Injury Treatment

Unless your child has been to physical therapy for an injury before, you may not know what to think or expect as a parent. Here's some advice for parents from a physical therapist to make the rehabilitation process as smooth as possible and keep what's important in perspective.

The phrase "No pain, no gain" has been around forever, it seems.  There is only one problem: it is bad advice! If your child experiencing pain in daily activities, take him to a doctor, don't let him play or practice in pain.

Early recognition and treatment of common overuse injuries to growth plates is key to the safe return to play of young athletes says a new study.

An athlete not only needs to be physically ready before she returns to the playing field, she also needs to be psychologically ready. If she returns too soon, she risks re-injury, injury to a different part of the body, depression, and decreased performance. A new test helps determine psychological readiness.

Those of us fortunate to be involved in the treatment of sports injuries among children and adolescents are often are left to ponder how much truth-telling is appropriate. In other words, how much does the athlete or parent want to hear, and are they listening to us if we do tell?

Rehabilitation is the process of using exercise, manual therapy (massage and manipulation), and therapeutic devices, such as ultrasound and electrical stimulation, to help an injured athlete heal so they can return to sports. It is usually supervised by physical therapists, who recommend a set of exercises for the athlete to do at home to speed the recovery process by restoring range of motion, muscle strength, and aerobic fitness after an injury.

As the number of children participating in athletics increases, so does the number of serious athletic injuries. To meet the growing demand for prevention and rehabilitation of these injuries, an increasing number of physical therapists are making child's play out of rehabilitation using video game technology.

Most sports creams contain methyl salicylate, a toxic chemical which, absorbed in large enough amounts through the skin, can result in serious injury or, even in rare cases, in death from poisoning.