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With the start of school and the fall sports season comes the usual scramble by parents to find a nutritious snack to throw in their child's backpack or sports bag before they go off to school.  We've reviewed 9 high protein options that will help ensure that your young athlete has a nutritious snack that will give her the energy she needs for after-school sports and isn't tempted to hit the vending machine in the cafeteria for the empty calories of a candy bar.

A child's sports hydration status can be affected, positively or negatively, by beverage type, flavor, container type, accessibility, and parental and coach attitudes about hydration.

Occasionally you'll hear someone say that they aren't a goal-oriented person, or that they don't really know how to set goals. Most likely, they actually set goals every day: Every time they make a "To Do" list for themselves or their "honey" or leave the house expecting to arrive at their destination at a particular time, they are goal-setting without even realizing it.  Two-time Olympic track cyclist and mom, Erin Mirabella, says it's never too early for children to set goals and that parents can play an important role in the goal-setting process.

A child's sports hydration status can be affected, positively or negatively, by beverage type, flavor, container type, accessibility, and parental and coach attitudes about hydration.

No matter the sport, maximizing performance and minimizing injury risk comes from lengthening muscles to produce the most mechanically efficient and productive motion. 

The data does not support a finding that purposeful "heading" of a soccer ball leads to either short-term (acute) or cumulative brain damage, such as cognitive dysfunction, says a new study in Pediatrics, contradicting earlier studies.  Heading should only be taught, the study says, when the
child is old enough to learn proper technique and has developed
coordinated use of his or her head, neck, and trunk to properly
contract the neck muscles and contact the ball with the forehead. 

 

Does labeling a child's head injury as a "concussion" convey the wrong message to parents, athletes and athletic trainers about its seriousness? Perhaps, say the authors of a Canadian study reported in the February 2010 issue of the journal Pediatrics. Instead, they suggest that to encourage full reporting of head injuries in sports and to allow adequate management and recovery time the term "mild traumatic brain injury" (MTBI) be used in its place.

Players come and go, but football helmets get passed on to new players, season after season, year after year.  Here's some basic information parents should know about the football helmets their children are wearing.