How Your Pediatrician Can Help With Your Child's Sports Injuries

How Your Pediatrician Can Help With Your Child's Sports Injuries

Even with the best prevention children can still experience sport injuries. Find out how we can help!

While it can be scary to see your child get knocked down while playing sports, it’s important to know when sports-related injuries are more minor and can be treated at home or when you need to visit your Kennesaw, GA pediatrician, Dr. Kola Ologunja, for treatment. Sports InjuriesLearn more about the most common types of sports injuries and how we can help.

Acute injuries

These tend to be traumatic injuries such as sprains, broken bones and cuts. While minor cuts and bruises won’t need medical attention we should take a look at the majority of acute injuries. Most acute injuries treatments follow the RICE method: rest, ice, compression and elevation. This alone can often reduce pain, swelling and bruising. We may also recommend other remedies or treatment options to help reduce your child’s healing time.

Overuse Injuries

Common overuse injuries include tendinitis and stress fractures. If your child is dealing with an overuse injury it’s important that they rest and avoid physical activities until they can visit their Kennesaw children’s doctor for treatment. Children with overuse injuries may experience pain and swelling localized to the injured region.

Common treatment options include cold or heat therapy, strengthening exercises, resting, over-the-counter pain relievers or a splint or brace.

Concussion

A concussion is a serious situation in which your child has experienced a blow to the head. Common concussion symptoms include blurry vision, sudden headache, confusion and dizziness. If your child might have a concussion it’s important that they see us right away or are taking to your local ER for treatment.

Fortunately, many cases are only mild and symptoms will start to go away after about a week. The best thing your child can do during this time is rest and avoid things like watching TV or playing on their computer, which can stimulate the brain and cause symptoms to worsen. As symptoms improve your child can start to slowly go back to their daily routine.

Of course, these are only three of the most common issues we see from young athletes. But if your child is experiencing pain, swelling, tenderness, redness or problems walking, then it’s time to come into our office right away for treatment. While it’s always better to prevent injuries it’s also important that you understand when to see us for care.

Have questions about your child’s bumps and bruises? Need to schedule an appointment with us regarding your child’s health? Then don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and call Spectrum Pediatric Group in Kennesaw, GA today!