The Numbers Are Serious
Despite the statistics that show that American children are heavier than they’ve ever been in the past, there has been an explosion in the access to organized sporting activities for children in this country. There are an estimated 25 million school-based and another 20 million community-based youth sports programs in the U.S. and many of the children taking part start as early as age seven. Sports-related injuries are the second-leading cause of emergency room visits for children and the second-leading cause of injury in schools. Estimates are that 3 million youth are seen in hospital emergency rooms each year for sports-related injuries and another 5 million are seen by their family doctors or sports medicine specialist for sports-related injuries. …show more content…
The problem is that when children participate in group or individual sports, especially in competition, they can become injured when their activity levels are too intense or too excessive. The biggest contributing factor to the dramatic increase in overuse injuries in children is the emphasis on intense, repetitive and specialized training at younger and younger ages. The overuse injuries that can occur include stress fractures, tendinitis, bursitis and osteochondral injuries of the