We have one for DD and use it when we are in a town centre
walking or walking along busy roads.
I too used to always say I would never use one on any child of mine
but then something happened to change my mind.
When my DS was 3 he slipped his hand out of my mothers and ran straight
onto a main road and in front of a moving car. My mother had no time to grab him and the driver had no
time to stop. DS was thrown into the air and landed on his head.
All this happened practically outside my front door so I was there immediately.
Luckily for DS it was an elderly man driving the car and he wasn't speeding....in fact he
was driving under the speed limit. This saved DS's life.
DS had split his head open and his legs were badly bruised. I was sitting in the middle of the
road cradling my baby's head and his blood was pouring out onto my hands. When the paramedics came
they took DS from me and he saw my hands. "Mummy did you cut yourself too?" He asked.
"Yes" I lied. We were on our way to the hospital in the ambulance and DS was afraid. "Mummy am I dying?"
he asked me. That was the single worst moment of my life.......to hear those words coming from
my child
He had to get his head stapled without any pain relief as they hadn't ruled out serious head injury.
That was later ruled out and we were allowed to take him home. The next day his legs were so stiff from the impact
that he couldn't walk and was like that for a week. It was very scary he could have died.
The bottom line is if he had a wrist or body harness it wouldn't have happened at all.
DS wore a wrist harness after that.
So my DD wears a wrist harness and I could care less about getting strange looks......her safety is what's important.
