Injury Prevention in Preteens... Video Transcript

Participants

Bonnie Boswell , Luis Montes MD

Summary

As kids get closer to their teenage years, they'll be spending more and more time away from home and with their friends. Peer pressure can encourage them to take greater risks than they would have before. Parents often find it hard to find a balance between encouraging their child's independence while remaining concerned with their safety. Join us as we discuss what you should still be doing to keep your preteens from harm's way. Topics will include:

• Rollerblade, skateboard, and bicycle safety
• Sports safety
• Pool safety
• Gun safety

Webcast Transcript

BONNIE BOSEWELL:  Hello, I'm Bonnie Bosewell and welcome to our program.  As kids get closer to their teenage years, they'll be spending more and more time away from home and with their friends.  Peer pressure can encourage them to take risks that would be greater than they would have before.  Parents often find it hard to find a balance between encouraging their kids' independence, while at the same time remaining concerned with their safety.

Well helping me to discuss injury prevention with pre-teens is our guest, Dr. Luis Montes.  He is a Medical Director of the Rehabilitation Program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.  Thank you for coming in to talk about this important topic because kids at this age are beginning to feel their oats a little bit.  They're getting out there, and what kind of injuries are they likely to receive as they go out into the world?

LUIS MONTES, MD:  Well if you think about kids at this age, they are, they're going out exploring their community.  But there's also a lot of peer pressure with them.  I mean, they're—it ranges.  Many kids are learning to ride their bikes at a young age of eight, or just graduating into a two-wheeler.  And some of them are very adept to riding roller blades and skateboards.  And so there's a lot of recreational sports that they're experimenting with.

BONNIE BOSEWELL:  Yes, there are a lot of ways for kids to be mobile these days that weren't there before.  There's scootering around.  And so many more options for them.  What kind of injuries do you see coming in and what can parents do specifically to help their kids?

LUIS MONTES, MD:  Well we see sometimes very benign injuries, ankle sprains and cuts and bruises.  But sometimes they're a lot more serious, because kids do hit stationery objects and they're going at a high speed.  Sometimes they're reckless with their sports.  And so there's a lot of things that we need to consider when we talk about injury prevention in these areas.  And we have to look at not only the child and look at the environment which they play in.

BONNIE BOSEWELL:  So specifically we can talk about looking at the equipment itself, for example.  Is that something parents should be aware of, the equipment?

LUIS MONTES, MD:  Absolutely.  I think so.  You have to have safe equipment.  If you look at a bike, there's things that you can do to make sure that the bike is safe: the chain is on tight, there's protectors so that your pants don't get caught into the chain.  Make sure that the tires are inflated right and all the parts are nice and secure.

BONNIE BOSEWELL:  And that the area that they're playing in is also safe.

LUIS MONTES, MD:  Well yes.  That's a big thing.  I think most of the injuries can be prevented if you really do control the environment and you don't have to rely on the human nature of injury prevention.  It's hard to change behavior.  But if you can, for instance, in bicycle riding, if you had bicycle lanes on the street, if you had protective environment, we wouldn't have bicycle-automobile accidents.

BONNIE BOSEWELL:  Exactly.  Let's talk about another area that kids of this age get into a lot.  That's sports.