Dr. Jessica Peck talks about habits for healthy families on American Family Radio
Hello and welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show, prescribing Hope for healthy families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner, and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, hey there, friends, and welcome to my favorite time of day. On my favorite day of the week, it is Friday. Yay, everybody, it's Friday. Happy Friday to everybody. And that means we are at another Ask doctor nursemama Friday day. And I'm talking about habits for healthy families. Since January, we've been going through 52 habits for healthy families. I hope you've been following along. You can listen and catch up on any Friday show or go to the doctor nursemama, coaching minutes. You can find those on afr.net on AFR's app on any podcast platform and you can get the 1 minute version to catch you up. But in today's day and age, the question I'm most off, I most often get is how can I make my family healthy and all the way spiritually healthy, emotionally healthy, mentally healthy in these days where we're talking a lot about a mental health crisis among youth? And my answer to that is it's really simple, but it's not easy. It's in the daily disciplines. There is no miracle life hack. There is no quick fix. There is no magic involved. God has given us everything that we need in his word. And so since I can't believe we're already getting towards the end of the year. But we started off with spiritual discipline. So here's your check in. Are you praying? Are you reading God's word? Are you going to church? Are you playing Christian music? And then we talked about some rhythms in your life. Are you being thankful? Do you have a daily devotional? Do you have a morning routine and a bedtime routine? Are you getting good sleep? Are you eating dinner together as a family? Are you checking in with your family at least once a week? And then we talked about communication. This was perhaps the most difficult for me and the most convicting. But we talked about listening with your face, not just your ears. We talked about giving words of affirmation. We talked about how do you apologize sincerely? How do you give words of affirmation and write letters to your family? How do you model your faith? Give generously, prioritize your family time, play together and get together with your extended family. Then we started a summer in tech, and we talked all things tech pretty much most of the summer. We talked about the importance of reading books. We talked about watching media together with your family, being in Pictures, being in the family pictures and using those as character building. We talked about unplugging, on vacation, tech free zones, tech free times, tech tracking, tech transparency, tech tidying, tech safety, all of those things. And with tech safety, we transitioned to where we are now. So if you're new, welcome. If you are following along, great. I actually got an email from a listener this week who is using these healthy habits as a starting point for discussion for their young married's Bible study. And that is fantastic. And so thank you so much to those who are continuing the conversation in your communities. We talked about tech safety and then the last two weeks we talked about sun safety and water safety. Today I'm going to be answering some questions about play safety. Now, play is really important. We need to play more. I believe in this day and age where things, life is so serious and it moves at the speed of a smartphone. Our kids need to know that not everything is all business. We need to make time for play. But there are some things that we need to do to do it safely. So today I'm answering the most asked questions about youth sports, playing safety, and I'll talk also about some recreational safety like ATVs, golf carts, things like that. So stay tuned because I'll be covering those throughout the show.
Family safety series explores practical ways to keep your family safe at every stage
Now, for me as a pediatric nurse, I've been working in pediatrics for almost 30 years, which is. Oh, actually it's more than 30 years. That's crazy to me to think about. I'm a dinosaur in pediatrics. I've seen it change a lot, but I've also been so honored to walk alongside families in moments of joy and healing. But here's the thing. For me as a nurse, my perspective is just different because I have met the best intentioned parents on the very worst day of their lives many, many times. And often those days begin with a simple recreational activity or it's a time when you're trying to play together, you're playing a sports game, you're taking a family ride on the golf cart, you're having a trampoline session or just an afternoon in the yard or around the pool. No one plans for an accident, no one thinks it's going to happen to them. And for me, I've had a very unique nursing career in teaching a lot while I was also practicing in nursing. So I've been in a lot of different contexts and a lot of different children's hospitals and clinics across the country. And I see this happen a lot. So listen in these things may sound simple but it's a great opportunity. Whether your parents, your grandparents, whether you are leading a, community group, whatever you are interfacing and interacting with your family, no matter the age or stage, there's some safety to be learned. So let's get back and dive into our family safety series. We're going to explore some very practical, practical ways to keep your loved ones safe at every stage of life. And as always, I always go to scripture for Psalm 121, verses 7 and 8. It reminds us, the Lord will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life. The Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore. And that is important for us to remember that God holds us in the palm of his hands and accidents happen. And accidents are just that, they are accidents and they're often no one's fault. But God is sovereign and that can be a tough, tough truth in times of tragedy. But he also equips us to enact some safety series. So let's talk about it. We're not going to talk it through a, fear based lens. This is about equipping you to keep your family safe. So whether you're raising toddlers, guiding teens, if you're a grandparent. Ah. And revisiting that toddler stage. I know a very good friend who was at that stage and we were just talking about how exhausting it is, if so, a shout out to all the toddler mamas who are still running after all of kids watching, all of the things being all of the safety guides. I really appreciate you very, very much.
