Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #937 Concussions in Kids with Dr Anthea Rhodes

Transcript

#937 Concussions in Kids with Dr Anthea Rhodes · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

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  Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the
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  Speaker 1: time poor parent who just wants answers now. Doctor Antheo
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  Speaker 1: Rhodes is a pedutritionian, a research a child health advocates
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  Speaker 1: and the director of the Royal Children's Health Pole. And
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  Speaker 1: Andrea has jumped into this Doctor's Desk episode to have
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  Speaker 1: a chat about a recent poll that you did about concussion. Anthea,
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining me. With a cycling background,
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  Speaker 1: I have had a lot to do with concussion. Well,
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  Speaker 1: it hasn't happened to me. There are plenty of people
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  Speaker 1: who fall off bikes and bang their heads, and I've
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  Speaker 1: watched it happen in races where people get back on
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  Speaker 1: the bike and ride and they clearly shouldn't be riding.
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  Speaker 1: You've conducted this pole not about cycling, but about concussion
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  Speaker 1: in kids, not just from sport, but from everyday life.
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  Speaker 1: If you were to summarize in I don't know, fifteen
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  Speaker 1: seconds or less, what your general research question was, what
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  Speaker 1: were you most curious about here?
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  Speaker 2: We were really keen to learn where the parents understand,
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  Speaker 2: how concussion can happen, what the signs might be if
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  Speaker 2: it has happened to your kid, and how they know
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  Speaker 2: to support them and get them back you know, fully
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  Speaker 2: functioning into support and activities, when is it safe? What
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  Speaker 2: do they need to do to make sure their child
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  Speaker 2: recovers well?
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  Speaker 1: Before we talk about the practical aspects of this and
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  Speaker 1: what people need to know about concussion. How well versed
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  Speaker 1: were Aussie mums and dads on concussion generally?
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  Speaker 2: So around one in three said they knew very little
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  Speaker 2: or nothing at all about concussion. And we found that
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  Speaker 2: when we asked them specifically about some of the signs
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  Speaker 2: and symptoms the way concussion might show up in a
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  Speaker 2: child when it came to non physical signs, so that
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  Speaker 2: might be things like difficulty concentrating, it might be fatigue,
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  Speaker 2: might even be changes in mood. That around half of
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  Speaker 2: parents weren't aware that those sorts of signs and symptoms
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  Speaker 2: any young person or child might actually be as a
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  Speaker 2: result of concussion.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, a couple of quick questions for you're really rapid fire.
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  Speaker 1: Does concussion always have to come from a bump on
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  Speaker 1: the head?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely not. So what happens when a child gets concussioned
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  Speaker 2: or an adult is the brain moves quickly inside the
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  Speaker 2: skull and knocks up against that hard bony surface, and
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  Speaker 2: it's that contact that causes the injury that's generally temporary
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  Speaker 2: to the brain cells. So it can happen in any
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  Speaker 2: mechanism where the head moves quickly, so that actually might
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  Speaker 2: be a blow to the body. So for example, a tackle,
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  Speaker 2: whether that's in sport or in the backyard, that can
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  Speaker 2: be enough for actually the brain to move really quickly
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  Speaker 2: inside the head and forcefully against the skull. Most commonly though,
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  Speaker 2: it will be a knock to the head itself.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, I'm even thinking something happening on the trampoline could
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  Speaker 1: be enough.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, trampoline definitely a corporate for lots of accidents and injuries.
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  Speaker 2: We know that it's also a great place for kids
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  Speaker 2: to have fun and stay fit, but definitely even without
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  Speaker 2: blacking out, which commonly parents didn't understand. Around the third
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  Speaker 2: of parents thought kids will always lose consciousness or blackout
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  Speaker 2: if they're how to cat cussion. In fact, most commonly
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  Speaker 2: they don't, So what they might do is look a
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  Speaker 2: little bit drowsy, perhaps a bit wobbly on their feet
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  Speaker 2: for a minute or two, and then they might appear
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  Speaker 2: to just get on with things. And that's where it's
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  Speaker 2: really important. To know that they actually stop what they're doing,
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  Speaker 2: And the main reason for that is that knock on
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  Speaker 2: the head can change their reaction time, the way that
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  Speaker 2: they're processing things, and put them at risk of a
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  Speaker 2: second injury, particularly if they're playing sport at the time.
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  Speaker 1: Anthea, that was questions two and three. So question two
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  Speaker 1: was do you have to be knocked unconscious to have
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  Speaker 1: a concussion? Obviously the answer is no. And the third
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  Speaker 1: one was is it okay to get back into it
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  Speaker 1: if you have taken some kind of a hit, some
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  Speaker 1: sort of a knock, if your brain has bashed up
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  Speaker 1: against the inside of your skull, And again the answer
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  Speaker 1: is no. I remember watching a cyclist have a crash
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  Speaker 1: and get back on the bike and he was taking
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  Speaker 1: his life in his hands. I mean, he couldn't ride
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  Speaker 1: straight because his brain had obviously been So it's discombobulated
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  Speaker 1: the right word? Can I use? Discombobulated? I think it's
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  Speaker 1: a fun word.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's a good word because we can understand
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  Speaker 2: the sense of what that means. So it's really hard
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  Speaker 2: to see the brain and we see we can't see it.
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  Speaker 2: If your child takes a you know, a knock to
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  Speaker 2: their arm or their leg it mightk a bit red,
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  Speaker 2: they might be holding it, nursing it. It's really obvious
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  Speaker 2: something's happened, and you probably wouldn't continue on with normal
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  Speaker 2: activity if it looked like something was happening. We can't
