As the rise in children playing sports has increased over recent years and the competitive nature in turn, there’s also been a rise in overuse injuries among children. While there’s plenty of benefits from playing sports from promoting physical and emotional well being of children and encouraging life-long habits of fitness and exercise, if not done carefully, there can also be significant risk of injury.
Unlike most injuries, overuse injuries are caused over time with repetition of specific activities without the appropriate time given to heal between playing and practices. Further, because children are still growing, they are at higher risk for injuries. The most common injuries often happen to the knee and foot though overuse injuries can affect muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and growth plates.
A large part of these is due to the uneven growing pattern that children are still experiencing. It’s important that athletes’ discomforts and pain are listened to as well as proper stretching and warming up before activity. It’s more important that if pain is being experienced that athletes do rest their body.
Other symptoms to look for:
There’s also important steps to take in preventing overuse injuries including:
If your child is experiencing these symptoms or regularly experiencing pain, it’s important to talk to their doctor and have regular checkups throughout the year.
This article is brought to you by Dr. Brandon Downs. Dr. Downs can help you
understand your pain and if surgery is right for you. Find Dr.Downs at:
Hughston Clinic Orthopaedics, Centennial Medical Center in the Physician’s Park Building 2400 Patterson Street Suite 300, Nashville, Tn 37203 (615) 342-6300 Hughston.com and Orthopaedic Specialists, 415 Henslee Drive in the Creekside Center, Dickson, Tn 37055 (615) 375-8287, Orthopaedicspecialists.com.