Let's start with youth sports safety. Now, this is a sensitive subject
So let's start with youth sports safety. Now, this is a sensitive subject, so I'm going to ask you to listen with an open mind because this is something that's deeply embedded into the fabric of American life. And many times when kids are involved in sports, it becomes part of their identity. And that can be a good thing and it can be a harmful. A winning season or a pursuit of a sports goal isn't worth a lifetime injury, whether that is physical or whether that's mental or emotional or psychological. So let's talk a little bit about safety. Now, we know kids can get hurt in sports. We know that's a risk, you can get hurt walking out your front door. So I am not going to be too hyperbolic about that. But you should know that There are about three and a half million children under the age of 14 who receive medical treatment for sports injuries each year. It is a pretty lucrative business. Otherwise you wouldn't have sports medicine, professionals who make this their job. And many of you listening have probably had a kid who may have even had to have had a surgery from a sports injury. Again, risk is inherent with anything. But as parents, it's your job to look at that risk, benefit and decide what's right for your family.
Concussions have doubled in youth sports in the past decade
Now one of the things that you know, we've really been paying attention to and that is on the news a, lot is concussions in particular. Concussions have doubled in youth sports in the past decade. That's mainly because sports are getting more competitive. So let's talk about a little bit why this matters. Now I told you, I've been in Pediatrics for 30 years and certainly, certainly the culture has changed. I remember when I was even in high school and for the football team at my high school, the coach would drag out a giant trash bag full of shoulder pads and you just grabbed one and go. Now everything is custom. Custom mouth guards, custom, orthotics, custom everything. And the bott of this, the trend that we've been seeing is that youth sports have professionalized. That's the bottom line here because we've got year round club teams. Even in my own parenting journey, we saw little league pretty much decimated in preference for select sports as parents move to that professionalization of sports. We've got showcase events, we've got social media, brand building. Those things are all increasingly common. And we're talking about starting in junior high and sometimes even earlier. We're talking about private SK coaches. we are really, this is lot being driven by the college nil. The name, image and likeness changes that have happened that have allowed college athletes now to make money and quite a bit of money. If you're, if some of you are much more familiar with that world than I am and you could tell your neighbor about that. And some of you are probably thinking what in the world? But yes, college players are making some, in some cases millions of dollars off and their recruit. That recruiting, visibility, all that is trickling down to high school. High school is trickling down to middle school and it's trickling down to parental mindsets feeling like the opportunity has never been greater. Now this raises pressure to specialize earlier and really treat childhood like a mini draft. And we see a lot of reporting a lot of commentary about this, about rising cost because you've got to buy now the specialized equipment, have the specialized coaching, you've got to play travel ball and pay for the travel costs that are associated with that all of those things and we're really talking about early brand curation with kids who are working on creating their social media brand for recruitment, visibility. And we've got roster or eligibility uncertainty. All of that's tied to those nil era reforms. And families feel this now long before college. So it is really hard to have a balance. But the truth is we've got to keep in mind the odds. We, we need to keep dreams big. I am all in favor of having big dreams. And there are kids who do make it to professional sports, but we need to keep the expectations healthy too. And the NCAA, I pulled these statistics today estimates that about 1% of collegiate basketball players now that's players in college, 1.1% are drafted by the NBA. About one and a half percent of college players go on to the NFL and about 5% of baseball players are drafted by the MLB. Now remember, this is just drafted, so this is coming from high school, which is an even smaller percentage. And just because you're drafted doesn't mean you're guaranteed a career in the pros. Overall, about fewer than 2% of NCAA athletes go pro. And so we can use those numbers to right size. Our expectations still dream big. There are kids who are gifted, there are kids who will make it all the way. But we need to anchor purp and identity beyond those outcomes because when we're talking about safety from a sports mindset, we're talking about their psychological safety too. And that is really important because I have seen kids who have had their whole identity. I've shared a story, many times of a family I encountered early in my career, a very, very talented basketball player. And I've changed a few of the details of this to protect the identity of the family. But it's been many, many years ago. And when, he was their only child and he was going on a college scholarship and the parents had already bought a house, they were moving, they were going to college, had a career ending injury in one of the last games of his senior year. And the surgeon came in and was telling the family, I can't believe it, but I was able to save his leg. And their only question is, but when can he play again? When can he play? And that is so hard. It is so, so hard. But that's why the way we've got to make sure that we're curating a, balanced view. And I know it's hard, I do.
