Reining in my child ? To do or not to do ?

Murphy_The_Cat

My son who is 15 months old has found his feet (big time) and wants to explore everywhere.

my dilemma is whether to get some reins for him - so i have an element of control over him but restrict his curiousity and free movement. Or whether to do without and rely on my beady etes and quick reactions.

We live in rural Cumbria so busy roads and hordes of people are not a concern.

Does any one out there have any experiences good or bad they would like to share ?

MTC

Jay-Jay_4

Wow spooky!

My 13 month old has just found her feet too and today we went to Cheshire Oaks, I dug out my eldest daughters old reins and took them....I'm so glad I did. She's never had them on before and tbh I don't really remember using them with my first but I really got some use out of them today.

My little one will NOT hold my hand, she struggles to get her hand free and then just wanders off where she wants to go, so the reins were a godsend when she got fed up of being in her pushchair. Also if she stumbled I could 'catch' her before she reached the ground.

If your little one will hold your hand then you may never need the reins but if you have a 'live one' who resists you then they work really well. I'll get my daughter to hold my hand when she's a bit older but at the moment there's no reasoning with her because of her age.

culpepper

we thought we would never use reigns with our 2 but soon gave in. My son had reigns which were so useful as my daughter is only 18months younger so got the pushchair most of the time . When my daughter was older she had a wrist strap as she would go rushing off and said reigns were for babies,we said the wrist strap was so she could look after mummy who might get lost otherwise

trafalgar_2

I hate these things with a vengeance,I'll rephrase that......I hate some users of these things.

When they are used responsibly they can quite honestly save a child from serious injury and in the case of my grandson,almost certain death.

I/we used them but as an 'extra',my grandson too used to wriggle free and dart in all directions,one day he did this and darted towards the road just as a lorry was passing,luckily the reins he was wearing that were secured around my wrist saved him ,though he did jerk quite violently onto his bum when he got to the end of his reach:D but thankfully this was before he went under the lorry:eek:


The reason I hate them is some people use them like leads,pulling their children and even lifting them up by them so their feet are off the ground.............they are children not animals:(

Bt all means use them for safety,they can be a god-send.

Spendless

I couldn't get on with them with my son. Soon as he put them on he used to walk a couple of steps then fall down to the ground on all fours.

I got on better with a wrist-strap or leaving him in pushchair - which he quite liked.

ravenlooney

Id say for safety, you MUST use reins. Ive used them with all 3 of my kids, the youngest using them now. We live in a very rural area but still use them even if we're just walking up the road cos all it would take is for us to turn our head and bubs would be right in a ditch, or the burn, or in a field of cows or under a tractor. It only takes a second for you not paying attention properly for them to make an escape. Its not worth the risk to save a couple of quid IMO

LCard

Rather than reins, which I didnt like the look of, I bought a rucksack for my daughter to wear that has a "lead" from the top of the rucksack attaching to a wrist link for me. She never even seemed aware of being joined to me. Also clips off so that she can just wear it as a little rucksack. I think I got it from John Lewis but have seen it in the baby magazines such as Urchin.

Queenie

Never used them for any of my 5 - lived in busy City for first 3 and busy town for last 2.

A trip to the local park (or our back garden) was walk/run free time, otherwise it was hand holding or pushchair.

But then that was my personal choice - you have to do what you feel is right and what suits your circumstances.

One thing I *do* feel very strongly is ... if you're walking with your kids along a pavement/road for goodness sake DO make them walk on the "inside" so that you are nearest the road! The times I've watched adults walking with kids and the child is nearest to the road - keep yourself between the child and the pavement edge (reins or no reins)!

Plasticman

I agree with Queenie. When we were near the road our daughter always held an adult's hand. Any other time she 'ran free'. But then she wasn't the sort of child who ran off. We are expecting number two soon so I guess things could be very different this time.

jellyhead

my son was the type to run off. he hated holding hands, really hated it. he had developmental delay though and didn't understand a lot, all he knew was that he wanted to run and didn't want me touching him. i got reins after he ran into a busy road. he liked being on reins better than holding my hand and he really wasn't mature enough to be trusted to hold onto the pram etc. (my nephew did, he always held the pram and never ran off). it all depends on the danger i suppose, i used reins in busy areas, he was probably 3 years old before he understood that roads are dangerous. in the town centre though it was safer to have him in a pram, people don't look where they're going and just trample over toddlers, hit them in the face with carrier bags etc.

Sarahsaver

Reins are ok if you know YOU are going to use them appropriately. If i had held hands with my kids i would have done my back in. Im more worried about the 4 or even 5 year olds still in buggies - better if they walk even if it is on reins!
I have 3 kids with a short gap between the last 2 - impossible to hold hands with all of them.