Author: Splash Creative

Engaging in sports offers children and teens a chance to stay active, build confidence, and foster friendships. Sports also bring a sense of excitement and accomplishment while helping young athletes develop essential skills. However, it’s important to also understand the risks of injury, especially if kids push their limits. There are many things families can do to protect their kids from getting injured so that they can enjoy sports safely. 

 

Common injuries from sports in kids include sprains, strains, growth plate irritation, and stress fractures (which are small bone fractures caused by repeated stress and impact). While all sports can cause injuries, sports with the most contact pose a greater risk of a traumatic injury. We recommend that young athletes avoid specializing in one sport too early. Playing a variety of sports not only provides opportunities to develop a broader range of skills, but it also reduces the risk of repetitive stress injuries. As a parent, you have a key role in guiding children toward age-appropriate sports that match their development and physical abilities. Your pediatrician can also help you assess this. 

 

To prevent injuries and ensure that sports remain safe and fun for kids, encourage your child to take time off. It’s best for children to take at least one day off each week and one month off per year from training for a specific sport. This allows the body to recover. Additionally, your child should have the appropriate protective gear that fits correctly, such as pads, helmets, mouth guards, and eyewear. It is also important for children to strengthen their muscles and flexibility.  Conditioning exercises that focus on the muscles used in sports can help build stability.  Stretching after practices or games improves flexibility – all of which helps prevent muscle strains. 

 

Another way to prevent injury is to ensure that proper techniques in sports are being used and that safety rules are followed. This includes avoiding head first sliding in baseball and spearing in football. If your child ever feels pain, they should stop playing at once. Playing through pain can turn a minor injury into something serious. Taking breaks during practices and games is also crucial. This is especially the case when the weather is hot so that your child doesn’t get a heat-related illness or fatigue-based injuries. Make sure your child stays hydrated and wears appropriate clothing for the weather as well.

 

Physical injuries aren’t the only concerns when it comes to sports. Emotional stress can also take a toll on young athletes. Although winning is exciting, it’s important to keep the focus on effort, improvement, and teamwork. Kids should feel encouraged to enjoy sports for the fun, health benefits, and learning opportunities rather than feeling pressured to win.

 

While sports injuries can’t always be avoided, these steps can minimize the risks. If you have any questions or concerns about sports injuries, call our office. We advise that your child gets evaluated if they experience any point tenderness over a bone, regardless if the swelling is only minimal. Even mild pain should be addressed as it can lead to greater problems.

Most children between the ages of 2 and 4 are potty-trained, but some still wet the bed at night even after the age of 5. Bedwetting is not a serious condition, but it can be a challenge for many families. One of the common reasons for why bedwetting happens in older children is a communication issue between the brain and the bladder. When the bladder signals to the brain that it is filled with urine and the brain doesn’t send a response to the bladder to hold the urine until morning, bedwetting occurs. 

 

Sometimes there is a delay in the development of the bladder or kidney during nighttime that causes bedwetting. There may be less space in the bladder at night or the kidney might make more urine at night. Other common reasons for bedwetting are stress or trauma and medical problems that a child might have. Some children might be more at risk for bedwetting due to genetics, a deep sleep pattern or poor sleep quality (common during the adolescent years or puberty), obstructive sleep apnea or snoring, constipation, bladder or kidney disease, neurologic disease, diabetes, ADHD, or taking certain medications. 

 

For young children who are wetting the bed, you can continue potty-training them until they grow out of this. They may still have occasional bedwetting accidents after being trained, but these are usually of no concern. If it happens frequently, however, you may want to look into the issue more closely. One solution that could help is to set a bedwetting alarm during the night for your child to wake up to use the bathroom. There are also certain medicines that can help, but we recommend talking to the pediatrician before using any of them. 

 

Another important tip to follow is to limit your child’s intake of food and drinks with caffeine or sugar in the evening. Salty snacks in particular should be avoided close to bedtime. Going to the bathroom within 2 hours of bedtime and regularly throughout the day can help. If your child is attending a sleepover or an overnight camp, you may want to consider providing them with disposable underwear with boxer shorts. 

 

Bedwetting can affect your child’s emotional well-being and self-esteem, and cause them to feel too embarrassed to have sleepovers or struggle with staying focused in school. It is therefore important to stay positive and patient during the process. If one treatment isn’t working, do not give up. It often takes a combination of different methods and it can also take some time to resolve the problem. Never blame your child or punish them for bedwetting as it is not their fault. Make sure to remain sensitive to their feelings and remind them that they will outgrow this. It’s also important to not allow teasing from anyone in the family, including your other children. 

 

If bedwetting is an ongoing problem in your home, you can schedule an appointment with the pediatrician who will take a complete medical history and inquire about urinary symptoms your child might have. These include the urge to urinate frequently or pain during urination. Your pediatrician will also want to gather information about your child’s sleep pattern, how often they have bowel movement, and any potential stressful events in your child’s life. A urine test along with a complete physical exam is often performed. 

 

For help and guidance with bedwetting and finding the right solutions, please call our office. 

Bullying is a serious issue that affects children and adolescents every year. As parents, it’s important to be aware of the signs, know how to effectively address and prevent it, and help your child thrive emotionally and socially. The first thing to understand is what bullying is and what it’s not. Bullying happens when there’s an imbalance of power between the bully and the one being targeted. The bully will use harmful words or actions and dominating behaviors that can make their victim feel intimidated and unsafe. It is not the same as harmless teasing between friends or an argument between kids. Some children are more likely to become targets of bullying, such as those who are shy, perceived to be weaker or smaller, have disabilities or special health care needs, or have a marginalized identity including their racial and ethnic background or being part of the LGBTQ+ community. 

 

If left unaddressed, bullying can take a toll on a child’s health, development, self-esteem, academic performance, and school attendance. If you notice signs that your child is troubled, such as problems with sleeping, loss of appetite, sudden change in their school grades, skipping school, or feelings of depression and anxiety, talk to your child to see what the root of the issues are. If you suspect that your child is being bullied, ask them questions to better understand the situation. Once you learn more, you can help make your child feel safer. 

 

Encourage your child to not give in to their bully’s demands or give the bully a reaction. Bullies try to scare others and when they get that reaction, it can encourage them to continue. Advise your child to ignore the bully and let an adult know about the issue as soon as possible so that they can intervene appropriately. If the bully keeps harassing your child even after they ignore them, suggest to them to stand up to the bully by firmly telling them to stop the behavior or they will report them. When the bullying behavior is extreme or becomes worse, intervention from teachers, the school principal, or the bully’s parents, should be sought. Alert all parties so that they’re aware of the situation and can take the necessary actions, as well as keep a close eye on the problem. 

 

In many cases, bullying doesn’t take place in-person at school but online instead. This is known as cyberbullying, which has increased in recent decades from social media and smartphones. It usually involves harmful messages such as texts or comments on social media, sharing embarrassing or altered pictures of the victim, making up and spreading rumors and false stories, etc. Cyberbullying can be more difficult to deal with as the bully can easily be anonymous. If your child is affected by cyberbullying, document all behaviors, messages, and harmful images and report them so that they’re taken down as soon as possible and the user gets banned or removed from the platform where the cyberbullying is taking place. Tell your child to block the bully online and from their phone so that they do not continue receiving the messages.

 

Lastly, it is always helpful to teach your children how to build healthy relationships so that if bullying does occur, they have a support system that they can rely on. The more isolated a child is, the easier it is for a bully to target them. By developing strong friendships, your child will have people who can stand up for them and help them get through tough situations. Our pediatricians can also help. If you have concerns about bullying and your child’s mental health, please contact our office.