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First Aid for Children’s Sports Injuries

About 60% of injuries that take place during youth team sports are cuts, bruises, strains and sprains. Only a small percentage of injuries are serious or involve broken bones. Overuse injuries such as stress fractures, strains, sprains, tendonitis, torn cartilage, swimmer’s shoulder and shin splints have become common in youth team sports due to repetitive activity or excessive training. Falling down in the process of play or being hit with a ball or other piece of equipment are frequent accidental injuries that take place during sports activities. Spondylolysis is a common lower back injury due to twisting, trauma or compression of back muscles. Seen more in girls than boys, spondylolysis can take place during football, weight lifting, gymnastics, wrestling, or diving.

The majority of coaches in children’s sports are well-meaning volunteers. Unfortunately, in many instances, no first aid or ice therapy is on hand, even though the majority of children’s sports injuries require ice as the first line of treatment for pain and swelling. A good policy to follow is asking your child’s coach about his/her emergency plan for injuries. Also find out what type of first aid is available at every event. Proper ice therapy should be the immediate treatment for bruises, bumps, strains, fractures, and sprains.

And don’t forget about dehydration and heat exhaustion. These are also very real problems associated with youth team sports. Signs of heat related illness are: dizziness, weakness, headache, nausea, pale and moist skin, heavy perspiration, normal or low body temperature, weak pulse, dilated pupils, disorientation, and possible fainting spells. Make sure enough water is available and that your child stays hydrated. There should also be cooling breaks during hot weather play. Using misting water bottles on the body can help with cooling, as well as using ice packs for short intervals on the back of the neck or forehead.

Causes of Children’s Sports Injuries:

• Excessive training.

• Inadequate warm-up before a sport.

• Untrained supervision.

• Wrong technique (too long of a stride or over-extension while throwing).

• Accident during play, such as a hard fall or blow to the body.

• Ill-fitting or unsupportive equipment (shoes lacking proper arch support).

• Re-injury: returning to a sport too soon after an injury has occurred.
   

Treatment and First Aid for Children’s Sports Injuries:

• Stop the activity that is causing pain.

• If the injury is acute (eye injury, broken bone, brain trauma or spinal injury) see a doctor or go to the hospital immediately.

• For most overuse or re-injuries, apply the principle of R.I.C.E.

• Rest: stay off of the injured area as much as possible.

• Ice therapy/ Chillow: apply ice packs or Chillow to the injury at 10 to 20-minute intervals for 24 to 48 hours.

• Compression: use a firm wrap or bandage (not too tight) around the injured area.

• Elevation: raise the leg or arm to reduce swelling.

• If the pain does not resolve itself after 2 weeks, see a physician. In the case of severe pain or swelling that does not recede within a few days, see a physician immediately.

Cryotherapy

The next time you or one of your students inflame a knee joint, strain a muscle, or twist an ankle during a sporting activity, make certain that you ice the area correctly; inappropriate icing can sometimes make an injury worse rather than better.
'Many athletes spend 20 to 30 minutes continuously applying ice to an aching joint or throbbing muscle, but that can really be counterproductive,' states cryotherapy expert Dr Romain Meeusen of the Free University of Brussels. Meeusen's interest in the sometimes surprising effects of icing the human body began when he was growing up in the northern part of Belgium near Antwerp. As he played with snow as a child, lobbing snowballs into the grey waters of the river Schelde, Meeusen noticed that his bare hands were at first blanched and chilled by the snow but eventually turned bright red and warm, despite their continued contact with the ice-cold snow. The redness and warmness, of course, indicated that prolonged exposure to the icy snow had actually increased blood flow to his hands.

This seemingly strange reaction, in which ice or an application of cold actually increases the flow of blood to a region of the body, represents one reason why Meeusen is concerned about how ice is used therapeutically. After all, one of the goals of cryotherapy is to diminish the movement of blood to the site of an injury, so that there will be less chance of forming a sizeable haematoma (a swollen, painful area containing blood). Since ice can sometimes increase the amount of blood flooding into an injured part of the body, it must be used with caution.

Why it happens
But how can the application of ice enhance the passage of blood into a body region, when everything one's ever learned suggests that ice hampers blood flow? Basically, when body tissues are cooled, nerve cells in the chilled area initially force adjacent blood vessels to constrict, leading to a marked reduction in blood flow in that portion of the body. However, if the temperature of the affected area continues to drop, nerve activity is depressed and the blood vessels begin to open up again, bringing in an onslaught of blood which re-warms the tissues, even though cold is still being applied. Once the nerves heat up (because of the inflow of blood), they shut down the blood vessels again, commencing a new cycle of chilling and warming (like the blanching and then reddening of Meeusen's gloveless hands).

The somewhat surprising increase in blood flow to body parts during cryotherapy (or unprotected activity in cold environments) has been documented by a number of researchers. For example, a classic study on the effects of cold application found that blood flow decreased when body regions were subjected to moderate cooling but increased when colder temperatures were. Another investigation uncovered a large increase in muscular blood flow as tissue temperatures. This flood-of-blood effect is the human body's attempt to thwart severe cold injury in a body part subjected to a chilling stress.

Limit ice applications to 10 minutes
If an injured area is compressed and elevated while it is being treated with ice, the potential increase in blood flow can be partially controlled, but Meeusen still believes it is important to strictly limit the time duration of an ice application in order to minimise the chances that a tidal flow of blood will sweep into an injured joint or muscle. Fairly brief applications of ice also diminish the risk of frostbite-like damage to superficial tissues which are in close contact with the ice. For these reasons, the Belgian researcher and physiotherapist suggests that ice applications should be limited to about 10 minutes or so.

Sceptics who contend that it takes longer than 10 minutes to adequately refrigerate an injured inner region of the body may scoff at the idea of applying ice to a damaged area for such a brief period, but Meeusen's research has turned up some interesting facts which support his contention. For one thing, Meeusen has found that when ice is applied to an injured part of the body for 10 minutes and then removed, the temperature of the skin in the affected area will begin to rise immediately after the ice removal, but the temperature of the muscles and other tissues beneath the skin will actually continue to drop for a few minutes, even though the ice has been taken away.

The continued drop in inner muscle temperature, even after the removal of the ice, occurs because the layer of fat found beneath the skin functions as an insulating material which keeps heat from moving inward to the muscle from the skin and outside world. In addition, the blood vessels leading to the damaged muscle stay constricted for a while in response to the icing (they haven't been chilled enough in 10 minutes for them to open up yet), leading to an actual continued decline in muscle temperature.

Why the Chillow is Different
The Chillow® is activated once only by simply filling it with 4 pints of ordinary tap water. The water is fully absorbed into the patented, foam core of the Chillow. Once activated it will keep on working, so it's always ready for use when you need it.

Chillow is cool not cold: Unlike ice or gel packs, Chillow provides just the right amount of coolness to be effective and comfortable. The Chillow does not require refrigeration unless you need to be extra, extra cool!
Chillow is dry not wet: The Chillow does not melt or sweat so it can be used in bed or on clothing without any dampness.

Chillow is soft not hard: The Chillow is flexible and soft to touch and has memory foam properties.