Redbedrock wrote: A couple of months ago we were being told we protected out kids too much and were raising a bunch of nancies, now we're not doing enough....who can win?

I do agree to a certain extent.  I think it is good for children to learn by making mistakes.  Michaela spends much of summer with a stubbed toe or grazed knee (then again after she got cellulitis which spread frighteningly fast I now always put savalon on cuts).

I think the article may also be aimed more towards other riskier things.  I hate to single out anyone but there is a thread in a different part of this forum atm from a mother asking why she can't just put her 6mo forward facing (obviously this mother is asking for and listening to advice which is great but how many others have just decided to switch their kids to forward facing when they're too little therefore putting them at higher risk of a fatal injury if they're in an accident).  Also the number of drownings and children who are runover in their own driveways in NZ every year is shocking.  Then there's the parents who drive drunk with kids in their cars, or leave their young children unsupervised for extended periods of time.

For me personally I don't think we'll do anything different, I think we have found a nice balance of safety and independence.

ETA:  Just read the article again and they're saying 90% of accidents are unintentional injuries such as road traffic injuries, drowning, burns, falls and poisoning.

One last thing:

Based on Safekids New Zealand’s Unintentional Childhood Injury fact sheets, on average, 22 children a year are killed as car occupants, and 15 children drown every year. 

Safekids New Zealand fact sheet also show that Falls are the leading cause for hospitalisations, with 4,854 children in New Zealand injured severely enough to be hospitalized annually, or an average of 405 hospital admissions each month.

Safekids New Zealand data also shows that over 9,800 children in New Zealand are hospitalized annually with an unintentional injury. “This is equivalent to an average size classroom of children injured severely enough to be hospitalized every day,” said Ms. Weaver.

Redbedrock wrote: I never take risks with Fay but am not opposed to her learning life's little lesson (as you witnessed at her memorable morning in McDs a couple of months ago, Jo) Kids need to learn to take risks and which risks to take, but adults should know better and reduce the obvious dangers

Yep, I'm exactly the same with Michaela and I get what you mean about the experts giving contradicting advice.  Don't they say if you look hard enough and you can find a study to back up anything you want to believe.