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Heat Safety

Fox 40's Heat Alert Mouth Guard: A Game Changer Like Their Whistle?

The new Heat Alert mouth guard changes colors if an athlete’s core temperature goes over 102 degrees F, in effect a heat stroke early warning system. Whether it will be a game changer like Fox 40's pea-less whistle remains to be seen. 

Do Children Handle Heat As Well As Adults?

The myth that children are more vulnerable to heat than adults is based on the first studies of youth exercising in the heat conducted in the 1970's and 1980's. More recent research shows that, while youth use a different thermoregulation strategy than adults, they are still efficient at dissipating and handling the heat, at least in mild to moderately hot conditions.

New Jersey Athletic Trainers To Hold Third Annual Sports Safety Summit

MomsTEAM has consistently supported athletic trainers' groups, both at the national (NATA) and state level, in their efforts to improve youth sports safety, both through education and by advocating for ATs in every high school (less than half of U.S. high schools have an AT on staff, although the percentages vary dramatically from state to state).

One of the most active athletic trainers' association at the state level is in New Jersey, which was the first state to require by law that coaches receive safety training, is among the 40 states that have enacted strong youth concussion safety laws, and has been a leader in advocating for academic accommodations for concussed student-athletes. 

Athletic trainers are essential to making youth sports as safe as it can be.  Educational programs, such as the Athletic Trainers Society of New Jersey's third annual sports safety summit on August 1, 2012 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, are important to educating health care professionals on safety issues, including concussions, heat illness, sudden cardiac death and overuse injuries.

Sports Drinks: Clearing Up The Confusion

Parents in a recent study were unsure about whether sports drinks were appropriate and under what circumstances. So MomsTEAM asked a sports dietitian and mom to clear up the confusion. Here's what she told us.

Pre-Season Heat Safety Guidelines for High School Sports: States Have Been Slow To Act

Six years after a joint task force of medical groups issued pre-season heat acclimatization guidelines, only 13 state high school athletic associations have moved to adopt them.

Guidelines On Reducing, Preventing and Treating Exertional Sickling in Athletes

With the summer sports season in full swing and preparation for fall sports participation and training around the corner, it's time to revisit the guidelines for athletes with sickle cell trait.

Banning Sale Of Single-Serve Water Bottles: Will Concord's Law Be Second Shot Heard Round The World?

Two nights ago, I played a small part in making history, and, hopefully, in starting a new revolution.

Concord, Massachusetts, the town where I have lived for the past twenty-five years and where the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in 1775, voted at our annual town meeting to approve Warrant Article 32 banning the sale, after January 1, 2013, of non-sparkling, unflavorMinuteman Statue Concord MAed water in single-serving (e.g. 34 ounces/1 liter or less) plastic bottles.  

That my home town of Concord, Massachusetts voted to ban the sale of single-serving plastic water bottles may not rival the original "shot heard ‘round the world" at the Old North Bridge on April 19, 1775, but it may have sounded a clarion call to environmental arms.

Susan Yeargin (Athletic Trainer): Preventing Heat Illness Is Her Passion

In recognition of April as National Youth Sports Safety Month, MomsTeam asked 30 experts to write a blog answering two questions: first, how or why did they get into their field, and second, how have they made a difference in the life of a youth athlete in the past year.

Today, we hear once again from Susan Yeargin, a certified athletic trainer, MomsTeam's hydration expert, Assistant Professor in the Physical Education and Athletic Training Department at the University of South Carolina, and new mom!

By Susan Yeargin, PhD, ATC

An athletic trainer decides to devote her professional career to studying ways to improve child and adolescent hydration and the prevention and treatment of heat illness after learning of the death of a college football player from heat stroke.

Georgia Heat Acclimatization Guidelines

In 2012 Georgia became the sixth state to adopt heat-acclimatization guidelines to reduce the risk of exertional heat stroke among high school athletes.  In adopting  key recommendations from a 2009 statement from the National Athletic Trainers Association, the Georgia High School Association joins Connecticut, New Jersey, Texas and North Carolina.  Since then 10 other states have adopted the full set of heat recommendations.
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