Most Dangerous Sports for Kids

In a new study of kids’ sports injuries treated by ER doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital, the top sport leading to injuries was soccer. Lower extremity injuries like ACL and MCL tears and breaks are common, leading to “multiple procedures and a long rehab,” according to study researcher Hilary Levey Friedman.

Another concern with soccer is head trauma. In a study by Harvard Medical School looking at the brains of young people participating in the sport, researchers found alarming changes in areas of the brain responsible for memory and high-level cognition. The study participants had never had concussions, but did regularly head the ball in competition.

In the Boston Children’s Hospital study, basketball was responsible for the second-highest number of child injuries just behind soccer, though that number has likely dropped since 1997, according to this study published in the journal Pediatrics. The most common basketball injuries are sprains, breaks and tears.

Most disconcerting is although the overall number of injuries decreased over the study’s 10-year assessment period, the number of traumatic brain injuries (TBI) increased by 70 percent. Whereas older children are more likely to be hit with lower-extremity injuries, younger children were more likely to sustain a TBI.

Addressing and correctly treating concussions are points of emphasis in football today, and with good reason. A study by researchers at Virginia Tech and Wake Forest revealed that youth football players sustain head trauma similar to that of college players. That's not surprising, since over the course of just four games and nine practices, significant impacts to the head totaled 107 per player.

Although sudden deaths from blunt trauma, like a hit or tackle, are fairly uncommon among high-school athletes, they are most common in football players who have recently sustained a symptomatic concussion.

While many still debate whether or not cheerleading is a sport, the bottom line is this: Call it what you will, it’s exceedingly dangerous. More than 3.6 million people in the U.S. participate in cheerleading, and according to a new report, 66 percent of women’s “catastrophic injuries” (the ones resulting in permanent disabilities and conditions) are sustained in this sport. (Yes, that's what we're going to call it.) As routines get harder and fliers are tossed higher, the number of cheerleaders headed to the ER has risen from 5,000 annual visits to more than 26,000.

In a study of athlete injuries among kids ages 5 to 19 published in the journal PLOS ONE, hockey accounted for nearly half of the 13,000 traumatic brain injuries that landed kids in emergency rooms. A big reason for that is checking. According to NPR, researchers have found that 11-year-old kids who participate in hockey leagues that allow checking are three times more likely to sustain a concussion or serious injury compared to kids in leagues that don’t allow the move.

While obviously falls from vault, bars and beam can cause sudden, traumatic injuries to young gymnasts, more common and potentially as devastating are from the constant wear and tear. “Spinal injuries like stress fractures are big overuse injuries among young gymnasts,” says Friedman of the results of her Boston Children's study. Spinal injuries were found to be far more common among girls, accounting for more than three-fourths of the total. In addition, a significant portion of spine injuries will require surgical intervention and months of rehabilitation.

Although baseball and softball are among the safest sports for kids, the potential for overuse and catastrophic injuries can come from a shocking variety of situations. Not only can players sustain impact injuries like concussions from sliding headfirst into a base, but there is also risk of sudden death if a player is hit in the chest or head with a ball, like the Indiana 8-year-old who passed away earlier this year.

In addition, overuse injuries among pitchers are on the rise, despite the recent practice of implementing pitching limits in youth leagues. Being pushed too hard, too fast, can stall big-league dreams before they ever get off the ground.

Even if your kids aren’t into competitive pastimes, driveway recreation can still send them to the ER. Bicycling is an extremely dangerous activity, causing more annual trips to United States emergency rooms than football, according to a 2005 study from Loyola University (the big number: 485,669). Kids (and the adults who watch them) must also be on high alert when bicycling on the street. Just this past month, despite being described as a “cautious rider,” an 11-year-old bicycler was critically injured after being struck by a bus in NYC.