A national study shows more than three-point-five million children under age 15 each year suffer sports injuries that are serious enough to require medical treatment. At least four-hundred-eighty-thousand children each year go to emergency rooms with injuries from fall sports. Brandi Thompson is the co-coordinator of the Iowa Safe Kids Coalition. She says that children ages five to fourteen are the most susceptible to sports injuries because their bones are immature, and they are still developing their motor and cognitive skills. She says 62-percent of these injuries occur, not during an organized game, but during practice. She says if you have to wear protective gear for a game, then you have to wear it at practice as well.Thompson says that the one sport that garners the most young injuries may come as a surprise. She notes that we tend to think that tackles and collisions from football would cause the most injury, but in a rank of injury potential, basketball is first, followed by football, baseball, and gymnastics. This statistic can be blamed on the -little- amount of protection required to play basketball and to participate in gymnastics. Thompson also notes that some emergency-room visits could be easily prevented by following common sense in hot weather. She says even in September there are warm days and it’s important that kids stay hydrated.Most importantly though, she says there needs to be the proper supervision for the kids at all times. For more information about sports safety form the Iowa Safe Kids Coalition, call Brandi Thompson at 515-241-6293.
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