In 1997, to make the concept of an infants safety hat work, experts said the following:

"The hat would have to be lightweight, comfortable, attractive, protective and available in one size to cover the age group of approximately 7 months to 2+ years as parents would not value having to overspend on different sizes."

One of the many reasons that Thudguard was granted its patent was because of the design eliminating the need for small, medium and large head sizing for a pre determined age group.  A child's head grows faster in the first few years than in any other time of life so Thudguard accommodates for this by stretching, or growing with the child a full 10 centimetres while still giving tested and certified impact protection.  Thudguard is the only expandable head guard in the world that can claim this making this revolutionary new product truly unique. Thudguard complies with the Department of Trade & Industry's' Personal Protective Equipment Directive, Category II.

First stage:        

Usually the early months when baby is sitting up and/or crawling and especially if there is hard flooring.  Thudguard can be used, (perhaps twice a day) usually after a nap when baby is most alert and wants to explore the ground of a safe allocated room. 

There should be very little resistance at this age to wearing a Thudguard if any at all but short periods are best, and give lots of praise.  Baby will soon associate wearing a Thudguard with good exploring fun.

Second stage:   

It's wonderful!  Baby becomes more energetic and starts to pull himself up against the sofa.  Unfortunately, if he lets go, he can fall face first.  Some time after assisting your baby with learning how to walk (see techniques of learning to walk), he may stop holding on to furniture for support and attempt to cross the floor to another part of the room on his own. 

This is a very proud and exciting time but you may be tempted to stick to him like glue for fear of falls.  Every day, frantic parents rush into hospital after their babies have fallen off a bed, table, or over objects lying around. It happens so quickly!  Babies can fall even with the most careful and attentive parents nearby. 

When babies fall, they usually land head first, since their centres of gravity are in their heads (adults' centres of gravity are in our bottoms). The head hits the floor with a terrible, ripe-melon-like "thud." Thankfully, most of these head injuries are minor. A clear safe area should be created in advance of baby walking with playpen breaks in between. If baby uses the Thudguard in the first stage, then he should be good-natured enough to wear it now.  

Thudguard can be used a few times a day, in short intervals, to allow baby to enjoy his new walking skills

Third stage:  

Your toddler although walking, may still be less than sure footed so a harness outdoors can be a great help but be prepared for the time when your toddler will insist that you let go and allow him to walk unaided. 

Toddlers love to run free and develop their newfound mobility and grass is usually a good soft landing.   There will be times when there are concrete, patios, and garden furniture or play park equipment that you may be concerned about but cant avoid. 

Thudguard can give great peace of mind in this situation and your toddler will benefit from wearing this cute protective hat as an alternative safety measure.

When you think your baby is ready, hold her gently around the ribcage underneath the armpits and "stand" her up. You'll notice that she will make "stepping" movements with her feet automatically. This is in preparation of learning to walk so practice as often as you both want to.  If, however, after much practice, your baby seems interested in walking, but just can't get it all together, don't worry.  Babies develop in their own time and have been know to walk unaided as early as seven months and as late as 20 months. 

Reassuringly assist her and enjoy this wonderful time.  Hold her hand and help this process along, guide her steps.  Show her how to hang on to furniture for support and when she looses her balance, encourage her to bend her knees and fall back on to her bottom.

At the beginning of toddlerhood, she will probably walk slowly with her arms held out to the side or up in the air for balance, as if all walking surfaces were tightrope wires, and by the end she will be a two-footed locomotion.

 

Quite the opposite!  Research has shown that "over protective parents" tend to dread and avoid the "learning to walk" phase as much as possible.   By their own admission, "over protective parents" claim that they have literally kept their babies in a bubble and may have involuntarily hindered their children as a result of their paranoia, causing them to become late developers in an attempt to evade the pain of their child falling over.  Source: ILA independent questionnaire survey/Yahoo/Health/Parenting Health Centre.

Until you have a toddler of your own, other people's stories about how traumatic it was chasing their little wobblers around sound just a tad hysterical. I mean really, how hard can it be to keep up with a tiny person whom any grown-up can outrun in a race? It's when you become the warden of a toddler yourself that you realise speed isn't the issue; it's the length of the race and the unpredictability of the terrain.

If bumping your head could be 100% guaranteed to only result in a small discomfort and nothing more, then yes it could be a useful learning tool.  If a baby can learn from pain, then she certainly wouldn't be able to put that knowledge into practise right away, as her body couldn't develop fast enough to!  Did you learn to ride a bicycle or ice skate without falling a good few times?  It takes time and practice to perfect balance and there's to point rushing it.  But, you can make it a safer, better experience.

If it takes pain to gain knowledge then scraped hands when falling over can be an acceptable form of learning for a child and thankfully it is non-life threatening.  This pain will still get the message across to the child that falling over does not feel good.  It is a traumatic experience for all the family when a baby is taken to hospital with a head injury. 

When asked, medical staff said that, "thankfully, most children go home with just a small bruise but people are fraught because of their child's trauma and worry about the effects of their child being exposed to the radiation of the X-ray.  Sometimes it's the shock of the wound receiving sutures and having to hold their baby still.  There is also the worrying 24-hour observation period, not to mention the family arguing and the accusations of who it was that had failed to catch the child in time in the first place.  It very rarely gets more serious than this but sometimes that's enough."

Over half a million children under the age of 4 were taken to British Accident & Emergency Hospitals as a result of falls in one year alone, this would suggest that many parents, grandparents and carers don't see the learning benefits of their child's head whacking against any hard surface.  Source: Dti HASS/LASS

Four percent of deaths in the U.S. result from accidents. According to the National SAFE KIDS Campaign, accidents are the MOST COMMON cause of death in children. Source: health.yahoo.com/parenting

In a questionnaire survey, parents and grandparents were asked what they did to prevent their offspring from falling over when they were learning to walk in and outdoors.  Below are the top 9 answers.

