Help Your Child Protect Their Ankles During Youth Sports

Baseball, football, soccer…and ankle injuries!

At least life is returning back to normal again.

Sports are incredibly beneficial for your child’s health, and probably even indispensable. While they do come with the risk of injury, the benefits far outweigh the potential injuries your child could suffer.

So take a look at this brief guide to protect your child from ankle injuries and help them quickly recover should they experience one.

How to Protect Your Child

The first thing to understand is that your child can fully recover from an ankle injury. You don’t have to feel an intense amount of anxiety about your child playing youth sports.

Here’s what to look for:

1. Proper Footwear

You don’t have to shell out big money for a pair of shoes that will only last 3 months.

At the same time, your child should have the correct footwear for their sport. They should feel comfortable with whatever they have on.

And it should provide the necessary protection from injury.

2. Examine the Playing Field

Give the referees and coaches a hand and check your child’s playing field for divots, loose earth, and holes.

Fill them in or pack the ground tightly so no one’s child has to deal with any unexpected problems while playing their game.

3. Warm-Up/Stretching

Your child’s coach should take care of this as your child participates in their sport.

However, make sure your child warms up before they practice or play on their own.

Your child should also do a cool-down session after intense activity.

4. Tell Your Child to Take a Break

If we’re guilty of anything in America, it’s doing too much. That includes kids.

Overuse injuries, such as stress fractures, commonly happen with children.

Your child loves to play their sport. Encourage that. But also set limits too.

Practice only takes you so far. Eventually, your child either has the talent to progress in their sport, or they don’t.

If Your Child Suffers an Ankle Injury

It’s inevitable. Your child will get hurt while playing a sport. Hopefully, the injury isn’t severe.

If they suffer an ankle injury, follow the same formula that you do for adults – the RICE method:

• R – Rest. Your child needs rest until they can put full weight on their ankle again. Consider crutches for particularly severe injuries.
• I – Ice. Wrap ice in a towel so it doesn’t burn your child’s skin. Ice your child’s injury immediately after it happens and for the next 2-3 days.
• C – Compression. Wrap a bandage around your child’s ankle. It should not cause pain or circulation problems. Their toes should remain exposed.
• E – Elevation. Keep your child’s ankle elevated so swelling stays to a minimum. You can use pillows to maintain consistent elevation.

That’s all there is to it. Give your child adequate time off their sport. You may even have to force them to rest more than they’d like.

Take all these steps and your child will be back to playing their favorite sport soon enough!