Hey, Posh and Becks! Shouldn't Your Boys Be Wearing Pads When They Skateboard?

Cruz and Brooklyn Beckham were wearing their helmets, which is good, but an experts tells HollyBaby.com that they should have been wearing padding too!

Skateboarding is lots of fun, but it can also be pretty dangerous, even if you’re really good at it. Brooklyn Beckham, 11, and his little brother Cruz, 5, were doing a little boarding at a  store in West Hollywood over the weekend, and their helmets were right where they should be: on their heads, the chin straps pulled tight. But we have to ask their parents, David Beckham, 35, and Victoria Beckham, 36, where are the wrist guards and elbow pads? Sure, the kids were in a controlled environment in that store, but are they wearing more protective gear when they’re out on the street? Or are they just asking for some “gravel rash” when they inevitably hit the pavement?

“It’s really very important for a skateboarder of any age to wear the proper padding,” Dr. Bob Sears, who runs a family pediatric practice in Orange County, CA., and is the author of a Baby Book of advice to parents, tells Hollybaby.com. “My 8-year-old and I skateboard around the neighborhood and I always outfit him in full pads when we go out. It’s important not to take a chance with broken bones. It’s not as common to break a knee or even an elbow when you’re skating, but the wrists are very vulnerable, which is why the wrist guards are so important.”

Dr. Sears even told us that he goes out of his way to ask his patients what kind of padding they wear when they go biking and skating, “just to give them a reminder.”

So, we have to ask, do you let your kids get on their bikes, skateboards or rollerblades without the proper padding? Or do you think it’s not that big of a deal?

–Roger Singer