Overuse injuries in youth sports are linked to specialization and burnout
But let's talk about overuse injuries because that's what we're seeing a lot of because of this Professionalization because of the specialization, kids are in sports more. They may play in more than one league and more than one time or they may play one sport year round. So what do we see from that? Well, we see stress fractures, we see growth plate injuries and that's a, that's a problem. Before your child hits puberty. It means their growth plates are open because once puberty is finished their growth plates are signaled to start to close and it gives them a little more protection from an orthopedic, from a bone health stance. So kids who are still going through that process have a much greater risk of a growth plate injury which requires usually surgery. Pinning has greater risk of long term damage. We're seeing elbow and shoulder ligament injuries like Tommy John surgeries in high school. we're seeing all kinds of things that injuries that are related to high volumes in a single sport, not resting enough and having these rapid training spikes as they're transitioning from, from sport to sport. So the consensus is, I know this is not popular but the consensus from pretty much every major sports health authority says overuse injury is really linked to that early specialization in sports and it also can cause burnout. So it's best for kids to play a round of a well rounded group of sports because it exercises different muscle groups. It actually makes them stronger physically, mentally and socially. So when we come back I'll talk a little bit more about some prevention, how you can prevent overuse injury, some really good strategies for that in youth sports and we'll talk more about recreational and play safety when we come back.
Last year preborn helped to rescue over 67,000 babies from abortion
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Because of listeners like you, PreBorn helped to rescue over 67,000 babies. Your $28 to sponsor one ultrasound doubled a baby's chance at life. Your tax- deductible gift saves lives. Please join us in this life saving mission. To donate go to preborn.com/AFR. will you take a moment and celebrate life with me? Last year preborn helped to rescue over 67,000 babies from abortion. Hi, this is Jessica Peck, host of the Dr. Nurse Mama show and I want to thank you for your partnership. Think about what you did. 67,000 babies are taking their first breath now because of you. Your $28 sponsored one ultrasound that was given to a woman as she was deciding about the future of her child Once she saw her precious baby for the first time and heard their sweetheart beat, her baby's chance at life doubled. The preborn's mission is not only to rescue babies lives but also to lead women to Christ. Last year Preborn network clinic saw 8,900 women receive salvation. Your help is crucial to continue their life saving work. Your caring tax- deductible donation saves lives. So please be generous. To donate go to preborn.com/AFR, that's preborn.com/AFR or dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby that's pound 250. baby, your love can save a life. Preborn's whole mission is to rescue babies from abortion and lead their families to Christ. Last year Preborn's network of clinics saw 8,900 mothers come to Christ. Christ please join us in this life saving mission. To donate go to preborn.com/AFR. you.
>> Oh But God by Davy Flowers : Gave me truth worth believing and I traded my chains for your freedom cause you were the one that I needed oh but God resurrected my heart from the ruins and my rescue came through like the and now this is my sure testimony oh but God oh but God
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back friends. That is oh But God by Davy Flowers and But God are my two favorite words together in the history of ever. What a gracious God we have. Oh but God and whatever you're facing today, but God can intervene. Our God loves to redeem, to restore, to renew, and he's helping us to do that. I am trying to help you do that. Today on Ask Doctor Nursemama Friday, we are in our 52 Healthy Habits series and we're talking today about plaything safety. Now, before the break, I hope I didn't step on too many toes out there talking about sports because this is something where American passion can run very fiery. And I get that, I understand that. But we're talking about how to best set our kids up for success in a culture that is rapidly changing, especially with the recent nil changes and the potential for college athletes to make quite a bit of money and to have some control of their brand. Now, regardless of I know that there are feelings to be had on all sides of the issue, but what we can learn from this is how to set up our kids for success and especially to prevent overuse injuries. These are injuries that happen just from the same repetitive motion that can be stressful on a growing skeletal system. Now, for those of you who maybe are not familiar with that, I want to emphasize that there that's just why it's really important to partner with a primary care provider who you literally trust with your life and they can help you with that. Because there's a lot in athletes for timing of interventions into puberty because that has to do with their open