At Risk for Heat Exhaustion

Over the past six years, 23 student athletes succumbed to heat-related deaths. If your children play summer sports they, too, are at risk for heat-related injury. It’s imperative you learn how to keep your child properly hydrated and help them avoid dehydration or death.

“Every one of those 23 kids should be alive today and enjoying their youth,” says Dr. David Janda, author of “The Awakening of a Surgeon: A Family Guide to Preventing Sports Injuries and Death” (The Institute for Preventative Sports Medicine, $9.95, www.NoInjury.com). “By collectively utilizing preventative methods, we could vastly reduce, if not completely eliminate, heat-related fatalities. And the steps that protect our kids are so easy.”

To help you prevent your child from becoming dehydrated and possibly even dying, Dr. Janda shares ten strategies parents and coaches can use:

1. Allow children to acclimate to heat gradually. Keep practices shorter and less intense for the first seven to 10 days, as well as on abnormally hot or humid days. Encourage athletes to initiate their own conditioning program several months prior to the beginning of the season. During the hottest weather, schedule practice sessions during cooler parts of the day.

2. Consider both the temperature and relative humidity when determining the length of practice sessions. If the sum of the temperature and relative humidity are greater than or equal to 160, take precautions. If the sum is greater than 180, cancel games or practice.

3. Adjust the activity level and provide frequent rest periods during hot weather. Allow players to rest in shaded areas with helmets removed and jerseys loosened or removed. For each hour of workout, provide 15 minutes of rest.

4. Keep cold water available in unlimited quantities. Schedule frequent water breaks.

5. Replace lost salt by salting food, not with salt tablets.

6. Weigh your child before and after each practice to monitor water loss. Weight loss greater than 3 percent indicates substantial risk and 5 percent indicates significant danger.

7. Make sure your child wears cool clothing, such as shorts and fish net jerseys, during practice. Change sweat saturated t-shirts often. Use helmets sparingly in hot weather.

8. Be on the lookout for warning signs of heat stroke: fatigue, lethargy, inattention, stupor, and/or awkwardness. If your child exhibits any of these signs, remove them from participation and allow them to cool down in a shaded environment.

9. Prevent dehydration by encouraging your child to drink two 16-ounce cups of water, two hours prior to participation. After the activity, to drink three cups of water for every pound lost.

10. Get involved. Observe and monitor practices as well as game situations closely to make sure your child is properly equipped and hydrated.

Don’t let summer sports wreck havoc on your child’s health. When the heat is on, make sure they stay cool!