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I see that you can get both full body harnesses and sit harnesses for kids. Any reasons to choose either?
I've found the full body harnesses to be best for small/light kids, less to worry about and they seem comfy enough.
They've not got the same shape as adults to hold them in the harness if they invert, which although isn't as likely to occur compared to leading, it's still a concern if they're 10m above the ground!
What age/size?
Basically, sit harnesses rely on you having a bit of hip to reduce the risk of falling out when you go upside down.
I'd go for full body harness in younger kids.
7 month old?
😉
full body, for first time thn you can decide on their ability to stay heads up/feet down.
Anyone could end up upside down if they tangle a leg in the rope, so it's less to do with their ability to stay the right way up and more to do with whether they have a defined enough waist that they couldn't fall out of a harness if they end up upside down. Full body harness if not.
As well as the safety/security aspects I'd expect a body harness to fit a wider range of kids too - useful if there's siblings and the odd mutant involved. My experience is with 4-8 year olds though, not sure what age range the OP is referring to. You might be able to pick up a decent second hand body harness and unlike adult gear its [i]probably [/i]not been involved in any big whippers.
Any idea how old you can take them from for actual climbing (indoor or outdoor)?
We used full body until 7. Ours started at 4 and could have lessons from 5.
Any idea how old you can take them from for actual climbing (indoor or outdoor)?
As far as I know, most places have no lower age limit.
What I do know for certain is that my oldest who is 6 has freakish upperbody strength of the likes i never had at that age.
glupton - where are you going? some centres may have rules on full body below a certain age. In our case the transition was around about 8 when super skinny Poly Jnr migrated to traditional sit harness.
Some centres do have a lower age limit; others may have a limit only for instruction etc.
One of the Edinburgh centres. Probably go to Kinlochleven and Glasgow centres at some point if the boys enjoy it.