Indoors

1. "Just watch them all the time."
2. "The playpen keeps them in one place."
3. "They are easier to look after when they are in their walking chair."
4. "Put padding like pillows and stuff around the furniture."
5. "Let them fall! They won't do it again."

Outdoors

1. "Keep them restrained from falling with a harness."
2. "Only let them play on grass."
3. "Falling is part of growing up."
4. "Don't let them out of the buggy."

Some of the above can be brief solutions but sooner or later your child will need to be allowed to develop newfound mobility and Thudguard may be an excellent alternative to those choices.  Most parents, grandparents and carers make sure that a safe environment is available where there is a high priority on vigilance.  But accidents often happen even in the most careful of situations.  Thudguard is just one more option that we didn't have before, taking the safety straight to the child's head by reducing the risk of head injury even more.

Some of the options from our questionnaire above clearly show a need and desire to prevent the possibility of head injury, apart from option 3, the walking chair, this just made life easier, and option 5 & 8 which suggests that pain is knowledge (see FAQ's - "is pain a learning curve?").  There is much controversy over the walking chair being dangerous and causing more harm than good and even death. Research thoroughly before deciding to get one.  For more information on products and safety and how to "child proof" your house, visit the RoSPA and the Child Accident Prevention Trust websites.

If your baby walks across the room unsteadily and looks like he is about to stumble and fall, your instinct will be to catch him regardless if he is wearing head protection or not.  After all, you wouldn't be lulled into a false sense of security and let your pre-school child cycle on the road just because he is wearing a cycle helmet!  Just like you would teach your child how to safely cycle, ice skate or swim, you will set safe boundaries for your baby to learn how to walk.  You may have a lot more peace of mind when your child is wearing a Thudguard but the fact that you are safety conscience enough to get a Thudguard in the first place, suggests that your not a parent to take risks.

                                          "risk compensation factor"actor"

We have all heard the argument that forcing drivers to wear seatbelts will lead to reckless driving due to the increased feeling of safety.  This old argument is completely ridiculous and not grounded in fact.  Whilst there is no strong evidence that the wearing of seatbelts have significantly reduced the number of deaths from road traffic accidents, there is no doubt that they have significantly reduced the severity of the injuries sustained by individuals involved in such accidents.

When a new safety product comes on the market it is common for attention to focus on whether or not this product will actually save lives.  This is to miss the point.  Thudguard does not claim to significantly have an effect on very serious head injuries but, as stated, may significantly reduce the number of minor head injuries which occur.  This may not only reduce discomfort associated with such injuries amongst the patients but also have an impact on the workload of the emergency services with regards these injuries.

• Thudguard complies with the Department of Trade & Industry Directive - Personal Protective Equipment, Category II.  (See impact testing below).
• Thudguard complies with SGS Testing for:
  Chemical Test
  Flammability Test
  Antibacterial Test
  
   

Thudguard® is the only baby head guard that complies with a specially written impact test specification.  For example, we have all seen the television adverts where the crash test dummies in a car are put through rigorous impact testing. 

Thudguard® is the only one of its kind in the world which has a specially written British Test Specification developed that simulates the smashing of the product against; radiators in the home, anvils to create the corners of tables and concrete patio flooring and furniture to make sure we have allowed for all little accidents in and out of the home.

In 2003 an expert was commissioned to develop a technical specification stating the impact testing requirements that an infant safety hat would have to pass to gain the recognised CE marking and to comply with a known directive.

The procedure of gathering the information required was similar to that of the testing criteria of the bicycle helmet.  Various standards were sited and a harmonised collaboration of essential criteria needed was developed.   The impact levels that were set for existing headgear was modified and applied to Thudguard to represent the impact levels of protection that babies and toddlers would need when falling over while learning to walk.

Thudguard was independently tested, passed and certified by a leading international test house where various simulated impacts against anvils representing radiators, door edges, patio slabs, sharp corners pavement kerbs etc., where carried out. 

We have made sure that Thudguard is made of materials that have been certified and tested because your baby deserves the best.

Thudguard has truly set the standard to perform to

Children have been recorded as starting to walk as early as 7 months old. With this in mind Thudguard was designed to accommodate a small head size of 40cm circumference but may cover the child’s eyes if not positioned correctly. This is easily put right by resting the hat further back on the head to allow a clear view. The chinstrap will keep it in this position. Keep checking that the hat has not been knocked forward or that the child has not pulled it forward. Always make sure that the child can see where she is going.

It is best to introduce your baby to Thudguard at an early age, as it will be more readily accepted. (The acceptance of a Thudguard will also help promote the wearing of a cycle helmet when that time comes.) If however, you present Thudguard to an older toddler, there may be some resistance, as most children don’t like to wear hats at the best of times. It is easier to try putting on a Thudguard to your child when he is preoccupied with playing or just before leaving the house or going out to the garden. Sometimes if its all done fast with excitement, there is no time for the toddler to realise he has had the hat put on! If it doesn’t work first time, don’t let it ruin your child’s fun, after all, it’s more important to develop emotional skills than motor skills. Try again another time with gentle perseverance and praise. It will work eventually.

Thudguard is probably the lightest head protector in the world weighing approximately 100 grams making it perfect for a baby developing neck muscles.

No. True, it can make some rare accidents more dangerous (direct penetrating trauma to that spot by protruding or sharp areas), but for the most common falls experienced by all babies, the soft spot cushions and protects.