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Heat Illness Prevention for Kids

J. Michael Bennett, MD PA Blog Heat Illness Prevention for Kids

This is a transcript of a Dr. Jay Show broadcast on 1560TheGame. Dr. J. Michael Bennett is a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon and a Fellowship Trained Sports Medicine Physician serving patients from Katy, Fort Bend

County, Metro Houston and Southeast Texas from offices in Richmond and Sugar Land, TX. Call 281-633-8600 for an appointment. Our special guest today is Dr. Terence Chang, a family practice physician Board Certified in Sports Medicine from Physicians at Sugar Creek in Sugar Land, TX. Bob Lewis, from 1560TheGame, is also participating.

Here’s the transcript of the fifth portion of the Show:

BENNETT:  That goes back to what I was talking about before in previous shows, and I always go back and harp on this, you’ve got to know your medical history and you’ve got to know your parents’ medical history because that’s a genetic tree that talks about just about everything you could potentially be at risk for and that makes a big difference especially as a physician in regards to treatment issues.  

So really going over quickly how to prevent overall problems with over-exhaustion or heat illness: 

  1. You want to make sure you have a pre-participating screening. We talked about this last week regarding the cardiac issues and the sudden death; a lot of times you can pick this up based on history and patient history, same thing about heat illnesses. If you have a history of sickle cell trait, if there’s a history in the family tree regarding that or issues with your body maintaining balance or homeostasis; you need to know that about your kids and about yourself.  
  2. Do hydrate often.  Make sure that there’s plenty of water out there, that there are plenty of things to drink.  Like Dr. Chang had mentioned, electrolytes are not necessary unless you are doing endurance exercises.
  3. Be vigilant with the kids.  Stay on the kids, make sure they’re drinking, give them a Gatorade if they want something fruity, but just make sure that they’re drinking something.  

We’re here with Dr. Terrence Chang from the Physicians of Sugar Creek and also with Bob Lewis here, and we really wanted to just give you guys a little bit of information on heat illness because this is a real big problem and I see it where I’m at.  I mean everybody’s in a sport, everybody’s in Little League and there’s tons of kids out there going at it every day, and especially with this weather out here it’s important to know what are the risk factors related to heat problems and what you can do about it because I think it’s becoming more and more problematic and like Dr. Chang had mentioned before, these days when a lot of these kids are taking their medications for ADHD or they’re taking their medications for allergies and they’re going out there and playing in full pads in 105 degree weather, that could be a recipe for disaster.

If you have questions about sports medicine for yourself or your children, please call our office for an appointment at 281-633-8600.

Author
Dr. J. Michael Bennett

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