Preventing Children's Sports Injuries

Participation in any sport, whether it's recreational bike riding or Pee-Wee football, can teach kids to stretch their limits and learn sportsmanship and discipline. But any sport that your child participates in also carries the potential for injury.

By knowing the causes of sports injuries and how to prevent them, you can help make athletics a positive experience for your child.

What Causes Sports Injuries Among Children?

Kids can be particularly susceptible to sports injuries for a variety of reasons. Kids, particularly those who are younger than 8 years old, are less coordinated and have slower reaction times than adults because they are still growing and developing.

In addition, kids mature at different rates. Often there's a substantial difference in height and weight between kids of the same age. And when kids of varying sizes play sports together, there may be an increased risk of injury.

As kids grow bigger and stronger, the potential for injury increases, largely because of the amount of force involved. For example, a collision between two 8-year-old Pee-Wee football players who weigh 65 or 70 pounds (30 or 32 kilograms) each does not produce as much force as that produced by two 16-year-old high school football players who may each weigh up to 200 pounds (91 kilograms).

Also, kids may not assess the risks of certain activities as fully as adults might. So they may unknowingly take risks that may cause them to get injured.

How Can Sports Injuries Be Prevented?

You may be able to help prevent your child from being injured by following some simple guidelines:

Use of Proper Equipment

It's important for your child to use the proper equipment and safety gear that is the correct size and fits well. For example, kids should wear helmets for baseball, softball, bicycle riding, and hockey. They also should wear helmets while they're in-line skating or riding scooters and skateboards. For racquet sports and basketball, you may want to find out about any protective eyewear, like shatterproof goggles. Ask your child's coach about the appropriate helmets, shoes, mouth guards, athletic cups and supporters, and padding for your child.

Protective equipment should be approved by the organizations that govern each of the sports. Hockey face masks, for example, should be approved by the Hockey Equipment Certification Council (HECC) or the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). Bicycle helmets should have a safety certification sticker from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Also, all equipment should be properly maintained to ensure its effectiveness.

Maintenance and Appropriateness of Playing Surfaces

Check that playing fields are not full of holes and ruts that might cause kids to fall or trip. When your child is doing high-impact sports, like basketball and running, it's a good idea to do them on surfaces like tracks and wooden basketball courts, which can be more forgiving than surfaces like concrete.

Adequate Adult Supervision and Commitment to Safety

Any team sport or activity that your child participates in should be supervised by qualified adults. Select leagues and teams that have the same commitment to safety and injury prevention that you do.

The team coach should have training in first aid and CPR, and the coach's philosophy should promote players' well-being. A coach with a win-at-all-costs attitude may encourage children to play through injury and may not foster good sportsmanship. Be sure that the coach enforces playing rules and requires that safety equipment be used at all times.

Additionally, make sure that children are matched for sports according to their skill level, size, and physical and emotional maturity.

Proper Preparation

You wouldn't send a child who can't swim to a swimming pool, so it's important to avoid sending a child to play a sport that he or she is unprepared to play. Make sure that your child knows how to play the sport before putting him or her out on the field.

Your child should be adequately prepared with warm-ups and training sessions before practices as well as before games. This will help ensure that your child has fun and reduce the chances of an injury.

In addition, your child should drink plenty of fluids and be allowed to rest during practices and games.

What Are Some Common Types of Sports Injuries?

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, your child might get hurt while playing sports. Three common types of sports injuries in children are acute injuries, overuse injuries, and reinjuries.

Acute Injuries

Acute injuries occur suddenly and are usually associated with some form of trauma. In younger children, acute injuries typically include minor bruises, sprains, and strains. Teen athletes are more likely to sustain more severe injuries, including broken bones and torn ligaments.

More severe acute injuries that can occur, regardless of age, include: eye injuries, including scratched corneas, detached retinas, and blood in the eye; broken bones or ligament injuries; brain injuries, including concussions, skull fractures, brain hemorrhages; and spinal cord injuries.

