Helping Your Child Understand the Dangers of Concussions

Children and teens are active, and they need to be to build muscle, develop coordination, and simply be healthy. Because your child is constantly on the go, there’s always a risk of injury. If your child sustains a concussion, they’ve sustained an injury to their brain. 

Our pediatric neurologist, Dr. Charles Niesen, and our team at AMS Neurology in Pasadena, California, treat children with various neurological conditions and injuries, including concussions. 

Because your child or teen can’t see their brain injury, they may not understand its potential to disrupt their life. You play an important role in talking with your child and providing resources to help them understand how important it is to take time to heal their injury. 

Explain that a concussion is a brain injury

Depending on their age, your child may have a hard time grasping that a concussion is a brain injury that could result in serious complications if they don’t tell you about their symptoms and it’s left untreated. They may not want to miss playing a game or participating in a school activity. 

Explain to your child that a concussion is a brain injury that could result in headaches, dizziness, trouble with balance, and other more serious symptoms for years.

If your elementary or middle-school child loves sports, discuss how an untreated concussion can curtail being active. If your child can’t balance on their legs, they won’t be able to hit a baseball, run with a football, dance, or participate in any of their favorite physical activities. 

Dr. Niesen provides instructions on what to do during the healing process. Give your child a calendar so they can mark off the days and weeks of recovery. Explain that their doctor needs to give them the green light to resume certain physical activities. 

If your child is a teen, they likely know that their sports coach requires a return to play clearance after a concussion. 

Explain that if they don’t admit they have a concussion and don’t go for treatment, or if they resume their regular activities too fast, it can lead to a condition called post-concussion syndrome, meaning the symptoms can last for months or longer — much longer than the normal 2-6 weeks of recovery time. 

Your child could potentially lose a year of school if post-concussion syndrome causes memory loss, problems focusing or thinking, sleep issues, and/or executive dysfunction. 

Have your teen look up research on concussions and post-concussion syndrome so they can absorb the material themselves. They’ll see that symptoms of post-concussion syndrome could potentially become permanent. 

Make sure your child knows the signs of a concussion

It’s important to teach your child the symptoms of a concussion. If they get hit and develop a headache, they may dismiss it, forgetting that a headache is a common sign of this brain injury. 

Following are symptoms your child should know. If they experience any of these, they need to report it to you or the responsible adult they’re with when it happens. 

• Blurred vision
• Dizziness
• Balance issues
• Headache
• Nausea
• Sensitivity to light
• Difficulty paying attention to schoolwork or other tasks
• A behavior change; irritability or chronic fatigue; lack of interest in usual activities
• Confusion and trouble remembering 

Likewise, if your child experiences any of these symptoms, you need them to tell you if they sustained a hit to the head that you don’t know about. That way, you know it’s probably not a stomach bug if the symptoms occur after they’ve sustained a head injury. 

Sports gear doesn’t protect against a concussion

If your child plays sports, they probably think their gear can protect them from a serious injury to their head. Unfortunately, helmets and mouthguards aren’t concussion-proof, and if a concussion happens, your child needs medical help. 

If you suspect your child has a concussion, call our office at AMS Neurology or book an appointment online today