Youth Sports Injuries

Each year, more than 775,000 children ages 14 and under are treated in hospital emergency rooms for sports-related injuries. Most of these injuries stem from falls, collisions, being struck by an object and overexertion. For the most part, these injuries occur during informal or unorganized sporting events.

Children have the opportunity to learn how to stretch their limits and realize the value of sportsmanship and discipline when they participate in sports and other recreational activities. The potential for injuries, however, is great. According to the National Safe Kids Campaign, 20% of children participating in sports activities are injured, with one out of four of these injuries being considered serious. If you know the causes, prevention, and treatment of sports injuries, you have the ability to make your child's athletic participation experience a positive one.

Children are susceptible to sports injuries for three reasons. First of all, children have less coordination and slower reaction times than adults, due to the fact that they are still growing and developing. A myriad of injuries can occur because a child misses a baseball or does not move fast enough to evade a tackle. Secondly, children mature at different rates. When the neighbor boy who is the same age as your son, but is three inches taller and twenty pounds heavier, wants to play a little "one-on-one basketball" there is a risk for injury. Finally, as children grow older and stronger, the force with which they play increases. A collision between two pee-wee football players will not produce as much force as a collision between two players in a high school homecoming game.

A number of experts predict that half of the childhood injuries that occur during organized sports are preventable through use of proper equipment, maintenance and appropriateness of playing surfaces, adequate adult supervision, commitment to safety, and proper preparation of child athletes.

Sports injuries occur in three major types- acute, which are usually associated with some form of trauma; overuse, which occur form repetitive actions that put too much stress on the musculo-skeletal system, and may affect your child's growth; and re-injuries, which occur when an athlete returns to a sport before a previous injury has sufficiently healed. Experts agree that it is always better to go with a "better safe than sorry" approach and treat all injuries promptly