Sports injuries are a common occurrence whether you are playing in professional or amateur athletics. Especially for young children sports injuries are likely to occur during athletic competition.

As covered in our last blog, common sports injuries include sprains, muscle tweaks, knee injuries, and also head injuries. To prevent further injury after sports completion you may have to perform first aid. The benefits of first aid include being able to safely transport a patient to urgent care or the ER, preventing new pain or supplemental injuries, and coordinating treatment.

So what are some first aid basics you should know about in the event of a potential injury?

Remember P.R.I.C.E when your child has a sports injury!

A great way to begin first aid for most sports injuries is to use the P.R.I.C.E method whenever your child experiences an injury. PRICE is a useful acronym to remember first aid steps for any potential injury. The PRICE methods works in these five steps:

• Protection: When an injury happens stop activity as soon as you can. Make sure that the area around the injured athlete is safe from contact with other athletes. Once the area is safe begin first aid.
• Rest: Rest the injured area and try to keep weight off of it initially. During treatment, make sure the injured limb or area is rested frequent.
• Ice: An injured limb usually results in pain and swelling. To reduce both, make sure that your ice the injury intermittently to lower the chance of pain.
• Compression: Quickly compress an injured limb in order to reduce pain and stabilize the injured area. Compression is the most effective way to secure an injured limb before going to a medical provider for treatment.
• Elevation: Elevating the injured limb is also an effective way to reduce pain and swelling. Depending upon the injury it may help to elevate it above the head or as high as possible.

Coordinate care at the appropriate medical provider

After administering first aid make sure you find the right provider for the severity of an injury.

For the most significant injuries that require emergency care, take your child to the ER. These injuries include potentially debilitating and life-threatening injuries.

However, most sports injuries are acute which means that you won’t require emergency services to manage and treat them. For minor and acute sports injuries go to your local urgent care center for treatment. Patients in the Watertown, MA area should go to AFC Urgent Care for any sports injuries they may need to treat!