In 2021 — the most recent year for which we have data, more than a million children ages 5 to 14 were sent to the emergency room due to a sports-related injury, according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The most common injuries kids face playing sports include head injuries, cardiac events, sprains, fractures and strains.
But there are ways to help prevent serious injuries, whether your child is in an organized league or just playing with friends.
Dr. Erin Grieb, a pediatric primary care sports medicine physician at Stanford Medicine Children’s Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center, suggests a simple solution to helping kids avoid injuries: the prevention and response method.
Allowing an injured child the proper amount of time to heal is key in helping prevent serious injuries from reoccurring or taking a bad turn. Going for yearly exams as a family and teaching your child preventative measures like stretching, and having the right equipment and shoes can make a major difference.
Learn to recognize a concussion
While some sports injuries are easy to spot, others — like concussions — are harder to detect. WebMD reports that between concussions make up 1.1 to 1.9 million sports- and recreation-related injuries (for adults and children) each year. With numbers like that, it’s important to be aware of the warning signs.
Signs of a concussion include:
- Headache or a feeling of pressure in the head
- Nausea or vomiting
- Balance problems or dizziness
- Double or blurred vision
- Sensitivity to light or noise
- Feeling fatigued, sluggish, groggy or dazed
- Difficulty paying attention
- Memory problems
- Confusion
- Slowness in understanding and responding to others
- Sleeping problems
- Mood changes and irritability
- Changes in behavior
- Changes in personality
Responding quickly to cardiac events
Cardiac events in younger people are rare, but they do occur. Often, there’s an underlying — but perhaps not diagnosed — condition involved.
“The concerns are that maybe there is somebody with an underlying cardiac abnormality,” said Dr. Stuart Berger, division head of cardiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, to CNN. “Screening is designed to bring that out and that we can identify, if possible, who those kids are.”
Signs of cardiac distress:
- Chest pain or discomfort
- Dizziness or fainting
- Heart palpitations, which feel like the heart is pounding, fluttering, skipping beats or beating too fast
- Shortness of breath
- Unexplained decline in performance or early fatigue with their usual level of exercise
- Discomfort in limbs
- Swelling hands, feet and ankles
Experts stress the importance of staff, parents and other children knowing how to help someone during a cardiac situation. CPR classes and defibrillator instruction can usually be found at your local Red Cross center.
“Be prepared to intervene, because that’s what saves lives,” says Dr. Berger.
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