 |
|
|
|
|
Additional News and
Information goes here
|
|
|
|
|
FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions
|
|





 |
Many people have asked questions about Thudguard and how it
could help them and their families.
Some of the Frequently Asked Questions about
Thudguard:
| |
Why is Thudguard unique?
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.
|
| |
What is the difference between Thudguard and a cycle
helmet?
The only
similarity between Thudguard and the traditional cycle
helmet is the outlining shape. There have been many
different attempts at safety hat design but the most
popular has always been the full head protection form.
With this in mind, Thudguard began with this traditional
and accepted appearance.
Thudguard is for babies and toddlers who are learning to
walk in a world of hard surfaces and protects by acting
as a cushion between the baby's head and danger, usually
when they fall over. The cycle helmet is hard, heavier
and would not be suitable for this.
Thudguard is made from incredibly advanced lightweight
foam that gives maximum impact protection around a
baby's head in the early years when the fontanelle or
soft spot, can be vulnerable. Thudguard is not a hard
helmet and it won't slide around; shifting weight and
adding danger like hard, heavy helmets. Thudguard
eliminates the weight and discomfort of leather, plastic
and vinyl-covered latex headgear, and all the reasons
why children refuse to wear protective headgear.
|
| · |
When should my infant wear a Thudguard?
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.
|
| · |
Are there any techniques to assist my baby when
'learning to walk'?
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.
|
| · |
Is using a Thudguard being 'over protective'?
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.
|
| · |
Isn't pain a learning curve and bumping your head
part of growing up?
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
|
| · |
How did we manage before Thudguard came along?
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
- "Just watch them all the time."
- "The playpen keeps them in one
place."
- "They are easier to look after
when they are in their walking chair."
- "Put padding like pillows and
stuff around the furniture."
- "Let them fall! They won't do it
again."
Outdoors
- "Keep them restrained from
falling with a harness."
- "Only let them play on grass."
- "Falling is part of growing up."
- "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.
|
| · |
Will Thudguard encourage me to let my baby take more
risks?
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.
|
| · |
What safety standards does Thudguard meet?
- 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
|
| · |
How do I fit the Thudguard properly so it won't
cover my baby's eyes?
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.
|
| · |
My child won't wear hats. How can I get him/her to
wear a Thudguard?
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.
|
| · |
Is Thudguard heavy?
Thudguard is probably the lightest head
protector in the world weighing
approximately 100 grams making it perfect
for a baby developing neck muscles.
|
| · |
Is my baby's soft spot (fontanelle) really that
vulnerable?
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.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |