Why More Kids Get Adult Injuries

Injuries like tearing the ACL, chipping pieces of bone from an elbow, and lower back problems may sound like adult ailments, but more kids are suffering from these injuries because of organized sports.

"I've been playing baseball ever since I could throw the ball," Nick Mulcahy of Massachusetts tells The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler. "When I was in Little League it used to be every day after school for like two hours. And then, after that, I'd usually come home and play wiffle ball with my little brother."

Little League is often thought of as child's play but these days kids like Nick are getting injuries reminiscent of those in the big leagues. Nick is 14 and has already had three surgeries on his elbows because of what's being called "Little League elbow," basically overuse from pitching and hitting.

"It was like locking, like I had to bring it back every time to put it down, and it was clicking," Nick says.

"At the time, the doctor said at the time, small pieces of bone were breaking off and floating, causing this clicking noise and causing his arms to lock up," his father, Steve, says.

Both Nick and his dad insist the injuries weren't caused by pressure from anyone to play. They chalk it up to boys being boys.

"Nicky plays hard," his dad says. "You can tell your son to take it easy out there, but when they get out on the field they play hard."

While he has no intention of slowing down, Nick does have a few words of wisdom to other kids out there.

"If they don't want to go through surgery, they should watch how much they throw and how much they play," he says. "Have a pitch counter or make sure the coach doesn't throw them as much in the games or practice."

Dr. Lyle Micheli, director of the Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston says U.S. Baseball has come out with guidelines on how much kids can play in Little League and Babe Ruth games. Little League allows kids to pitch 6 innings per game and Babe Ruth allows 7 innings per game. Practice time is not included.

"The guidelines don't effectively approach the problem because one kid can throw 100 pitches per inning and one can throw 60," said Micheli, who is also Nick's doctor. "The kid with poorer form will throw more. But if the dad also has the kid outside every night and coaches keep practicing them, it's not effective."

His advice is to come up with better guidelines. The following are his suggestions:

• Mandatory credentialing for youth sports coaches: "We can make them take mandatory courses and be tested on safety," he says.
• Set further limitations: "A kid should not be training more than 20 hours a week. And even so, there's such variability with that," he says. "If they are training more than 30 hours a week, they should be monitored every three months by a doctor. Of equal importance is the 10 percent rule. Don't increase the training more than 10 percent each week. If they run around the track once a day, then they can't do it twice the next day. They should only increase a small percentage to build up strength and stamina."
• Have a pitch count: "The average dad should be sure his kid does not do more than 300 skilled throws a week, not just lobbing, and that includes practice with dad, team practice and the games," he says.

"Girls are more at risk for injuries where the muscles get too tight in their compartment," he says. "These types of injuries are seen in any running sports. There is some indication that kneecap irritation is more prevalent in girls. And girls are three to five times more at risk for an ACL injury than boys. We see that injury in soccer, basketball and field sports."

He says the sports in which children are least likely to suffer any of these injuries are racquet sports, swimming and — believe it or not — ice hockey. "It sounds crazy, but it's because the foot can always move," he says. "It's not locked into a position on the ground, so that helps."