growth plates. And so There are different risks that are there and that's why it's important to have a sports physical and talk about those kinds of things. But here are some evidence based guide, just general guidance. Again talk to your primary care provider for specialized guidance but in general some evidence based prevention for overuse. The first thing is to delay single sport special specialization. I know that's not very popular but the honest truth is every major sports authority and child health they recommend multi sport participation because it reduces overuse injury and spreads the load across muscle groups. It avoids that too much stress on their skeletal system and it supports overall athleticism and joy. And most athletes who make it to the wherever they're going in professional sports they have been multi sport players. The second thing is to make sure that you're putting some limits on training volume and intensity. Now a practical rule of thumb and again this should be individualized to your child with your healthcare provider. But weekly organized sports hours should be less than the child's age in years. So if you have a 7 year old they should be practicing less than 7 hours per week. If you have a 12 year old less than 12 hours per week, that's just a general kind of sort of guideline. Although there will be different circumstances dictating that for sure. And really it's, it's advised to avoid more than eight months a year. In one sport you need four months off and that helps to prevent those abrupt spike preventing abrupt spikes and frequency or intensity. But that is that's important to do. The third thing is to program smart seasons. Now this means planning off seasons. When is going to be your off season from your preferred sport and having active rest blocks that can be important. Talking to the coaches about cross training to correct imbalances like, like for example if you have a child who's a swimmer, what can they do to add strength and stability? If they have somebody who's primarily throwing emphasizing that posterior chain core work is important, runners having mobility or strength, all of those kinds of things. Thinking about making sure you have a well rounded training program, the next thing is to screen early and check often. You really should have your kids should have a pre participation physical before every single season. And that is really important. Any pain that alters mechanics or persists for more than a few days, then you really need to go get that checked often, checked in early which is really important. And I can't emphasize this enough for young athletes. Sleep and nutrition are really the ultimate performance gear. We're spending so much money on, you know, athletic performance wear. But sleep and nutrition are, where it's at. And we're starting to learn more about this as the focus of America is really on wanting to be healthy. And we see the national dialogue around that. So sleep, making sure that sleep is prioritized, that kids are getting at least eight to 10 hours, that they're having scheduled meals and healthy snacks and adequate energy and protein, all of those things are really, really important. And and, and it is important to talk to kids about performance enhancing drugs before that happens, because those can happen in a culture that is prioritizing increased competition for sports. So talking to your kids about it before it, hey, there may be kids who are taking something that just looks like a healthy supplement, that just looks like something nutritional. Never, ever, ever take any food or supplements or powders or bars or anything from anybody without talking to me about it first and making sure that you have an open culture to talk about that. Because sometimes kids can overload on protein. They may not realize how much protein they're taking and then it starts to stress their kidneys. And too much of a good thing can be too much of a good, really important to have a plan for nutrition and for sleep. And I can't dive into that too much because that would be a whole week's worth of shows. But that can, that can be important. And you may just have a signal, a system with your athlete saying, asking if they're green, yellow or red. Like, are they green, they're feeling good, everything's great. Are they yellow? Like, I'm feeling a little tired, I've got a little soreness here. Or red, I've got an injury, I've got a limp, I've got numbness somewhere, something like that. Green means go, yellow means slow down, modify early, and red means stop and evaluate. So that can be how you feeling after practice today. Green, yellow or red, that can just be an easy, quick way to check in. And as always, we want to frame athletic pursuits in terms of character, because excellence honors God when it's best pursued as character. So think about that as you're looking at your athlete performing and make sure that you're emphasizing character just as much as you're emphasizing athletic ability. Because who cares if the kid is the, has the best stats on the baseball team, but he's also the one who's going to come back and throw his helmet and throw his bat and curse out the umpire. Really, what, what are we working for here? So make sure that you're emphasizing character, especially when they're having a struggle or a slump.
