More Kids Are Suffering Sports Injuries

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"It used to be that you played football and, when that was done, you might play basketball, and then later, you might play Little League or tennis. You went from sport to sport and didn't have any sport-specific training to contribute to repetitive injuries," Kelly said.

Children are particularly susceptible to repetitive injuries, because they're still growing. Both Kelly and LaBella said children are most vulnerable to injuries in the growth-plate areas. Growth plates are soft areas of developing tissue. They're found at the end of the long bones and, because these areas are still growing, the bone isn't completely calcified in that area.

According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, growth-plate injuries are fractures, and they account for 15 percent of all childhood fractures. They occur twice as often in boys as in girls, with the greatest incidence among 14- to 16-year-old boys and 11- to 13-year-old girls.

So, does that mean parents shouldn't let their children play the sports they love? Not necessarily, said Kelly. But, parents do need to be willing to be the bad guy, especially if their child gets injured.

"Kids are always going to push, and they're always going to want to play. Even when hurt, a child probably won't make the right decision," said Kelly, adding that it's up to the parent to stop the child from playing if there's an injury.

Kelly acknowledged that that can be tough, particularly with high school-aged children who may have college scholarships riding on their ability to play. "I make it clear to parents that they can keep the next six months in mind, but they need to focus on the next 70 years," he said.

LaBella said children should never play through pain. "Pain is a sign of injury, and it's a sign that you need to rest," she said. If the pain doesn't get better after a couple of days, she advised that the child should go to the doctor.

Children also shouldn't start specializing in one sport until after puberty, according to LaBella, and, ideally, they should play just one sport per season and take off a month or two completely. That doesn't mean they should take two months off from all activity, she said, just from organized sports. "Go ride a bike or play soccer in the backyard," she suggested.

More information

To learn about preventing children's sports injuries, visit the Nemours Foundation.