Bike Helmets & Life Jackets

Does anyone have any recommendations for/against any particular bike helmets and/or life jackets? Our daughter is a small (22 pounds) 2 year old and we are getting her a tricycle based off of the book & message board recommendations, but need to find a good helmet too.

Also, we'll be visiting a couple of lakes this summer, but don't want to spend $75 for the swimsuit pdf recommended in the book since we'll only use it a couple of times.

Any help would be appreciated!

Why get a swimsuit at all? I would just use a onesie.

For helmets, I would take her to the store and try some. You should make sure that the helmet fits well enough that if you wiggle the helmet the head wiggles with it.

In general, the super cheap models may not be as protective as some of the others. However, for a small toddler you are not likely to have impacts of great force anyway. Consumer reports did an article on bike helmets recently that you may want to check out.