Youth concept concussions increase in light of increased professionalized sports
Let's talk a little bit about concussions, because this is really important as we're seeing youth, youth concept concussions increase in light of increased professionalized or competitive sports. That's really important. And a lot of people ask the question I get often is, what is a concussion? Well, in very basic kind of simple terms, a concussion is did you hit your head and is it causing you symptoms? Well, that's a concussion. So if you have a head injury and you have dizziness, that's a concussion. So that's important to go and to get checked for that. And there's been some changing guidance on concussion for a while in the last decade we would really emphasize rest. It was emphasized basically kids were supposed to lay in a dark room and not do anything. Well, unsurprisingly to me, I guess kids are kids and that caused more stress, that isolation, than just rest. So it's really important. The thing that I would say is just make sure that you take concussions very seriously because second concussions, concussions that happen when a first concussion haven't healed can be extremely dangerous. So it's important just to take that time to rest and protect your mental health. We've had a lot of talk about CTE and professional sports. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which can be permanent brain change changes from trauma that's accrued in sports. And there's a lot of talk about that in professional sports. So just make sure that the coaches are taking concussions seriously, that they are not doing a sideline evaluation if a kid has a head injury, that they are getting an appropriate evaluation from a healthcare provider. Now some schools are well resourced and they have train who will do this or healthcare providers who are there at the point of play. But that is really, really important. And so I would just encourage you to take concussions seriously, to go if you have any concern about a concussion and to make sure that you are following your healthcare provider's advice. I do not mess around with those because I've seen kids who can be really severely impacted and the short term gain by pushing through with that kind of what we used to say in Gen X, no pain, no gain. That's actually not true with concussions at all. That short term push through can really cause some long term setbacks. So it's best just to play it safe. And again, healthy team culture is king here. We really want to shift that spotlight from the outcomes to the process I mean sometimes you may not win, the cards may not fall in the right way, but maybe you have team who just showed Herculean effort, who showed the best attitude, who showed great sportsmanship and adversity. those things are really, really important. And so think about those non scoreboard wins that you can post. What are the non scoreboard wins like? Yes, we want to win the game. Yes, you want to be successful. But what are the wins off the field that happened wins outside of the game? So we can do this at home by building our family story around character and faith and learning and relationships and just trophies. And I've heard this advice from a coach before and I thought it was great having the three whys before, before thinking about adding a sport to your family, thinking why this sport? Why this sport right now? And why us? why will we engage? And thinking about those things and making sure that everybody is on board because it is a family commitment for sure. So, and setting some boundaries as parents can be really helpful. Just saying whatever those rest cycles are, whatever those training blocks are, those kinds of things can be really helpful. And you know, after the game, instead of saying, you know, did you win? Just say what did you learn? What did you learn today that can be really, really helpful. So there, and I will say there are some uniquely gifted kids who do specialize early. So for all of those parents out there who are thinking, oh no, are we doing something wrong? Some children are outliers and socialization is happening before late adolescence. Here's what I would advise you to do. Build a care team. Make sure that you are supporting your young athlete. Making sure that you have a primary care provider or, and, or a sports medicine clinician. Now sometimes primary care providers are really specialized and good at that. Sometimes you need both. But you need to watch for injury surveillance, growth, plate monitoring. You need that healthcare team really close alongside inside you. And you need a nutritionist to help you with, with fueling their bodies with iron, with vitamin status. All of those kinds of things are really important. I would invest in a strength and conditioning coach to kind of correct any of those asymmetries to manage the load on their skeletal and muscular system and and mental performance. This is really important and we're starting to see more specialists in this areas. But there are some mental performance coaches who use, who provide some support to buffer those pressures of perfectionism. and really it's all about a mental game. There are some really fascinating movies and books that have come out about this and you'll See some of the highest performing athletes who really say that this is extremely, extremely helpful. So the parent script for this is, hey, we love your passion. Our job is to protect your joy and your future, not just your body. In this season, we, we don't want to just patch up your body to get through the season. We want to build you up hol holistically as a person to set you up for success. So that is really, really important. Now, these limits, these goals, they don't have to dampen ambition, they don't have to limit what your child is able to do, but they will protect your child as a holistic human being who's inside that athlete so they can keep playing and keep learning and keep serving for years to come. And that is really important. So I encourage you as parents to play the long game to really protect the health of your athlete. And after that, if you do, the winds will take care of themselves because those wins may be on or off the field, but in developing character and developing perseverance and, all of those things will be extremely, extremely helpful.
