With the country deep in the throes of winter, sledding-related injuries are common among children and adolescents, but many are preventable if common sense safety precautions, including the use of helmets, are taken.
According to Daryl O'Connor, MD, an orthopedic surgeon in the Orthopaedic Department at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, a part of Loyola University Health System in Chicago, more than 700,000 injuries are reported each year in the United States due to sledding. More than 30 percent are head injuries, caused by collisions.
An estimated 229,023 children and teens 19-years-old and under were treated in the Emergency Departments of US hospitals, for an injury rate of 26 per 100,000 population, says a recent study in the journal Pediatrics.[1]
The biggest causes for concern, said researchers, are that:
After analyzing the data, researchers at Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio recommended that parents take the following safety precautions to minimize the risk of sledding-related injuries:
A recent, unofficial entry on the sledding list is something called "snitching" in which daredeveil teens grab a car's rear bumper and slide on their feet, or are pulled by ropes on inner tubes or sleds through icy streets. "This is not even a sport; it's just being foolish," says O'Connor. "In addition to broken bones, neck and shoulder injuries, young people can suffer fatal head trauma. Please, resist the skitch at all costs," says O'Connor.
1. Howell CA, Nelson NG, McKenzie LB. Pediatric and Adolescent Sledding-Related Injuries Treated in US Emergency Departments in 1997-2007. Pediatrics 2010;126(3):517-524.
Additional sources: Nationwide Children's Hospital and Loyola University Health System.
Updated February 1, 2015
Links:
[1] https://mail.momsteam.com/helmets/helmets-significantly-reduce-head-injuries-among-skiers-snowboarders
[2] https://mail.momsteam.com/health-safety/not-wearing-helmet-increases-head-injury-risk-snowboarders-skiers
[3] https://mail.momsteam.com/parents-importance-of-role-modeling-for-kids-by-wearing-helmets-in-skiing-snowboarding