If you believe you or your child is experiencing a medical emergency, please dial 911 or seek emergency care.
March is Traumatic Brain Injury Awareness Month, and we’d like to highlight what concussions look like in children. If you’re a parent, you likely know kids aren’t always able to articulate their feelings. But if you’re aware of what to look for, you can spot the symptoms of child concussions and know what steps to take. Plus, we’ll discuss ways to help your child stay safe when playing.
What Do Concussions Look Like in Children?
A concussion is a mild injury to the brain resulting from a significant blow or jolt to the head or neck that affects how the brain works. Contrary to popular belief, a child doesn’t need to be ‘knocked out’ or lose consciousness to have experienced a concussion. In fact, studies show that only about 10% of all sport-related concussions involve loss of consciousness.
Pediatricians can diagnose concussions in children by looking for signs of injury to brain function during an exam. Understanding how concussions manifest in children can help you know when their behavior may need professional care and treatment.
Common Concussion Symptoms
Because children’s brains are still developing and they may not understand the symptoms they’re experiencing, it can be difficult for them to express what they’re feeling. If your child has recently had a head injury, keep an eye out for physical, cognitive, and emotional changes in behavior.
Oftentimes, the first clue that your child may have a concussion is a persistent headache after experiencing a head injury. The headache may also be accompanied by nausea or vomiting. Other common concussion symptoms include:
- Changes in vision
- Sensitivity to light or noise
- Cognitive symptoms such as slowed thinking, difficulty paying attention, and memory problems
- Behavioral or emotional symptoms like irritability, sadness, nervousness, or personality changes
If you notice any of the symptoms listed above, you should schedule an appointment with your pediatrician.
Immediate Steps Following a Head Injury
When a child experiences a head injury, parents and caregivers should do their best to initially assess the severity of the injury to determine what kind of treatment may be required.
Signs of a severe concussion that require immediate medical attention include:
- Unconsciousness
- Weakness or numbness in both arms or legs
- More than two episodes of vomiting or vomiting hours after the injury
- Unresponsiveness
- Vision changes
- Seizures
- Serious wounds
- Discharge of blood or clear fluid from the nose or ears
If you notice any of these symptoms following a head injury, call 911 immediately or seek emergency care.
If the head injury is less severe, you should pause all activities and keep an eye on your child for symptoms like headache or confusion. When you can, call your healthcare provider, and they’ll walk you through a series of questions to determine if you need to bring your child in for an appointment.
The Path to Concussion Recovery
Following a head injury, you’ll want to make sure you give your child time to rest and recover. Sometimes, it can take days or even up to a month to fully heal from a concussion. To ensure your child’s brain injury doesn’t worsen, you may need to adjust their day-to-day routine.
Monitor Your Child’s Behavior
Sometimes, signs of a concussion don’t immediately arise. Following a head injury, you should continue to monitor your child during the initial 24 to 48 hours to identify any delayed symptoms that could signal a problem or the concussion worsening.
Physical Activity and Sports: A Cautious Reintegration
Until fully recovered, students should be excused from gym and team sports activities. For the brain to heal, the body needs as much energy as it can get to focus on repairing any damage caused by a concussion. Bed rest may be recommended for more severe concussions, but in general, as long as your child avoids strenuous physical activity, they should recover well.
Importance of Resting the Brain
When you can, give your child the time and space to rest their brain. You may need to work with your pediatrician and your child’s educators to develop a plan that limits time spent on homework, reading, or other mentally demanding tasks in the early stages of recovery. Avoiding screen time is extremely important to promote brain rest.
Gradual Return to Normal Activities
As your child starts to recover from a concussion, gradually reintroduce them to activities. As you start increasing the time your child spends moving around and exercising their brain, continue to check in with them. Maintaining open communication between you and your child is critical so you can monitor symptoms and make adjustments as needed. For children re-entering school, strategies such as using quieter rooms for exams and providing test accommodations like extended time or tape-recorded tests can help ease your child back into a classroom environment.
Preventing Repeat Concussions
Concussions happen — but as a parent, you can take steps to protect your child as best you can. Preventing recurrent concussions is key to safeguarding a child’s long-term health. Multiple concussions can lead to permanent brain changes and pose a risk of second impact syndrome, particularly when a child athlete sustains a subsequent head injury before fully recovering from the first.
In the following sections, we will explore some strategies for ensuring safe play in contact sports and the role of education and awareness in preventing repeat concussions.
Safe Play in Contact Sports
In contact sports, promoting a culture of safety and sportsmanship can significantly decrease the risk of concussions. Coaches and parents play a fundamental role in fostering this culture by commending athletes for safe play. Actions like striking another athlete in the head and using the head or helmet to tackle should always be strongly discouraged, and coaches may want to consider putting a concussion action plan in place. A concussion action plan details the immediate steps to take when an athlete shows symptoms of a concussion.
Education and Awareness
Educational initiatives like the CDC’s HEADS UP program provide valuable concussion prevention and care information and resources. The HEADS UP to Youth Sports training offers a free online course to prevent, recognize, and properly respond to concussions. It’s becoming increasingly common for coaches and gym teachers to engage with HEADS UP or similar programs, but they’re available to parents, too!
Call Community Access Network To Establish Pediatric Care
It can be difficult to know when your child needs to see a doctor, especially when invisible injuries like concussions are involved. Our team of providers is here to serve you and your family. We’re happy to answer any questions you may have if you’re an existing patient, or if you’d like to schedule your first appointment, give us a call or stop by our 5th Street location.