Every year families attend Spring Sports Meetings, parents get physical forms and waivers signed so their children can participate in athletics. One of the waivers required is material on Concussions.

According to the Sports Concussion Institute, the adult brain is a three pound organ that basically floats inside the skull. It’s surrounded by cerebral spinal fluid which acts as a shock absorber for minor impacts. A concussion occurs when the brain moves rapidly in the skull in a whiplash type fashion hitting both sides of the skull in the impact. Research over last decade has shown that multiple traumas and/or severe trauma not properly evaluated can have serious consequences for the individual and occasionally can be deadly.

Most high schools are doing what’s known as Baseline Concussion Testing where the student is scored on reaction time, memory capacity, the speed of mental processing and the executive functioning of the brain. Parents receive tons of paperwork from our kids’ schools. I know that not all parents are reading these documents and the laws changed because of how dangerous these concussions are proven to be. We owe it to our kids to pay attention to the warning signs.

First, always be sure that your child wears all safety equipment properly and that it is fitted specifically for your child. Then be sure that the school’s policy is to notify you immediately of any injury with your child. Some of the signs to get your child evaluated by a doctor may include headaches, nausea, memory difficulty, emotional or irritable changes in appetite, or energy levels following a head injury no matter how hard they feel they were hit.

Please get the information from coaches and the school staff and if you have more questions, visit www.concussiontreatment.com. When in doubt, call your child’s doctor.