Sports Savvy

Video games, DVDs, and TV shows may be turning many of today’s children into couch potatoes, but the good news is that roughly 30 million kids in the United States are involved in some type of organized sport. The one downside to all this fun and fitness is the potential risk of injury. But that doesn’t mean you should keep your child on the sidelines. Being aware of how to best prevent sports injuries—and knowing what to do for your kids if they do get hurt—can help even the playing field.

Why kids get hurt

Injuries happen for a wide variety of reasons. In younger children under the age of eight, it’s mainly a lack of coordination that causes them to tumble and get banged up. What’s more, pee-wee sports leagues often include kids of different ages, skill levels, and sizes, and when this melting pot gets together on the field the risk of injury rises. As kids mature and become less clumsy, more force becomes involved in their play and a collision that would have been otherwise harmless can result in serious injury. (Two seven-year-olds bumping into each other during a soccer game is nothing compared to two 17-year-old linebackers colliding.) Compounding these facts is the reality that kids and teenagers often think they’re invincible—or at least unbreakable—and don’t always assess the risks associated with their actions, unknowingly putting themselves in harm’s way.

Protecting your young athlete

Every parent knows that, try as you may, you can’t keep your children from ever getting hurt. Fortunately, you can decrease the odds that they’ll be injured by employing a six-part approach.

• Proper technique. “Bad technique can overstress certain structures like the shoulders, knees, and back, and lead to injuries that could have been prevented,” says Gerard Malanga, MD, director of pain management at Overlook Hospital. For example, if your little baseball star is a pitcher, remember that 50 percent of the force behind a throw should come from the trunk and lower body. “But if the child is taught incorrectly,” explains Malanga, “and throws just from his arm, he’ll be vulnerable to elbow and rotator-cuff injuries.”


• Proper training. In addition to practicing their specific sport, all athletes should follow a regular flexibility, cardiovascular, and strength-training regimen that focuses on low-weight resistance with high repetition. “Just going through a gymnastics routine for hours on end won’t make you a better gymnast,” says Malanga. “You also need to build your upper-body strength and cardiovascular endurance to compete safely.” Cardiovascular fitness is especially important since injuries tend to happen more often when an athlete is fatigued. In fact, the majority of football injuries actually happen at the end of the first half.


• Proper equipment. Be sure any equipment you purchase for your child is approved by the organizations that govern each sport (like the Hockey Equipment Certification Council or the Consumer Product Safety Commission) and that it fits properly. Kids should wear helmets when participating in baseball, softball, football, bicycle riding, hockey, and in-line skating; if your child plays racquet sports or basketball, you should check into protective eyewear, like a pair of shatterproof goggles.


• Well-maintained playing surfaces. Fields should not be rife with holes and divots that could cause kids to trip or fall. High-impact sports, like basketball and running, should be done on surfaces like tracks and wooden basketball courts, which are more forgiving than concrete.


• Match the sport to the child. No matter how much a small, thin young man may want to play football, he’s probably better suited to running track or playing tennis. He’ll enjoy greater success, and is less likely to get pummeled.


• Experiment with a wide variety of sports. “Unfortunately, the injuries we’re seeing in kids and adolescents are starting to mimic those of adults as a result of specializing in one sport too early,” explains Michele Gilsenan, DO, a sports-medicine physician with Overlook Hospital. To avoid overuse injuries like sprained ankles and knee-ligament problems, encourage kids and pre-teens to sample a variety of sports before focusing on one in particular in their high-school years.
  
  
• Despite every precaution, injuries do happen. Knowing what to do for your child in the first few minutes can help ease her pain and protect her from further harm.

If your child gets injured, she should stop whatever she’s doing right away. The idea of playing through the pain may be fine in the pros where millions of dollars are at stake, but there’s no reason to put your child at greater risk. Apply ice or a cold pack to any inflammation or swelling and observe your child. If after a brief rest she seems okay (she can put weight on an injured leg, for example), you can head home and see your family doctor in the next day or two. If after sitting on the sidelines for a while she still can’t walk or has a limited range of motion, have the problem evaluated by a sports-medicine doctor or an orthopedist immediately. The same is true if your child wakes the morning after an injury in pain or unable to walk. But if your child is unconscious or you see some obvious deformity (like a knee bent the wrong way), she should be evaluated on the spot and moved only by medical professionals.

What to expect from treatment

There are two basic types of sports injuries: acute (like broken bones, fractures, cuts, and concussions) and overuse injuries (like tendonitis and stress fractures). With both types of issues, it is important for your doctor to get a detailed history of when the pain started (in the case of acute injuries, what exactly happened) as well as any symptoms like pain, tingling, or numbness. If your child is young, you may need to assist him in explaining to a physician what he is feeling and the nature of the accident. This oral history can be just as important as such diagnostic tools as X-rays and MRIs, since many times these pictures give only half the story. Understanding exactly what a patient is experiencing aids doctors and physical therapists in determining the best course of treatment and rehabilitation.

The reassuring news is that 80 percent to 90 percent of sports injuries are non-operative and can be treated with a good rehabilitation program. Injured ligaments and fractured dislocations may require surgery, and when surgery is necessary it is often very successful. Nearly 80 percent of surgeries to anterior cruciate ligaments in the knee, for example, do relieve pain and restore mobility.

Your child’s recovery

While your child is on the mend, it may surprise you to learn that they should stay active. “Although some rest is necessary, long periods of immobilization often lead to muscle stiffness and weakness, and make it harder to bounce back from an injury,” explains Malanga. What’s more, laying around for long periods of time will slow your child’s metabolism to a crawl, leading to constipation and even sleep disturbances (hanging out in bed all day naturally makes it harder to sleep at night). “The best thing to do is encourage you child to practice alternative conditioning,” says Malanga, “which means they should continue to exercise areas that are not hurt. Otherwise, once they finally get active again, they’re more like to get re-injured.”

In many cases, injured athletes take up swimming, a very low-impact but highly aerobic activity, which maintains
overall fitness without putting pressure on joints like the hips, back, and knees. But since all injuries are different, you should consult your physician to find out which types of activities are best for your child.

To locate a sports-medicine specialist or orthopedist, call 866-618-3212.