Health & Safety

Allowing a sports injury to heal is only the first of seven steps in the recovery process a child should complete in rehabilitation and treatment before returning to play, experts say.

A number of studies in recent years have shown that sports drinks re-hydrate kids who are active in the heat better than water. Given a choice, kids will drink a lot more of a sports drink than of a glass of water. An oft-cited 1999 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology reported that drinking a properly formulated sports drink with carbohydrates and electrolytes (sodium and potassium) increased fluid intake by nearly one-third (32%) compared to water. Because they taste better than water, sports drinks encouraged kids to keep drinking until their fluid needs were met.

For proper hydration, youth athletes need to drink fluids before, during and after sports, on a schedule, not just when they are thirsty.

Athletes who exercise in hot or humid weather are prone to heat illnesses.  Here are the signs and symptoms of and treatment for the three kinds of heat illness: heat cramps, heat exhaustion or heat
stroke.

Surprising as it may seem the most important part of an athlete's diet isn't what he eats, it is what and how much he drinks. Hydration before, during and after exercise is especially important for pre-adolescent children because they have special fluid needs compared to adults, or even teenagers. As a parent or coach, here are the precautions you should take to prevent heat illnesses in exercising children and making sure they drink enough fluids.

MomsTeam Founder and long-time concussion safety advocate, Brooke de Lench, provides a concussion safety checklist for parents to know their child's sports program is taking concussions seriously.

Concussion signs (observable by others) and symptoms (experienced by the athlete) fall into five clusters: symptoms, physical signs, behavioral changes, cognitive impairments, and sleep difficulties. Symptom scales continue to be a critical component in concussion assessment.

Parents are critical participants in the recognition and treatment of, and recovery from, a concussion, not only in the first 24 to 48 hours but during every step in the process towards an eventual return to the play.

Sports concussion myths are still common, despite increased media focus and education in recent years. Here are the facts.

Athletes who suffer concussion should follow a six-step, symptom-limited, return to play process towards return to game play and may require a longer rest period and/or extended period of non-contact exercise before return than adults because they have a different physiological response to concussion, take longer to recover, and have other unique risk factors.