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  Speaker 2: see the brain, so instead we have to see the
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  Speaker 2: way it affects your child's behavior, and so that is,
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  Speaker 2: you know, if they look like they're staggering a bit,
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  Speaker 2: if they seem a little bit confused, or in the
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  Speaker 2: following days, if they seem slowed down, fatigued, that's that
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  Speaker 2: injury taking its time to heal, just like a wood
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  Speaker 2: in any other body part.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, the word that strings to mind for me is wonky,
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  Speaker 1: not just physically wonky, but maybe a bit emotionally or
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  Speaker 1: socially wonky or just not quite there. I have two
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  Speaker 1: more quick questions for you. First of all, when do
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  Speaker 1: you know that your kids are okay to get back
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  Speaker 1: into it? That's the first one.
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  Speaker 2: So we've got great guidelines on the Children's Hospital website,
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  Speaker 2: Actually kids health into a fact she returning to school
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  Speaker 2: and sport, because it will be different for every child. Essentially,
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  Speaker 2: not at all. Within the first forty eight hours, there
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  Speaker 2: needs to be a slowed down period, not regular activities.
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  Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be stripped to bed rest like
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  Speaker 2: we might have done back in the day, but quiet
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  Speaker 2: time and generally time away from the screen because that's
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  Speaker 2: quite stimulating and that's giving the brain a workout when
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  Speaker 2: what it needs is a rest. And then in the
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  Speaker 2: following days it's about gradual return to activity. Firstly back
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  Speaker 2: to school and once fully back and coping with school,
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  Speaker 2: then it's back to sport. Generally for most kids, that
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  Speaker 2: will take somewhere between five days up to three weeks
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  Speaker 2: at the most. Some children it's really quick. If it's
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  Speaker 2: continuing on more than two to three weeks, then that's
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  Speaker 2: a prolonged recovery and you would be wanting to check
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  Speaker 2: in with your doctor for some advice.
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  Speaker 1: The last question for you, doctor Antheiodes, the Director of
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  Speaker 1: the Royal Children's Health phole pediatrician and child advocate. Preventions
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  Speaker 1: tricky when it comes to something like concussion. We obviously
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  Speaker 1: don't want to see our kids can cust the ramifications
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  Speaker 1: can be serious, but we also don't want to cotton
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  Speaker 1: wall our kids. We don't want to have them all
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  Speaker 1: bubble wrapped and not living their lives. So this idea
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  Speaker 1: of having them play games like soccer and head the
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  Speaker 1: soccer ball, or play footy and tackle somebody. It's actually
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  Speaker 1: fun to live life and play these sports. How do
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  Speaker 1: we get this balance right so that we're not being
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  Speaker 1: overprotective the kids are living full, balanced, healthy, outdoors active lives.
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  Speaker 1: What do we do here?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a tricky one, and there are some good
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  Speaker 2: rules of thumb. So there are increasingly regulations in sport
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  Speaker 2: that minimize the really high risk activities like hitting the
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  Speaker 2: soccer ball, like full body contact in football based sports.
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  Speaker 2: We know that those activities are high risk for concussion
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  Speaker 2: and in younger children. So generally those kids who are
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  Speaker 2: at the moment the guidelines are usually under fourteen, Those
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  Speaker 2: sorts of activities are actually banned in most of those
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  Speaker 2: sporting codes. Now, that's a sensible thing to be doing,
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  Speaker 2: because we know the risk of a concussion is high
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  Speaker 2: in those sorts of activity. But most concussions actually happen
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  Speaker 2: in pretty regular stuff. So it might be tackling in
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  Speaker 2: the backyard, it might be a game sport that doesn't
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  Speaker 2: involve contact, still a very common place for concussion young kids.
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  Speaker 2: It's primarily in a playground, perhaps they have a fall,
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  Speaker 2: or it might even be at home where they bump
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  Speaker 2: their head on the wall rounding the corner too fast.
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  Speaker 2: So we can't prevent everything important to be sensible. When
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  Speaker 2: it comes to some contact sports, people often ask about helmets.
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  Speaker 2: The big takeaway about a helmet is that a helmet
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  Speaker 2: will not prevent concussion. It's a great thing to wear
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  Speaker 2: for all kinds of head injury, absolutely on bikes, scooter, skateboards,
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  Speaker 2: in some sporting codes where helmets are required or recommended,
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  Speaker 2: but remembering that the brain's quickly inside the skull, that's
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  Speaker 2: what causes the concussion. If you've got a helmet on,
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  Speaker 2: that's still going to happen. Helmet will protect you from
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  Speaker 2: an outside blow and other sorts of head injuries, it's
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  Speaker 2: not going to protect you from concussion. So if your
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  Speaker 2: child's wearing a helmet, they could still get concussive if
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  Speaker 2: they've had a blow to the head or body. Remember that,
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  Speaker 2: and finally, not getting back to activity too early is
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  Speaker 2: actually the best way to prevent a second concussion, because
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  Speaker 2: if kids are engaging in sport physical activity and their
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  Speaker 2: reaction times slowed and they're a bit wonky or foggy,
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  Speaker 2: as you talked about, that's when they're really high risk
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  Speaker 2: for second head injury and that's where things can get
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  Speaker 2: really serious.
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Anthea Rhodes is a ped Nutritian researcher and child
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  Speaker 1: health advocate and the director of the Royal Children's Health Poll. Hey, Anthea,
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  Speaker 1: thanks so much for what you shared.
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  Speaker 2: Pleasure. Thanks Justin.
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  Speaker 1: The Happy Family's podcast is produced by Justin Roland from
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  Speaker 1: Bridge Media. Craig Bruce is our executive producer. For more
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  Speaker 1: information about making your family happy, please visit us at
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  Speaker 1: Happy families dot com dot au.