly over the rear axle of the bicycle. When you hit a one inch bump, the tire indents a little but essentially the wheel suddenly rises one inch, and the axle rises one inch, and the baby rises one inch. The bicycle saddle you are sitting on, on the other hand, is located well forward of the rear axle, so it rises much less than an inch. (If the abstract principles are not clear, think of a very long bicycle with a ten foot distance between the rear wheel and the saddle as the rear wheel rises one inch. The saddle will rise very little. Or better yet, you can measure the effect using a real bicycle.) In motion that makes the shock to a child carrier much sharper than it is at the saddle. In addition, the saddle you sit on is normally padded and partially suspended on rails that have some spring to them. And the rider normally compensates for bumps automatically without it even registering by placing more weight on the pedals. Babies in child carriers can't do that. They take every jolt and jiggle.

Before you ride with a baby seat, check out this medical journal article. It can prepare you to avoid the most common hazards. It has ten basic rules for using child seats. More than a third of the injuries to children in baby carriers occur when the bicycle falls over while standing still. Typically the bicycle is leaning against something, and the parent has put the child in the carrier, then turns to put on their own helmet, put the groceries in the panniers, unlock the chain, make an adjustment, put on sunglasses or something else normal. One wiggle and your child can be crashing to the pavement. On the road or trail, the same wiggle can send you careening into another rider coming the other way, or something even more solid like a car. With a child carrier your baby's weight is located entirely above the center of gravity of the bicycle, and the rear-mounted ones put the weight far back where it exerts extra destabilizing leverage. In fact the ASTM child carrier standard requires the manufacturer to put a label on the carrier that says it will affect the stability of the bicycle. Be sure your carrier meets that ASTM child carrier standard, since it requires a shield to prevent the child from getting fingers and toes in the spokes of the rear wheel, and requires testing for fatigue resistance of the materials. You may also want to look at this page by Ottawa's Citizens for Safe Cycling. They present seven problems with child carriers and conclude that "child-mounted seat carriers are potentially very hazardous." And finally, this medical journal article has some sobering injury lists.
SidecarsWe don't know much about sidecars, which seem to be a British specialty. They are more often seen here on motorcycles. They have been around on bicycles in the UK for a long time. Some have elaborate protection from the elements. They make your bicycle a tricycle, changing its handling characteristics and affect cornering in strange ways. They require a whole new set of handling skills. Consult a Brit if you are really interested, or check out these responses from two experienced users.

Some More Cautions
The final question is what will happen when you crash. Certainly with your precious cargo you will be as careful as a bicycle rider can possibly be, and that will reduce the risk considerably, won't it? You will ride slowly, be extra alert for cars, be ready to swerve to avoid other riders, watch for bad pavement, compensate for side winds, watch out for overhanging tree limbs, avoid turns on patches of wet leaves, gravel, sand or ice, be careful in wet spots, test your brakes carefully before every ride, inflate your tires before every ride to the correct pressure and inspect them for nicks or sidewall bulges, inspect your bike periodically for cracks in the frame or any component, avoid rocks or other obstacles, watch out for dogs, warn roller bladers before passing them, deal with bees or other stinging insects, and ... did we miss some? Of course we did! There are 5,280 ways to fall in every mile, and if you ride long enough with your baby you will too.

The normal risks of cycling, which are manageable under normal circumstances by normal careful riding and wearing a helmet, are considerably worse with the extra distraction and destabilizing weight of a child and child carrier, or even with a trailer. Nobody offers safety training for users of trailers or child seats, so you just gear up and ride. It is not enough to put a helmet on the child and blithely go riding. Even if the brain survives your crash, it seems unfair to subject a tiny body to that kind of trauma when the child might well have chosen not to ride if they had the intellect to consider the possible consequences. So the answer to the question "at what age is a child ready to be taken cycling" is "at the age when you are ready for the child to crash if that should happen." And at the age when you are ready to explain injuries to the baby's grandparents or your neighbors, who will all think after a crash that you were crazy to take your baby on a bicycle.

If you are a hard core cyclist, nothing in the stuff above will likely deter you. We may be just way too cautious, but that's your judgment to make. We wanted you to know the down side, since you already know the up side to any family activity. We do hope you will wait until your child is at least one year old or robust enough to handle the bumps.