What are sports injuries?
Sports injuries are one of the most common sources of childhood injury. This kind of injury can occur during any sport, including:
- Basketball
- Baseball
- Football
- Soccer
- Martial arts
- Cycling
- Swimming
- Hockey
- Ice hockey
- Wrestling
- Skateboarding
- Rollerblading and roller skating
- Skiing and snowboarding
Children can experience injury in virtually any kind of sport or physical activity. Many children’s sports injuries, including collisions, falls, and overexertion, occur during unorganized or impromptu sports activities, as well.
What are the most common types of sports injuries in children?
Some of the most common forms of sports injury in children are:
- Sprains - stretch or rip in a ligament
- Strains - overstretched muscle or tendon
- Dislocations - bones forced out of position
- Fractures - break in a bone
- Tendinitis - tendon inflammation
- Concussion - traumatic brain injury caused by a blow or other force
- Patellofemoral syndrome - knee overload injury
- Little league elbow - overuse elbow injury
- Anterior cruciate ligament tear (ACL) - tear in the ligament that stabilizes the knee
The Comprehensive Pediatrics team can easily treat most children’s sports injuries, but a fast response is important.
If you suspect that your child has any of these injuries, don’t allow them to play any longer, or it could potentially cause permanent damage. Minimize their activity level as much as possible until they can see their pediatrician.
How do you treat sports injuries in children?
Comprehensive Pediatrics is open seven days a week for urgent care, so the team is here to help with sports injuries whenever they happen. When you arrive, a doctor examines your child and discusses symptoms. The exam may include an X-ray or some other kind of imaging to find the source of the damage.
Treatment often involves both medical measures like medicine as well as prescribed exercises or physical therapy. Your child may need to wear a brace, cast, or another type of support device as they heal.
It’s very important to follow the pediatrician’s advice when it comes to recovery, and this might mean sitting out of sports for a while. But, remind your child that this brief break from sports is a time to fully heal and even grow stronger than before.
Going forward, make sure that your child always wears protective equipment suitable for their sport. With the proper protection, your child’s risk of further sports injury is far lower.
If your child gets injured, reach out for sports injury care from the experts at Comprehensive Pediatrics. Call the office or book an appointment online.
