I'm the member of a community youth sports organization and we do not currently have any health or safety guidelines in place. Would anyone be willing to contribute so that I can make suggestions to the board for instituting these, ie. coaches need to bring a first aid kit to all practices and games, coaches need to be trained in --- and/or ---, children with asthma need to inform the program/coach and provide asthma action plan, children with diabetes need to inform the program/coach and provide action plan, etc. Thank you so much!


Action plans? How about we
Action plans? How about we just do things the way they've been done for years, and have worked just fine. The parents or kid can tell the coach if they have asthma or diabetes and if they need to excuse themself, the coach knows why. There is no need for this additional layer of responsibility for the coach, they have enough to do already. These programs are already pushing good well meaning coaches away with red tape and "action" plans. Let's keep things as simple as possible.
Great Question
Hello Andrea and welcome to YouthSportsParents.
Your question is the number one question that we are asked and while some of our visitors may never have been a coach when a child had a catastrophic injury, nor has he ever witnessed a child struggling to stay alive during a sudden asthmatic attack, I have, and that is one of the reasons why I founded YouthSportsParents. iI wanted to prevent tragedy the best that I can by educating others.
The YouthSportsParents policy is one of prevention and preparation. Many times the coach is the only adult present at a practice and for all of the coaches who have stood helplessly by as a child stopped breathing or was critically injured-they will all say-"if only I knew what to do." We have many o these answers for you in the 4,000 pages of information.
I suggest that you begin by visiting the YouthSportsParents Health & Safety Channel. Next look for the topic/center you are interested in. I suggest that you begin in the General center and if there is one thing I can reccomend to look at it is the PreParticipation Physical Exam. A medical expert who knows exactly what needs to be done before a child plays sports is worth their weight in gold. many are still using the PPPE forms from 1970!
Your question is perfect and we applaud you for wanting to be proactive. Keep the questions coming and please share anything you think will help us do a better job.
Brooke
Brooke de Lench
Publisher
YouthSportsParents.com
Author:
Home Team Advantage: The Critical Role of Mothers in
Health and Safety Channel
I just spent the last hour reading through (only a fraction of) the health and Safety channel-WOW. Brilliant work and it is obvious that these guys are seasoned pros and know what they are writing about. So well researched. Thank you. I would like some additional information on back injuries. Does any one have any experience with kids and broken backs?
general safety
Great Segway into my comments. I am new to this site and wanted to throw out a question about general preventative safety for our children. Having three athletic girls who play hard and are very competitive, I often have wondered about general preventative care: to healthy eating, excercise (without overdoing it) as well as preventing muscle and joint injuries and trauma while their bones and muscles are developing. My 11 year old daughter plays soccer and basketball. She is very aggressive naturally and plays with reckless abandon. She, while diving for a ball(banging her knee on the hardwood floor) in basketball and getting kicked in the shins in soccer, thought it would useful to have some protective equipment that is kid friendly, lightweight and does not restrict natural movement or slow performance down. I put a very new product that is in it's infancy phase made by a Retired war veteran from Iraq to support major joints and msucle protection particularly for the knee. Today kids are experiencing more orthopedic issues in sports due to the escalating competition as well as the fast growing skilled athlete at younger ages. Collisions are happening at great frequency and impact. Many of our young athletes are going to orthopedic specialists earlier due to muscle .joint and tendon issues early in their sports career. Now we know that most of our young athletes will never go to play college or professional sports. However, I do believe that their is life after sports for all as well as sports life after sports. Many adults still suffer from injuries that they received while a young athlete which makes being a weekend warrior athlete that much harder to do if at all. My point to all of this is to ask the general parent public to beginning and budding young athletes if they think that a product to protect major joints such as the knee, ankle, back and elbow joints and muscles would be something that parents would like to see used on their children. If so, I would be glad to contact the creator of this product to maybe put this product in the hands of a youth sports org to try them out and to see if it would be beneficial. Maybe, they could even advertise on this site. Please give me your feedback. Thank you all. Have a great day on purpose!
Some more good info...
Some good reading on childhood diabetes.