There are over 90,000 ER visits every year from trampoline injuries
And so that is, that's my spiel on youth sports. Those are some of the most common questions that I get. And taking this off the field from competitive sports just to play for fun, I get a lot of questions, questions about trampolines and backyard play. So I'm going to tell you. What I'm going to tell you is not going to be popular. But is your backyard have a trampoline? If you have a trampoline, I want you to listen up. Or if you're thinking about getting a trampoline, because the truth is There are over 90,000 ER visits every year from trampoline injuries I've seen. I could tell you stories, but I will not because they're really traumatic, honestly. most injuries do occur with more than one jumper at a time. So that's really important to know. And, and I have seen the joy of play turn into an emergency room visit in just a matter of seconds. And trampolines are super fun until they're not. Until they're not fun. So if you could prevent one ER visit this year for your kid or your grandkid, would you be willing to rethink, rethink your play options? And here's what's. What's unpopular, really. Most health, agencies recommend against any recreational trampoline use at home. I know that's not popular. I know a lot of people have trampolines, but the injuries are just really common. There's about a hundred thousand trampoline related injuries in the year per year in the United States. And three quarters of those happen when multiple people jump at once. And 15% of those injuries involve the head or the neck. But here's the thing. 1 in 200 trampoline injuries results in permanent neurological damage. We're talking about paralysis and head injuries and those kinds of things. So when we come back, I'll tell you why trampolines are uniquely risky for kids and some of the physics of that bounce, some developmental considerations and if you do have one, how you can to make it safer, if not safe. So we'll talk about that and ATVs when we come back.
Dr. John Oswalt: God is a God who speaks
Here's Dr. John Oswalt from the American Family Studios documentary the God who Speaks.
>> Dr. John Oswalt: One of the remarkable things about the God of the Bible is that he is a God who speaks. The writers of the Bible again and again talk of him as the living God. And when they do, they include. This idea that the idols are dumb, they cannot speak language is an incredible mystery. Really. What is it that makes human beings able to communicate in word? Personally, I think that is the image of God in us because God speaks right at the beginning of the Bible, God spoke the world into existence. It did not somehow evolve from his body. It was something that he spoke. Visit thegodwhospeaks.org.
>> Chain Breaker by Zach Williams: If you've been walking the same old road for miles and miles if you've been hearing the same old voice at the same old lies if you're trying to fill the same old holes inside There's a better life There's a better life. If you got pain, he's a pain taker if you feel lost, he's a way maker. If you need freedom he's a prison-shaking Saviour if you got chains, he's a chain breaker.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back friends. That is Chain Breaker by Zach Williams. And I hope that wherever you are, you're having a great Friday.
Ask Doctor Nurse Mama Friday focuses on play safety for families
Today is Ask Doctor Nurse Mama Friday. And we are in our safety series in our 52 Habits for Healthy families. And today I'm talking about play safety. Now I start of the show with an affirmation from scripture. Let me give it to you again from Psalm 121, verses 7 and 8. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out. And you're coming in from this time forth and forevermore. And we ultimately need to trust God with the safety of our families. I encourage you to pray for your families and just to exercise good caution and making sure that you're providing safe environments for your family to play. So we have talked about youth sports. Hopefully I haven't, alienated or offended too many of you sports enthusiasts. I live in a family of sports enthusiasts. Ah, for sure. And it is really hard to balance that safety with ambition, but it can be done. And now I'm talking about trampolines. And I know that a lot of families have trampolines, but here's some reasons why trampolines are uniquely risky. And if you don't believe me, I would encourage you to ask anybody, you know, probably you know, somebody somewhere who works in an emergency room or an urgent care, and ask them about the things that they're seeing. And they will tell you. Here is the conversation that I hear. And having worked myself in an emergency room for a long time, I still maintain that network. They'll tell you trampolines are very much up there. They'll tell you ATVs, they will tell you electric scooters, because that is basically a motorcycle that kids are treating like a bike. And they will tell you about pickleball, which a lot of older I. And by older, I mean in your 40s and 50s, older people picking up pickleball who maybe haven't been very active before, and, and think it looks easy. And the next thing you know, you're having an ankle surgery. These are things that we see a lot. But we do see a lot of trampoline injuries, especially