What to Do if Your Child is Injured Playing a Sport

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There are several good reasons to have your children playing sports. Sports keep children active. They teach children how to make friends. They show the benefits of working together as a team.

One of the major drawbacks of sports is that children get injured. It’s estimated that every year 3.5 million children under 14 get injured while playing sports. Most of these injuries are minor. However, over 775,000 of them require emergency room attention.

Why Do Sports Injuries Happen?

There are several factors that play in sports injuries happening. Many sports require player on player contact. Football, hockey, baseball, and soccer often involve players coming into physical contact with each other. Of them all, American football is the most dangerous. It accounts for over 200,000 emergency trips each year.

Since sports injuries are common, it is important for parents to know how to respond when their children get injured.

Get Medical Care

Children are resilient. They can sustain injuries and then bounce back as if nothing happened. Still, if a child has sustained an injury while playing a sport, it may be necessary for them to visit the doctor or emergency room. This is a good option even if a child is adamant that they are fine.

It can take sometimes take hours or even days before the symptoms of an injury appear. During this time, a child may not realize that they are seriously injured. If you wait, your child’s injury could become worse. It’s better to have them checked out by a physician and have the physician say that there is nothing wrong as opposed to allowing a serious injury to go unchecked.

What Kind of Sports Injury Is It?

Sports injuries fall into two categories. There are acute injuries. These include sprains, fractures, contusions, and cuts. They typically happen after a blow, such as getting tackled playing football or tripping playing soccer.

The second injury is an overuse injury. These would include tendinitis and stress fractures. Overuse injuries are referred to as chronic injuries because they develop over time from a repetitive motion. An injury from repetitive use can be just as damaging as an acute traumatic injury. The only difference is that an acute traumatic injury is usually immediately noticeable. A chronic injury develops silently over time and causes long-term damage.

If your child is playing in a Portland park or if they are part of a school team in Oregon and they get injured, do not ignore it. It is possible for your child to completely recover from the injury and regain a complete range of motion. They may need the help of physical therapy Portland Oregon, for example, or wherever you live, to help them through the recovery process.

How to Know When to Call a Doctor

If a child has been injured while playing sports, parents would want to pull their child out of the game. If the pain is horrible or if the pain gets worse when the child moves, it would be good to contact a physician. This is also true if the injured area is swollen, has a limited range of motion, or the pain continues to get worse days or weeks after the injury.

How Injuries Affect the Body

Injuries can happen on any part of the body. However, sports injuries most commonly happen on the head and neck for athletes who play contact sports. Head injuries include contusions, concussions, and bruises. Neck injuries could include fractures, sprains, or strains.

If a child has injured their neck, it’s best not to move them. If a neck fracture is not properly handled, it could lead to paralysis or death. It is important to get emergency medical help immediately in these situations.

Back injuries are caused by bending, twisting, or overexerting back muscles. These are often seen in games like golf, gymnastics, weightlifting, and hockey.

Hand and wrist injuries are common and can happen after a player falls and lands on their hand awkwardly. In basketball and baseball, it’s common for players to jam or break their fingers. Foot and ankle injuries are more commonly seen in sports that involve a lot of running. This is especially true if a person is wearing the wrong shoes for the sport.

Conclusion

Children typically love to be active and will probably want to know when they can get back into the game. It is good to check with a doctor or physical therapist. This will allow a child to recover and be active again following a serious injury.