Kids And Sports Injuries

Ever wonder which sports kids are more likely to be injured in? Ever want to know how to avoid the injuries? Today kids are conquering their fears and going for extreme sports that can translate...

Ever wonder which sports kids are more likely to be injured in? Ever want to know how to avoid the injuries? Today kids are conquering their fears and going for extreme sports that can translate into extreme injuries, so parents and other caring adults need to be aware of the risks and to know which sports are the riskiest for kids to participate in. Preventing injuries is key to allowing kids to participate in any sport.

OK, so which sports are kids more likely to be exposed to sports injuries? The experts say that the most injuries suffered by kids are in baseball, basketball, football, gymnastics, and also soccer. Team sports are more likely to cause more injures simply because there are more bodies in which to be involved in collisions. The team sports are more popular, so your kid is more likely to want to be involved in a team sport like basketball soccer, or baseball.

Kids can suffer from two kinds of sports injuries: acute injuries, which are one time trauma injuries and chronic repetitive or overuse injuries which are stress fractures, muscle tears, or other injuries caused by repetitive action or overuse of a body part.

At puberty, boys gain in strength and size over girls, so they are more often injured and usually more seriously too. Statistics show that after puberty boys are 3 times more likely to be injured playing sports than girls are.

The seriousness of sports injuries also increases, as kids grow older because they are involved in more competitive sports. Kids who are younger and less developed should never be placed on a team with older, more developed kids as this can cause injuries.

Inline injuries include fractured bones 50% of the time with other injuries being to the head or the face.

Skaters tend to injure their wrists or elbows. Wrist guards and elbow pads are important to avoid these injuries. Cyclists should also wear wrist guards and elbow pads as well as a helmet.

Football safety gear is a must and usually wearing them is mandatory and enforced by coaches.

Soccer players have been studied regarding brain function and the results are staggering. When compared to runners and swimmers, soccer players had impaired performance on tests that measure planning abilities, showed impaired performance on memory tests and when surveyed for sports injuries, soccer players had frequent concussions. Soccer players who were polled in this one survey stated that 27% had one concussion while playing soccer, and 23% had as many as 2 to 5 concussions over the course of the years they had played soccer while in school. The study concluded that playing soccer decreased school performance on tests of memory and planning. Cognitive impairment appears to be mild, but it does present medical and public health concern. Younger players who do not have the coordination to connect ball to head as much as older kids were not the issue. Older kids who participate in frequent ball to head contact are the ones scoring poorly when it comes to memory. The concussions suffered while playing soccer may have a connection.

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