from trampoline parks. Now, this is because a little bit of physics that when you have a very. You have unpredictable force vectors when you have multiple people jumping, so you never know who's going to be thrown what way. And so it can be hard to predict your safety or of the way, because it happens really fast and really hard. And even light participants, they can be propelled pretty forcefully by heavier jumpers. So where I see this is siblings of different ages. Now, I grew up with a trampoline in my backyard. I was the oldest of five, and, you know, we were Gen X. So generally using this unsupervised. So we basically would spend our days thinking, what are ways that we can make this even more dangerous? Like, could we add fire? I mean, I'm, I do not recommend. So everybody should be supervised. But kids are naturally going to be curious and explore more elements of danger. Now, there's also some design flaws and safety measures. Because you think safety measures means safe. Now, it might mean safer, but safer is not safe. So sometimes, you know, you Have. So people ask, what about the safety nets? What if I put the net around it? Well, that can help reduce a fall to the ground, but it doesn't stop high impact collisions, awkward landings on your net neck or falling on an outstretched arm to break your arm, break your leg, those kinds of things. And I have seen some really serious injury and even death from kids trying to climb over the safety net when they can't get out of the little slot opening that is there. So that's there. The other thing is that padding deteriorates very quickly, especially outdoors. If you live outside somewhere like I do in Texas, man, things do not last very long, but we don't maintain it as fast as it deteriorates. But main, those safety features can give parents a false sense of security because they might feel safer because they have nets, they have rules, they have supervisions. But what we found in research, here's the truth, injury rates really don't decrease with the safety features. It's still dangerous. It still can happen. Now for developmental considerations, thinking about those little tykes, toddlers and preschoolers, they have actually the highest injury risk because their coordination is just immature. So the American Academy of Pediatric recommends no trampoline use, especially under the age of six. But school age kids are going to have more risk taking behaviors. They want to impress their peers or their siblings and that can lead to unsafe jumps or flips. And teens are just bigger, so they're greater forces on impact, increasing a risk for a fracture or a concussion. And, and trampolines, you know, are really marketed as fun. And we see social media trends and we see peer pressure during parties or play dates, those kinds of things can increase unsafe, behavior. So if you're feeling like you're that mom, that parent that is, you know, just the killjoy just saying no, you can't do that. Don't be afraid of that, don't be apologetic for that. It's okay. Once you've made your boundary, just feel comfortable in sticking with it and just, and just let your kids use you as the out and just say, yep, my mom just said no and that's that. And so find something else to do. That's okay. It's all right for parents, for parents to teach kids to respect their boundaries, even if they may disagree with them. But protecting our kids long term health, that's just a way we honor the gift of their life. And that is important to do.
Some ways that you can make trampolines safer
So some, some guide guidance for for those who think, okay, well this isn't realistic. Our Kids are jumping on trampolines. Again, I would recommend not. I recommend no trampolines, but some ways that you can make them safer. Not safe is a strict one at a time rule. Never any multiple jumpers. Having an adult watch at all times. No flips or somersaults because that's a high, much higher risk of neck and spinal cord injury. No toddlers or preschoolers allowed to jump, especially with other kids on there. Regularly checking the equipment, making sure the padding's intact, the springs are covered, the frame is stable, and looking at where you're putting it, making sure it's away from a fence, away from a tree, away from a hard surface. And that's, that is important. And looking at those seasonal limits, like no, no jumping on it in ice. And that's what kids want to do. If it's covered with a layer of ice. Oh, that's so great. Let's go jump on it. That's more dangerous. And time limits, because that can reduce some, some mistakes that kids can make when they just get tired because their reflex, reflexes and reactions aren't as good. But some other alternatives that you could have would be some ninja quartz horses with padded flooring, climbing walls with safety mats and a harness. Organized sports bike riding with helmets, of course, all of those things. But we want to promote activity for fun and fitness and friendship, not just adrenaline, not just tricks. Although there are some kids that are built for that. I acknowledge that. And again, I would advise you to put some of those safety as, precautions that we talked about earlier. That is really important. And just help your kids be empowered to make wise choices in play. And that is, that's really important to do.
