Tackling Sports Injuries

With summer coming soon, people are more active - getting outside and having fun. But along with the benefits of exercise and activity comes the risk of injury.

Dr. Eric Small is a pediatric sports medicine specialist and author of "Kids and Sports." He visited The Early Show to offer the following tips to prevent injuries:

• Know and abide by the rules of the sport.
• Wear appropriate protective gear such as soccer shin pads, a bike helmet, or a hard-shell batting helmet.
• Check equipment before you use it and know how to use it. For example, breakaway bases have reduced leg injuries in children playing baseball.
• Always warm up and stretch before playing.
• Avoid playing when tired or in pain.
• If you're playing in hot weather, always drink plenty of fluids and rest in the shade if you start to feel dizzy or weak.

Heat Injuries
People get dehydrated in the heat. When you over-exercise, your at a higher risk for heat cramps, strokes, exhaustion or even death. Every year, we hear stories about school-age athletes who collapse and even die from heat stroke. Heat injuries are very serious. Every year at least 5 to 10 kids die of heat stroke, and the numbers are generally under-reported because you also have kids who die of heart problems that were actually heat related.

To prevent heat injuries:
Before exercising intensively you need to build up tolerance. You don't want to go out the first day of summer and run a marathon. Rather, gradually increase the time and intensity of your activity. Proper build up and conditioning can help prevent a lot of problems. Kids need to get acclimated to the heat. This is a general rule in summer to help prevent sports injury of all kinds - proper build up.

In addition, drink a lot of water. About 15 to 30 minutes prior to exercise, you should have a glass of water - or a sports drink for intense activity.

Overuse Injuries
Common overuse injuries are tendonitis and stress fractures. These often occur when you're doing 6 to 8 hours of the same activity every day.

To prevent overuse injuries:
Simply don't do it. You need to use different muscles. Don't do the same sport over and over. You often have overuse injuries in kids who go to camps for particular sports - such as basketball camp, baseball camp and tennis camp. The majority of these camps are one-week camps. You don't need to stop sending your child to sports camps, but you shouldn't send them to the same camp for four weeks in a row. Perhaps go to Basketball camp the first week, baseball camp the second week, tennis camp the third week and then back to basketball camp the fourth week. That way, there is a two-week break from using the muscles used playing one particular sport.

Sprains
The most common injuries are re-injuries. Sprains such as ankle sprains are likely to happen to people who have sprained their ankle before. But there is a way to help prevent reinjuries.

To prevent sprains:
People who have loose ligaments should do strengthening exercises. People with tight ligaments and muscles should do stretches to stretch out and strengthen the muscle.

When should you see a doctor for a sprain?
Injuries are graded as mild, moderate or severe. If you have a limp, you should see a doctor. But if it's just a mild sprain, you can treat yourself. Use ice compresses for the first 72 hours. After that, you can do some mild exercises with light bands to go through the full range of motion. You can also bike and swim. That will increase blood flow and help get rid of swelling. That way, you also won't lose muscle from inactivity. But you should not do any weight-bearing exercise such as running, tennis, dancing and contact sports.

Knee Injuries
Girls are getting a lot of ACL ligament injuries; this is caused by landing wrong when they jump. The proper way to land is with knees bent at 20 to 30 degree angles. You don't want to have your knees locked when you land. Conversely, if you squat down, you don't want to go past a 90-degree angle.

When should you see a doctor for knee injuries?
If there's significant swelling or tenderness over the bone; if you hear a pop, crack or snap; or if it swells right away, you should see a doctor. This goes for the ankle and other joints and limbs also.

Over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs such as Aleve and Ibuprofen are great for any of these injuries. They reduce pain and swelling. However, these drugs can also mask symptoms of a more serious injury. Therefore, you should not return to competitive sports or other activity while on anti-inflammatory drugs because you risk making the injury much worse.

The general rule for muscle and ligaments injuries is "RICE:"