April is National Youth Sports Safety Month

As the weather becomes nicer, individuals are spending more time enjoying the outdoors. During this time of the year, parents are eagerly registering their children for recreational activities and camps that offer a wide-variety of sports (nearly 3/4 of U.S. households have at least one child who plays organized sports).

Each year, approximately 30 million kids and teens, in the U.S., participate in some form of organized sports in which 3 million suffer serious sports-related injuries and more than 3.5 million children, 14 years of age and younger, receive medical treatment for sports-related injuries.

The most common youth sports injuries are sprains, strains, overuse injuries and fractures; however, traumatic brain injury also occurs among children in sports-related activities and is a major concern among the athletic and medical community.

From Prince William County Police:

Each year, hospital emergency rooms, nationwide, treat an estimated 173,285 sports and recreation-related TBIs, including concussions, among children, birth to 19 years of age.

Through public education and information, people are starting to understand that concussions are serious and life-threatening. Concussion clinics are popping up, across the country, in an effort to educate coaches, athletes and parents on the symptoms and what to do if a concussion is suspected.

In most cases, sports-related injuries are preventable, yet according to the National Athletic Trainers’ Association and Safe Kids USA, more than half (62 percent) of sports injuries occur during practice. Despite this finding, one third of parents often do not take the same safety precautions during their child’s practices as they would for a game.

April is National Youth Sports Safety Month. Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue (www.pwcgov.org/fire) and the Center for Disease Control urge parents, coaches and kids to take precautions to eliminate and/or reduce the number of injuries children sustain when participating in a sports activity by wearing appropriate protective
equipment such as pads, helmets, mouthpieces, face guards, protective cups and eyewear when:

• Batting and running bases in baseball or softball.
• Playing a contact sport such as football, ice hockey, lacrosse, or boxing.
• Riding a bike, motorcycle, snowmobile, scooter or all-terrain vehicle.
• Using in-line skates or riding a skateboard.
• Riding a horse.
• Skiing, sledding or snowboarding,

Additional Steps in Preventing Sports Injuries

Health experts, American Academy of Pediatrics, indicate sports injuries not only can be prevented but predicted by finding out why sports injuries occur and take the necessary preventative measures. Sports injuries may be caused by:

• Individual risk factors (such as medical conditions).
• Inadequate physical exams before participating (every child should get a sports-specific physical exam before each season).
• Lack of pre-season conditioning.
• Lack of safety equipment, or poorly fitted, improper equipment.
• Lack of proper eye protection.
• Teaming up by age instead of size.
• Unsafe playing fields, or surfaces.
• Improper training or coaching, or lack of instruction.
• Fatigue.
• Not warming up, cooling down and stretching properly.
• Playing while injured.
• Stress and inappropriate pressure to win.
• Temperature.
• Poor nutrition or hydration.