American Academy of Pediatrics says kids under 16 shouldn't operate an ATV
And so the other question that I get a lot about is ATVs, golf carts, recreational vehicles. What do you think about those? Well, once again, you're talking to a pediatric nurse who's worked in an emergency room for a really long time and seen some extremely, extremely tragic accidents. Now, it's important to, to emphasize that those are very, very rare. But even when you're standing with a loss of one child. Child, it doesn't feel rare, isn't comforting. It's not comforting to say that it's rare because every child's life matters. Now, some of the things I've seen are burns that happen from being dragged by an ATV or a golf cart when it overturns, or it overturns in a, very shallow body of water, but it's too heavy to push off. And so all of Those things are really things to think about. But it's important for us to teach our kids that ATVs, golf carts, recreational vehicles, they aren't toys, they are not toy vehicles. They are powerful machines that need to be operated responsibly because you know, mo. And you really need to check your city ordinance, your state laws because many of those have, have laws or regulations regarding who can drive one. Most of the time you're going to see that they can't drive a golf cart, for example, on a city street unless they're licensed to drive a car. So make sure that you know those city and state laws and regulations and ordinances so that you're operating. That's the starting point, that should be the starting point for safety. And so, but we're seeing a lot of increased use of ATVs, again for safety recommendations. The American Academy of Pediatrics says kids under 16 shouldn't operate an ATV. And it's not about restricting childhood fun, it's about keeping them safe and making sure that they're equipped for for safe use. So if your child asks you to ride an ATV today, what would you say? Do you have an answer ready? Have you thought about this? Or drive a golf cart? Here, let me give you some statistics. ATV related injuries account for about 26,000 ER visits every year for children under 16 in the United States. And they are a leading cause of pediatric trauma deaths, especially in rural areas. Areas and rollovers. Ejections are the most common accident types. But children are twice as likely as adults to be injured on an ATV because they're smaller, their coordination is underdeveloped, their judgment isn't as good, and head injuries really are significant and most significant injury occurs because a kid is riding an ATV without a helmet. Kids are at higher risk for injuries, injury because they just don't have as great a muscle mass to control a heavy vehicle. We kind of look at them as adults, like these are our toys and we, we say that right, like these are, these are my toys that we have and kids adopt that. But these are heavy vehicles that kids often just aren't strong enough to, to control. They can't easily shift their weight. Sometimes they don't have that much weight to shift to prevent it from tipping over. Their cognitive development is not as good, they can't calculate risk and their decision making skills are still developing. And I mean really many of these vehicles weigh hundreds of pounds. Those, that's just too much for a kid to manage and especially riding with Peers, it can lead to risky behaviors. They're going to try to one up each other, they're going to try to see who can go the fastest, who can do the stunt, that kind of thing. And we see a lot of common misconceptions. We think, well they make ATL ATVs for kids so they must be safe. But even youth sized ATVs can cause serious injury if they're not operated. right. And you think okay, well we're riding on private property, but actually most ATV, more ATV injuries happen on private land than on public places. And you think maybe you think my child is responsible. But even skilled kids can't control all of the risks that are in the environment, like changes in the terrain or mechanical failures or an animal jumping out or those kind of kinds of things. So really the guidance is that children under 16 should not operate an ATV or a similar vehicle, period. Honestly, that's where I'm going to stand on it. And if they're over 16, they should only ride a vehicle that is size appropriate for their weight and strength. And there's some other things that you can do to help keep them safe. Wear a helmet. That's department of transportation approved. A full face helmet is really should be non negotiable. And eye protection. Wearing goggles or helmets, helmet shield clothing. They should be wearing long sleeves, long pants, over the ankle, boots, gloves. Don't ever ride in flip flops and shorts. I've seen so many of my friends who work in the emergency room this summer talking about, if I could just tell you one thing, it would be to wear shoes. Wear shoes, wear shoes. Because we see mangled feet that happen and, and this can happen in this kind of injury. Make sure that, that they're one rider at a time. Most ATVs are designed for one person. They shouldn't carry any passengers because passenger weight is going to change the center of gravity and increase the risk for that tipping over. And most states you can't ride an ATV on the street. they travel faster and they can collide with cars. And if you are choosing to allow ATV riding for older teens, you should really complete a safety course before you do that. And that's important for things that are golf carts really kids should be wearing seat belts, even if they're going slow. And really shouldn't ride in another kid's lap or stand up while it's going. And that, that's really important. And I know again these can be things that are just really fun. But just be wise in stewarding your kids lives in what they are doing and thinking about some of those developmental considerations and thinking about they may not be ready for decision making. And so it can be hard to say no without feeling guilty. So just give a confident no, whatever the answer is no, and maybe you'll revisit it, maybe you'll learn more, maybe you'll feel, a way that you can make them more safe and you'll change your mind. That is okay. But for tweens, they are still developing that impulse control. And just make sure that you're telling them your non negotiable safety rules that safety is non negotiable. Teens are closer to adults, but they still need some clear limits and some structured supervision and some safety gear. So, in your house, just have a family safety agreement, agree together on the rules on what we're going to do to stay safe and use some shared language like, yep, helmets, non negotiable, seat belt, non negotiable, those kinds of things. And I'll be talking about keeping your kids safe in the car, too. Before we finish out this series together. Lots of questions about car seats and booster seats and teen driving. We'll be talking all about that.
I encourage you to do something fun with your family this weekend
And so I encourage you, wherever you are, do something fun with your family this weekend. Go out and play. kids need that, especially as we're in that back to school season. They'll have the pressures of academics, the social pressures all back on them. Play together as a family. Even if, if your grandparents play as in your marriage and your with your little kids, with your bigger kids, do something fun. And as you do, I pray that the Lord will keep you safe as you come and as you go. And I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you. And I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
