While caring for patients in the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin Concussion Clinic, I often notice that parents and young athletes don’t realize that a concussion affects injured athletes in all phases of life, not just athletics. While progress has been made in concussion awareness and recognition on the athletic field (although there’s still room for improvement), concussion awareness has …Continue reading this post

You may have read and heard a lot about concussions lately. I recently cowrote a clinical report on sports-related concussions in children and adolescents that will be published today in Pediatrics. There have been some positive changes in the NFL and NCAA to improve safety, but you will be glad to know the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletics Association has been following these improved rules for a few years now.

Concussions are brain injuries and need to be taken seriously. They don’t just happen in professional sports, they happen in every sport, at any age, to boys and girls.

Concussions are treated much differently now than they were 10 years ago. While we have learned a lot about concussion, medical professionals continue to learn how to better recognize, treat and prevent short- and long-term consequences.

A concussion is a brain injury that temporarily alters brain functions. It usually happens after a direct blow to the head, but it also can happen from a blow elsewhere on the body where the force gets transmitted up to the head. Most young people are not knocked out, and many kids have no memory loss. Even a child with a normal MRI or CT scan of the brain can have a concussion, because it’s a functional injury, not damage to the brain’s structure. (more…)

March Madness continues and the elbows are flying. To help prevent dental injuries and cuts to the face, lips and inside of the mouth, any athlete playing a collision or contact sport should wear a mouth guard.

There are three main types of mouth guards: stock, boil and bite, and custom.

Stock mouth guards are available at your local drug store, and can be immediately removed from the package and placed in the mouth. Although they’re convenient, they tend to be very bulky and require the child to constantly bite down to hold the mouth guard in place.

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Concussion has been a hot topic in the news lately. In youth sports, several states recently passed laws requiring coaches to be educated about concussions and kids with suspected concussions to be stopped from practice or playing until they receive medical clearance.

In football alone, there are 100,000 concussions per year. Whether you’re an Olympian, high school athlete or simply sledding in the park, helmets are essential safety gear.

When buying a helmet, it’s important to remember a few guidelines:

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Well, the snow is coming down today marking the first big snowstorm of 2010. Though we adults may dread driving in it, nothing makes kids happier than sledding down a hill blanketed with fresh snow.

But did you know that each winter 24,500 kids are injured in sledding accidents? About 3,000 of these kids suffer a serious brain injury as a result. These are scary statistics that no parent wants to think about. A few simple precautions can help prevent many of these injuries:

• Wear a helmet. Wear a helmet. Wear a helmet.
• Check the sledding area before your child uses it.
• Look for bumps and ice.
• Make sure it’s away from traffic and doesn’t lead to lakes or rivers.
• Always supervise your child while he or she is sledding.
• Dress your child appropriately. Tuck in scarves and other loose clothing so nothing gets caught under the sled.
• Teach sled control – how to control the sled, fall off safely and stop.
• Require your child to sled sitting down, facing forward only.
• One person to a sled, unless it’s specifically designed for more than one rider.
• Promote fair play – no pushing or shoving.
• Wait your turn – make sure the hill in front of you is clear of sledders before you go.

Put safety first, and you’ll help ensure a fun and safe sledding season for your child.

–Kevin Walter, MD, program director, Pediatric and Adolescent Sports Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin