Do children require external support

External Support Is Crucial For A Child Safe Sports

Children participating in sports is part of growing. It is always fun and a learning curve in their life. However, with the preventive gear, we can avoid major sports-related injuries.

The athletic and sports endeavors play a tremendous role in a child’s physical, social, and emotional development. It teaches them many valuable lessons like self-discipline, coordination, physical fitness, teamwork, and achieving goals. Young athletes have the risk of getting injuries that may be because of playing games or overdoing sports.

Any injuries that impair growth may lead to long-term health issues. Luckily, children and teens-related sports injuries have increased chances of prevention.

Injury Related to Athletic Activity

More than 2.6 million youngsters (from children to teens) are assisted for sports-related injuries every year. We should understand our children and their sports. Each sport requires different techniques, preventive gears, and other related information. It will enable us to help our children succeed in the sport by preventing risky injuries.

There are no sports without injury. While participating in sports is beneficial for the overall development of the children, we have to take care of preventive measures to ensure a safe and healthy lifestyle.

There are a few common sports injuries most athletes would have faced in their sports journey. Knowing sports injuries is beneficial for the parents and coaches/trainers to take precautions during practice sessions.

The general sports injuries are,

1. Concussion: The most dreaded injury on the head, and it causes dizziness, disorientation, and other symptoms. Doctors advise avoiding all contact sports. It recovers time, rest, and medication.
   
2. Muscle Strain: Strain or tearing or stretching of muscles/tissues. It often happens in elbows, hamstrings, and calves. Doing stretches before workout/practice helps to relax the muscles.
   
3. Lower Back Pain: Any sports activity causes lower back pain. Applying anti-inflammatories, stretching, warm-up, and following the RICE method is the best treatment for lower back pain.
   
4. Groin Strain: Sudden movement while playing causes this type of injury. It is the worst injury of all sports injuries, and stretching is the only way to relax these muscles. It takes a couple of weeks to recover, and should patients be under medications.
   
5. Tennis Elbow: Around 7% of the injuries are elbow injuries. Sports doctors advise the players to do their strengthening exercises, use anti-inflammatories, treat using the RICE method, elbow strap for tennis elbow, and physiotherapy.
   
6. Shin Splints: The inflammation in the inner side of the muscles surrounding the shinbone. Stretching is the best way to prevent the pain. Applying anti-inflammatories and ice packs to injuries help ease the pain.
   
7. Achilles Tendinitis: Continuous use of the back of the ankle causes pain and inflammation. Strengthening and stretching the calf muscles eases the pain.
   
8. Runner’s Knee: Another common sports injury is knee strain and injury. Wearing proper shoes based on the sport helps protect athletes from extreme accidents. Also, wearing a knee cap for pain relief and knee support braces are the best knee pain solution.
   
9. Ankle Sprain: Running and quick/sudden turning causes an ankle sprain. Concentrating on strengthening the ankle helps prevent injuries. There are ankle wrap, ankle walker, ankle brace, and orthopedic ankle support compression available in the market. It helps support and strengthens the ankle.
   
10. Shoulder Injury: Yet another common injury is the shoulder injury. Stretching and relaxing the shoulder muscles prevent injuries. Wearing orthopedic support is beneficial for neck and shoulder pain relief. Athletes can also go to therapy for shoulder pain.

Any sports injury requires timely assistance and rest for a couple of weeks. Not giving proper rest the body needs might even lead to discontinuation of the sport.

Difference Between Adult & Child Sports

Like winning and losing is part of sports, so do injuries. However, there are some differences in child and adult athletic injuries.

Adult Injuries

Overuse Injury: From the name, we can understand the type of injury. Prolonged and overdoing a particular activity(sports/exercise) stresses the muscles and bones. The pain or stress felt by the body is ignored by the player, so there is no time for healing.

The player often ignores low-grade pain, while the coach might have difficulty in identifying the problems. However, this might put the player on the sideline. The most common overuse are shin splints, Achilles tendinitis, injuries in the knee and elbow. We can prevent our players from these injuries by supporting the player to go for regular checkups.

By identifying common signs, we can recognize the overuse injury. The signs are:

• Modification in techniques.
• Swelling.
• Avoiding practice.
• Increased pain due to activity.

Acute Injury: These are injuries caused by collision or sudden trauma like a fall or twist. Sports doctors diagnose the injuries. However, parents or coaches should give prompt first-aid assistance.

Treat acute injuries in the following method. It will limit discomfort and decrease the healing time. We have to allow the player to rest and apply ice-packs on the affected muscle and then compress the injury by wrapping with an elastic bandage, finally elevating the affected part (arms, leg, or foot). A proper first aid helps minimize the swelling and enables doctors to establish a precise diagnosis.

Child Injuries

In the case of children, we cannot consider their injuries as a minor version of adult injuries. Their bones, tendons, muscles, and ligaments are still in the growth phase and more susceptible to injury.

Children, adolescence, and teens have different physical maturity. The smaller kids experience lesser injuries because they are more petite and comparatively moderate than the older kids. The high school kids are faster, stronger, and are capable of playing the big game. The significant difference between smaller and older kids is strength, coordination, and stamina.

Children are prone to hurt the growth plates, and it might disrupt general bone growth. The areas of developing cartilages at the end of long bones are the growth plates- where bone growth occurs. It is more tender than tendons and ligaments.

Strategies to Prevent Child Injuries

Parents and coaches can follow specific preventive strategies to protect the kids from getting hurt.

• Physical examination to screen for potential issues.
• Following game rules and regulations
• Wearing protective gears.
• Understanding of sports equipment.
• Warming up and cooling down is a must.
• Acknowledging body pain and tiredness.
• Staying hydrated.

What is the Importance of External Support

External support focuses on correcting, preventing, and treating the disorders in the musculoskeletal system like the ligaments, tendons, nerves, muscles, and skin. The musculoskeletal system is responsible for the movement of the body.

Several external support systems are available, and it helps prevent injury. The orthopedic support provides relief from support, stability, and pain.

It offers comfort to partake in everyday endeavors. A few of the orthopedic supports strengthen and compress the affected region.

Orthopedic support is different for children with compassionate and special care. The external support improves the kids’ movement by offering to restrict them and support based on the nature of the injury.

Conclusion

The need for external support is because of certain medical conditions and recovery from surgeries or injuries. It helps to rediscover the lost confidence by providing assistive support and compression. It relieves the pain and discomfort of the musculoskeletal system and enables one to lead an independent life.

Similar to adults, children too need orthopedic support. The children are even more delicate than the adults, and their body is still developing. Discomfort or injuries faced should be addressed with utmost concern. The sooner we deal with the injuries, the sooner the recovery process. Sometimes the pain in the foot or knee may be because of the discomfort in the hip. So, getting professional care is essential for the healthy lifestyle of our future generation.