Be Well: Keeping Your Kids Safe During Summer Sports & Activities 

<div class="block">Dr. Kristin Hopkins, orthopedic sports medicine at Stony Brook University Hospital, joined Cheddar News with some tips for parents and keeping their active kids safe during the summer.</div>

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In the US. About 30 million Children and teens participate in some sort of organized sport and more than 3.5 million injuries happen each year. That's the latest data out of Johns Hopkins. So now that the summer season is here, we want to talk about preventing those injuries. So today we are joined by Doctor Kristin Hopkins. She's an orthopedic sports medicine doctor at Stony Brook University Hospital, also the team physician for Stony Brook University athletics. So thanks so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Ok. This is such an exciting time because the kids are getting out of the house, they're running around, but unfortunately, they're also tripping, falling spraining their ankle or having other kinds of injuries. So I guess for kids that weren't maybe that active, you know, in the, in the off season, what are some of the things for parents to, you know, be aware of now? So, I mean, summer season, same rules apply in terms of athletics overall, right? You always want to make sure that your kid is well protected with the appropriate equipment that they are hydrated, that they warm up. Um Things that become even more important when you increase the temperatures and the humidity, especially in the Long Island summer. Yeah, that, actually, that's one of those things I want to talk about when you think about, um, a warm up, the hydration I would think would be key, especially for the summer because I've seen, you know, my own son come off the lacrosse field, especially the turf that gets so hot and he just looks like a different person. Yeah. So definitely on the artificial surfaces, the base of those is rubber and it retains heat a lot more than a grass field. Um So that definitely plays into the temperature of the environment they're playing in. So, you know, hydration, we think water, but it's also about electrolytes. I grew up in the generation of Gatorade and we don't necessarily promote that as much anymore because of the sugar content. But there are ways to give back electrolytes with these powders and things just to make sure you're on top of, you know, the appropriate way to hydrate. Um And then also just paying attention to your kid. You know, if a lot of times with the summer leagues, it's an entire tournament, right? So they're playing three games and by that third game, right? Have they drank enough, have they eaten anything during the day? If they really look lethargic, if they're really red in the face, if they're complaining that they're really hot, get them off the field, get them into the shade, cool towel on their neck, you know, just keeping an eye on them because it can escalate, it can get worse. Now, in between say, you know, we have that scenario of like multiple games, a tournament, whatever the case may be, what kind of, you know, snack food or, you know, like do we need to be eating a banana or like what kind of things should we be doing? So, bananas help. Um, definitely things that have some protein apples with peanut butter. Um, things that also have like a good water base. So if you can get them to eat some watermelon, that's helpful. Oranges, things like that. Um, things where they can break down the carbs and the sugar, but then they also need the protein peanut butter and jelly even is a good one for between games. Ok. So now we've got, you know, this child out there playing multiple games, they have this repetitive motion, right? Whatever, you know, the sport is that they're playing, how do we make sure that they're not injuring themselves by just doing that, you know, swing or whatever the case may be over and over again. Yeah. So you basically hit on the top, the hot topic of over and early specialization, which is really big right now in sports medicine. So we're finding that these kids now it's not just a one season and then switch to your next sport and switch to your next sport. These kids are playing one sport for the better part of the year. Maybe it's a school season. But then they've got a travel team, then they've got winter training and before you know, it, your child is playing one sport for more than eight months out of the year, which qualifies as early specialization and that lends itself to these overuse injuries. Right, juvenile cartilage, young joints and things like pitchers, right, same motion over and over again. Lacrosse, they shoot right over and over again. And so as parents, we really do need to keep tabs on, on the amount that they're doing, um, and just trying to avoid those overuse injuries by also cross training with a different sport that works a different muscle group and also gives them socialization with a different team. Right. So is there a time frame that I should keep in mind because I know my son wants to get in those wraps? Right. He wants to do that wall ball and keep, you know, doing, how is there a certain amount of time that I say? Well, actually that's too much or. So, you know, we have these societies and the, the, um, like sports medicine society says that if you, whatever your child age, that's the number of hours they should be playing that sport per week, right? So a 10 year old, 10 hours of lacrosse and then something else and that's even even that's a lot. Right. And then they need to be taking four months off from that sport. That's what we recommend. Ok, over the course of the year. And what about weights? Like when is too young for kids to be, you know, trying to really bulk up or add muscles so they can have some power? Yeah. So when I was growing up, when I was in this whole idea of, don't we train too soon? You'll stunt your child's growth. That's kind of fallen by the wayside. But now it's more about if you're going to introduce that doing so, you know, at the age of 12, middle school on is, is ok and even better if you can do it in a way where they are learning proper technique and proper mechanics, you don't realize it. But there's a proper way to squat, there's a proper way to do a push press, right. So I think a lot of these gym programs and trainers now are capitalized on that and making sure that our kids are learning the appropriate technique. And now if they do have an injury, I know, I think we were of the old school of like, walk it off. Right. But is, is that really a thing or is that like, just bad advice? I mean, I think there's definitely a role for that. Um But it's, there are certain cardinal signs to look for, right. So if you're, if it's really swollen if something looks deformed, obviously, that may be an emergency visit, but in terms of what to get an x-ray, went to see your orthopedist if they won't use it. So if it's like, they won't bend the elbow, they won't use the wrist, probably an X ray, they won't put weight on the ankle. Probably an X ray is a good idea. Um, in my, my childhood it was like, you know, give it a night and then see what happens. Yeah. And I think that that's ok within reason. Right. If it's responding to some ice and some Motrin and they're, they're able to go to sleep that night. You can address it the next day. All right. Thank you so much, Doctor Ho.