Acute injuries often occur because of a lack of proper equipment or the use of improper equipment. For example, without protective eyewear, eye injuries are extremely common in basketball and racquet sports. In addition, many children playing baseball and softball have suffered broken legs or ankles from sliding into immobile bases.

Overuse Injuries

Overuse injuries occur from repetitive actions that put too much stress on the bones and muscles. Although these injuries can occur in adults as well as children, they are more problematic in a child athlete because of the effect they may have on the child's bone growth. Any child who plays sports can develop overuse injuries, although the more time your child spends on the sport, the more likely your child is to experience an overuse injury.

Some of the most common types of overuse injuries are:

• anterior knee pain: Anterior knee pain is pain in the front of the knee under the kneecap. The knee will be sore and swollen due to tendon or cartilage inflammation. The cause is usually muscle tightness in the hamstrings or quadriceps, the major muscle groups around the thigh.
• Little League elbow: Repetitive throwing sometimes results in pain and tenderness in the elbow. The ability to flex and extend the arm may be affected, but the pain typically occurs after the follow-through of the throw. In addition to pain, pitchers sometimes complain of loss of velocity or decreased endurance.
• swimmer's shoulder: Swimmer's shoulder is an inflammation (swelling) of the shoulder caused by the repeated stress of the overhead motion associated with swimming or throwing a ball. The pain typically begins intermittently but may progress to continuous pain in the back of the shoulder.
• shin splints: Shin splints are characterized by pain and discomfort on the front of the lower parts of the legs. They are often caused by repeated running on a hard surface or overtraining at the beginning of a season.
• spondylolysis: Spondylolysis often results from trauma or from repetitive flexing, then overextension, twisting, or compression of the back muscles. This can cause persistent lower back pain. Spondylolysis is commonly seen in kids who participate in soccer, football, weight lifting, gymnastics, wrestling, and diving.

Overuse injuries can be caused or aggravated by:

• growth spurts or an imbalance between strength and flexibility
• inadequate warm-up
• excessive activity (for example, increased intensity, duration, or frequency of playing and/or training)
• playing the same sport year-round or multiple sports during the same season
• improper technique (for example, overextending on a pitch)
• unsuitable equipment (for example, nonsupportive athletic shoes)

Reinjuries

Another common sports injury is reinjury. Reinjury occurs when an athlete returns to the sport before a previous injury has sufficiently healed. An athlete is at a much greater risk for reinjury when he or she returns to the game before fully recovered. Returning to the playing field before a previous injury has completely healed places stress upon the injury and forces the body to compensate for the weakness, which can put the athlete at greater risk for injuring another body part.

Reinjury can be avoided by allowing the injury to completely heal. Once your doctor has approved a return to the sport, make sure that your child properly warms up and cools down before and after exercise. Sudden exertion can also cause reinjury, so your child should re-enter the sport gradually. Explain that easing back into the game at a sensible pace is better than returning to the hospital!

How Are Sports Injuries Treated?

Treatment of sports injuries varies by the type of injury.

For acute injuries, many pediatric sports medicine specialists usually take a "better safe than sorry" approach. If an injury appears to affect basic functioning in any way — for example, if your child can't bend a finger, is limping, or has had a change in consciousness — first aid should be administered immediately. A doctor should then see the child. If the injury seems to be more serious, it's important to take your child to the nearest hospital emergency department.

For overuse injuries, the philosophy is similar. If a child begins complaining of pain, it's the body's way of saying there's a problem. Have the child examined by a doctor who can then determine whether it's necessary to see a sports medicine specialist. A doctor can usually diagnose many of these conditions by taking a medical history, examining the child, and ordering some routine tests.

It's important to get overuse injuries diagnosed and treated to prevent them from developing into larger chronic problems. The doctor may advise the child to temporarily modify or eliminate an activity to limit stress on the body.

In some cases, the child may not be able to resume the sport without risking further injury. Because overuse injuries are characterized by swelling, the doctor may prescribe rest, medications to help reduce inflammation, and physical therapy. When recovery is complete, your child's technique or training schedule may need to be adjusted to prevent the injury from flaring up again.

Reviewed by: Steven Dowshen, MD