SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) - With the fall youth sports season now in full swing, you may be getting concerned about injuries mounting up for your kids.
And rightfully so. Over the past few years, doctors have noticed an alarming trend of ligament and cartilage injuries happening more often in younger and younger kids, according to Dr. Nirav Pandya, pediatric orthopedic surgeon at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals.
"I think most commonly what we see are injuries to the knee. A lot of kids in this area are playing soccer, they're playing football, they're really stressing their knees," Dr. Pandya told KCBS Radio's Patti Reising on this week's episode of "As Prescribed."
Dr. Pandya said the sports responsible for causing the most injuries are soccer and baseball -- both are played year-round and have high participation rates.
"A lot of these athletes are getting those ACL tears. They're getting meniscus tears at younger ages. So I say soccer, number one, is the biggest culprit from a lower extremity," he said. "The other culprit from an upper extremity standpoint, particularly in boys, is baseball. Once again, year round, kids are trying to throw faster and faster. So we see a lot of elbow injuries."
Part of the problem, especially with year-round sports, is that young athletes aren't built to train at the same pace as professionals.
"A lot of this is just the fact that these young growing skeletons can't handle the stress of playing year-round and doing things every single day," said Dr. Pandya. "What you're seeing is basically the joints, the ligaments, the tendons getting overused. They're not getting enough rest and they're being used repetitively in the same way."
The other part of the problem is that both parents and coaches need to understand that millions of kids play sports, but only 2% will get an athletic scholarship and less than 1% will go pro.
"So this thought that if you just do one sport from age eight, you're going to make it and perform very well. Actually, the data shows that your chance is actually less," said Dr. Pandya. "So I think it's important for parents to understand that both from an injury perspective, a burnout perspective, and a performance perspective, it's better to diversify."
"If you look at professional athletes, you look at those who played collegiately, in fact, the vast majority of them actually played multiple sports," he added.
Young athletes who diversify and play a variety of sports and activities tend to experience fewer injuries overall on average compared to kids who specialize in a single sport. They're also less likely to get burned out.
"It's hard to say, 'Hey, I'm going to take these next three months off and play basketball.' But what kids can do within that season is number one, do other activities, whether that be biking, whether that be swimming. You choose other ways to kind of stay active," Dr. Pandya said. "Number two is take rest days. If you're practicing for three days, take that fourth day off. The third thing you can do is if your body's sore or things are not feeling well, you have to let your coach and your parent know so that you can take rest."
In Dr. Pandya's opinion, the entire mindset and culture around youth sports could use a makeover.
"It's important to think of the long-term health of kids. And we should be developing a sports program that's supposed to be about kids staying healthy for their entire lives, instead of creating a sports system that's basically designed around them potentially getting this college scholarship or going professionally, when 98% of them won't do that," he said.
In the meantime, parents can ensure their kids have a healthy relationship with sports by following their lead.
"One of the things we're seeing is that kids are specializing in sports and playing year-round and as a result, they're getting burnt out," said Dr. Pandya. "So if you notice your kid's not excited about practice, they're not enjoying sports, which should be a very enjoyable endeavor, then that's a sign that maybe you need to change how they're participating, both to keep them in sports and also make sure they're not going to go down the route of getting a more serious injury."
Listen to this week's "As Prescribed" to learn more. You can also listen to last week's episode to hear how childhood trauma can linger well into adulthood, here.
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“As Prescribed” is sponsored by UCSF.