Child's play - with pain

Jessica Sinn wanted days without pain more than she wanted to play basketball. The Cape Girardeau high school senior recently gave up sports because of past knee injuries that left her in constant pain.

While playing sports can be great exercise for many teen-agers and children, it can also set the stage up for serious health risks if athletes aren't prepared to play.

A study commissioned by the Consumer Product Safety Commission said that eight sports caused 2.2 million bone and muscle injuries in 2000 to children ages 5-14.

Playing is good, but children and teen-agers need to understand how to play safely and aren't getting enough encouragement to do so, the study said. The findings were presented last month at a meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

The study focused on injuries that orthopedic surgeons would see -- and those are plentiful.

Dr. William Thorpe, an orthopedic surgeon who serves as team doctor for Southeast Missouri State University and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill., said about 40 of the patients he treats each week are children or teens.

Battered bone growth

Sports injuries can pose great risks for children who are still growing. Any injury to a growth plate in the bone can cause problems as the child continues to grow, Thorpe said. Growth plates are soft spots where cartilage transforms into bone cells.

Among the sports that record the most injuries or medical care are bicycling, basketball, football, roller sports like in-line skating and skateboarding, baseball and softball.

While the study didn't report on trends or compare statistics from years past, it does show that most injuries could have been prevented, said coauthor Dr. Jeff Purvis.

Coaches should heed the warnings for warm-ups and stretches, which can often prevent injuries.

Shelia Midget, girls' basketball coach at Cape Central High School, said she tries to take as many preventive steps as possible when training her players.

The team lifts weights during the summer to strengthen quad and hamstring muscles. The weight training also helps strengthen knees, which are problematic for many female athletes. Many of the girls wear knee braces or ankle supports even during practice.

"We do stretching and drills and warm-up jogging so that even before we get full speed with our drills we have a slow warm-up," Midget said.

Several of the girls have knee injuries from previous seasons and have recovered with rehab and stretching exercises. A sports trainer attends all practices with the teams at the school and assesses injuries.

Repeating injuries

Megan Richards, 15, sat out of practice Tuesday after suffering an ankle injury last week during a basketball practice. She was jumping up for a rebound shot when "my ankle just gave out," she said. Since the ankle was still weak from a past volleyball injury, she knew it just hadn't healed fully. The two injuries came within a month of each other.

Richards wears a support brace now, and will see the doctor another week to see if she can play this season. The junior varsity team begins its season Nov. 19, the varsity team Nov. 26.

Thorpe said many college players suffer from injuries they received during high school or even younger.

Young athletes should make sure they eat properly because poor nutrition can affect growth and performance, and limit their activity, he said.

Sometimes youth sports teams will practice for longer amounts of time or not warm up before a practice. And longer practices or playing multiple sports can mean being fatigued, which just makes an athlete more prone to injury, Thorpe said.

"They have to remember to exercise and prepare to play," Thorpe said. The seeds of arthritis can grow in children who don't get proper care for injuries.

Sports injuries at a young age can have a great impact on a person's life, Thorpe said, and the injuries can be much more dangerous than in adults.

Sinn suffered with knee pain for about five years before she decided to give up sports and the decision wasn't easy -- she misses playing. But she said, "I wanted to walk more than I wanted to play ball."

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126