Many parents put their kids in sports at an early age to teach them how to work on a team while giving them the exercise they need. In fact, Children's Hospital claims that about 30 million children and teens participate in some sort of organized sport. Unfortunately, sports involve many injuries, because the children are being active and somewhat aggressive. 3.5 million children head to hospitals every year because of a sports injury. According to Children's Hospital, examiners found that about one-third of all childhood injuries relate to a sports accident. 53 percent of these injured children are boys, and 47 percent are girls.
Most often, these injuries are sprains and muscle strains, which recover after a bit of race and the use of braces and physical therapy. Most injuries occur because the child falls, is struck by an object, collides with another player, or is overexerted. About 60 percent of injuries occur during a practice. "Extreme" sports like bicycling, skating, or skateboarding result in more head injuries than other sports. Brain injuries are the leading cause of sports-related death in children and two out of every five traumatic brain damages are the result of a sports injury.
The amount of children injured is higher as the age group advances. Children over the age of nine are more prone to injure themselves playing sports than girls and boys eight and under. Most often, boys sustain more serious injuries than the girls. Boys are most often injured in ice hockey, rugby and soccer, while girls normally suffer damage from soccer, basketball, and gymnastics. Children are more prone to injure themselves in sports with collisions or contact, but individual sports bring on more severe damage.
Out of all the sports played, soccer brought in the most injuries, with horseback riding and alpine skiing being the second and third most dangerous. Handball and dodge ball are two sports that generate a large amount of injuries. According to a Trondheim University project, 19 percent of injuries were the result of a snow sports like alpine skiing or snowboarding. 16 percent of all the sports related injuries treated at the hospital was the result of handball. Five percent of children were treated because they were hit in some way with a ball, and another 5 percent were hit practicing gymnastics.
There are many kinds of sports injuries. The most common are acute injuries, which are sudden and normally affiliated with some sort of trauma. These can be simple and quick-healing pains like a bruise or sprain, or they can require a doctor's visit, as in the case of a broken bone or torn ligament. Overuse injuries occur from putting too much stress on bones and muscles. The tendency for these injuries increase as the child continues to practice the sport. Anterior knee pain, little league elbow, swimmer's shoulder, shin splints, and spondylolysis are all types of overuse injuries.
To protect your children from sporting accidents, make sure that they always wear all the proper gear for their sport. In most sports, it is best to wear a helmet, and some athletics involve other pads and guards. Encourage your child to choose a sport that is best for his or her body type, athletic ability and talent. Do not allow young children to enter highly aggressive sports. According to Kids' Health, children less than eight-years-old are less coordinated than older kids. On the other hand, kids grow and mature at different paces.
If you have a child who is small for his or her age, you may want to put him or her in a sport with minimal contact to avoid an injury.Also, make sure that your children are practicing and playing their sport on a safe surface. Pot holes on soccer fields or obstacles on ski trail can create a lot of accidents that could have been avoided. If you see a potential hazard on the playing field, notify the coach so that he or she can deal with the situation. Make sure that your children are well-prepared to play their sport before they begin competition.