Sports Medicine Frisco TX: How To Keep Your Child Free Of Sports Injuries

With the new school year fast approaching, young athletes all over North Texas will begin training to compete for their schools in everything from track to football to lacrosse.  At Texas Orthopedic Partners, our specialists in sports medicine in Frisco TX know that athletes, no matter what their age, can and do incur sports-related injuries and that it’s important for parents to know how injuries happen and what they can do to prevent them.

What types of injuries occur in young athletes?

 
According to The American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, children sustain two types of injuries when they participate in sports – acute and overuse.  Acute injuries result from a single, traumatic event and can include fractured wrists, sprained ankles and dislocated shoulders.  Overuse injuries are more subtle and occur over a longer period of time.  Tendons, bones and joints can suffer from repetitive trauma, resulting in an overuse injury.  These injuries can include tennis elbow, Achilles tendinitis and even stress fractures of bones in the ankle and foot.

Why do injuries occur?

 
Injuries can result from a variety of causes including equipment failure, poor training, improper technique, or anatomical or biomechanical problems your child may have.

How will you know if your child is injured?

 
Most of the time, children will let you know immediately if they’ve suffered an acute injury but with overuse injuries, they often don’t understand that they’re injured and will try to ‘tough it out’ to continue training or competing.  As doctors of sports medicine in Frisco TX, we have seen many children whose injuries were made worse over time because they didn’t realize they were injured and so didn’t seek help at an early stage of the injury.  As a parent, it’s important that you pay attention to your child’s behavior and seek help if they have appear to be in pain upon movement, limp, have headaches before or after an activity, experience dizziness or lightheadedness, have trouble breathing during an activity, appear to be experiencing weakness, lose feeling in fingers or toes or have irritated skin or blisters.

How can you help your child prevent injuries?

▸ Make sure your child has a pre-participation physical.

▸ Make sure your child warms up before any physical activity.

▸ Make sure your child cools down properly after physical activity.

▸ Make sure your child gets instructions on the right way to train and what techniques to use.

▸ Make sure your child’s training level increases no more than ten percent per week.

▸ Make sure your child has equipment that fits and works correctly.

▸ Make sure your child stays hydrated.

▸ Make sure your child takes breaks that will allow their muscles and joints to rest.

No matter how much you may try to help, your child may still suffer a sports-related injury this coming school year.  If that happens, call us at Texas Orthopedic Partners at (469) 293-4000.  We are experienced in sports medicine in Frisco TX and can offer a variety of treatment options for your young athlete.  You can find out more about us by visiting www.texasorthopartners.com.

SPORTS MEDICINE FRISCO TX
Texas Orthopedic Partners
4401 Coit Rd, Suite 203
Frisco, Texas 75035
(469) 293-4000