We are just revisiting this issue since our daughter is seven months old and my mother's group is starting up a cycling club for moms and babies. We have had a Chariot Cougar since before she was born, and she's just started to enjoy it as a jogging stroller. (She hated it until very recently.) My husband and I are on the fence about how seriously to take those warnings from the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute. We've read them before, many times, and they do seem fairly alarmist. On the other hand, we certainly are not experts about infant development and we just don't know the right answer.

Among pediatricians the advice seems to be all over the map. I don't think being a pediatrician necessarily means that you know jack about this issue. One of the mothers asked her pediatrician about bike trailers when her son was six months old, and the doctor said, "Sounds like a great idea!" and left it at that. Others say fine as long as the baby wears a helmet, ignoring what seems obvious to me, that a helmet is far too heavy for a baby's neck. And others don't seem to want kids on bikes, period. So it's hard to feel like anybody is an expert on the issue.

I'm eager to get back on the bike and I really want to do this with my daughter, but I am reluctantly feeling like maybe we should wait another five months just to be on the safer side. She is very strong and stable for her size and age, but she is also quite small -- barely 15 pounds. My husband is concerned that she won't even get the benefit of the Chariot's shocks at that weight, since they are meant for a baby that weighs at least 25 pounds.

Does anyone have any further thoughts? I've read a whole lot and still not come to a conclusion.