I don’t know about where you live, but here it’s icy and cold outside — definitely not bicycle weather. However, there are plenty of outdoor winter sports that children enjoy and that can be dangerous if they don’t have a helmet to protect their brains.

Lots of children ski and rarely do they ski without proper headgear. However, lots of children also sled in the snow. Sometimes those sledding excursions are down steep hills in backyards and neighborhood parks. Sometimes, those hills end at a fence or a street or several trees.  Sometimes, children cannot stop in enough time to keep from running into the fence, street or trees. Sometimes, children do not have proper headgear when they go outside to play in the neighborhood snow with friends.

Without proper headgear, those casual neighborhood play times can be the most dangerous. Your child’s head needs to be covered with more than just enough to keep her ears warm. She needs a helmet to protect her from a brain injury.

The American Association of Neurological Surgeons reports that, in 2008, winter sports was one of the top ten sports/ recreational causes of head injuries in children under the age of 14.

No state requires helmets for winter sports. Don’t wait for a state mandate. Please put your child in protective headgear every time she walks out the door to go sledding in the winter. Even mild traumatic injuries can be devastating to a child’s brain.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not anti-football. I grew up in South Texas, my father was a high school football coach. In Texas, a high school football coach is more prestigious than the coach of the Dallas Cowboys, and there’s a football team in every town and every city school, and the whole community comes out to the games. All three of my brothers played in high school or beyond. My son has been an avid fan since he was very young. However, as a mother, I was glad that he decided not to make football his sport.

Broken bones are one thing, but brain injuries are of a totally different magnitude. Brain injuries, especially in children and teens whose brains have not yet fully developed, can have devastating, life-long effects.

Football gear is being improved all the time, but  we have yet to make football safe. (Some might say that improvements in the safety gear have actually encouraged a more violent game, but that’s for another blog posting.)  Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is using THUMS (Total Human Model for Safety) software that Toyota developed to study the causes of injury in car crashes. THUMS is a virtual model of the human body that goes beyond traditional crash test dummies to include  internal structures like organs, bones, ligaments, tendons and muscle. Researchers hope to be able to see how car crashes (and football hits) affect human tissue.

Wake Forest researchers are using THUMS to better understand how to treat injured players and are also working to find ways to make football helmets safer.

I hope Wake Forest, Toyota and others find ways to make football safer for our children. In the meantime, be sure your son’s football coaches and school administrators provide the best helmets available, that they know how to fit and maintain them, and that they do not let boys play without the most important piece of safety equipment there is. Your son’s brain is worth it.

If you suspect your son’s school has not provided safe equipment for your son, contact a child injury lawyer who can help you evaluate whether someone’s carelessness put him in a dangerous situation.

Trudi Hays, who lives in Herndon, Virginia, stepped forward and asked for two helmets for young neighbors. She got them.

If you live in Virginia and know a child who needs a bike helmet, call me at 703-260-6070, send an email to Sandra@RohrstaffLaw.com or contact us through our website, www.RohrstaffLaw.com, to sign up for our newsletter and let us know that you want a bike helmet for a child. We’ll put you on our list and also send you a measuring tape so you can tell us the correct measurement of the child’s head.

With toddlers, it is important to keep a watchful eye as they learn to make their way on their feet.  While most toddler falls are inconsequential, falls around dangerous areas can be detrimental.  Always use gates to protect children from stairwells and windows.  In recent years, some gates have been recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Be sure to check that the one you are using is in full compliance with today’s standards.  Wheeled baby walkers used to be popular, but now have been mostly taken off the market due to their dangers around stairs.

Helmets save lives. Everyone should wear a helmet while riding a bicycle.  Set a good example for your children and do the same yourself.  Be sure your helmets are properly fitted with the buckle fitting snug under the chin.  Only properly-fitted helmets provide good protection. Even children sitting in a child carrier on the back of your bike or in a trailer pulled by your bike should wear a helmet.

Infants under the age of one should not be carried on bikes.  Also, toddlers older than four are usually too large for carrier seats and should have either their own bike or a trailer attached to yours.

Helmets are also important in roller blading, roller skating, and skateboarding.

Is every one a brain injury? No.

The harder question is, “How do I tell the difference?” The answer is a little harder, too.

Brain injuries are often divided into two categories: low force and high force injuries, depending on the severityof the blow to the head.  Each case is unique, and some injuries appear minor when they actually are quite severe.

Low force injuries are usually minor and don’t leave lasting brain injury.  High force injures happen from a child’s head being struck by objects of great speed and/or weight.  High force brain injuries occur from a high speed vehicle crash, a fall from a high height, severe shaking, or being struck with a powerful object.  These incidents almost always lead to some form of brain injury in the child.

Of course,  you should have your child seen by a health care provider immediately if she has hit her head. Often, if a child hits her head, she may cry immediately but stop crying after a short period of time. You should still take her to a doctor, especially if the force of impact was great.  The fact that she stopped crying does not necessarily mean she was uninjured. You will want a doctor to take a look at her.

Immediate and appropriate care can help a child’s possibility of a more significant recovery.  For more in depth information on child brain injuries, click here

How do brain injuries in children happen? Here are the five most common causes.

1.  Falls.  Kids are super active, so falls happen often.  Not surprisingly, they are the number one cause of brain injury in children, second only to vehicle collisions.

2. Motor vehicle collisions. Keeping your child properly restrained by a seatbelt or a child safety seat helps, certainly, but she can still suffer a brain injury if her head is hit on a part of the car or by an object sent flying by impact.

3. Pedestrian and bicycle accidents.  Teaching your child when she is young to look both ways before crossing the street and to always wearing a helmet when riding a bike is key. But, as we all know, children have not yet mastered decision- making skills and can be unpredictable in their actions.

4. Sports accidents. We want our children to learn the lessons they get from playing sports; however, they can suffer brain injuries from an unprotected fall or a tackle gone wrong.

5.  Child abuse.  It is unsettling that this is in the top five causes of such a serious child injury.  There is evidence (although it is disputed) that shaking a child, especially a very young one, can cause serious damage to the brain.

Immediate and appropriate care can help a child’s possibility of a more significant recovery.  For more in depth information on child brain injuries, click here.

Here is a link to a short video from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety about a collision between a 50 year old car and a new car. Riding in a car now is safer than it was 50 — or even 20 — years ago. Our children are luckier, and so are we.

We make a commitment to keep our children safe in our cars. When they are small, we go to great expense to buy the best car seats we can and spend a lot of time buckling/unbuckling them in and out.  But what about when they are older?  And, what about buckling ourselves in?

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month. Brain injuries don’t just affect those who are injured; they affect everyone around them. If you are a parent and suffer a traumatic brain injury, your children’s lives will be forever altered along with yours. If you are a parent of a teenager who drives, your life will never be the same if she suffers a traumatic brain injury.  One way to take care of your family is to be sure seatbelts are used every time anyone gets into a car.

My friend Larry Buckfire, a car accident lawyer in Michigan, posted a short video, Embrace Life, on his website. It is less than two minutes long. There are no words. I suggest you watch it.  It is powerful.

If you have a teen driver in your home, show it to her. Watch it with her. It could speak more loudly than your words ever could.

Here is a link to resources and education information from the Mayo Clinic on traumatic brain injury in children to help parents and teachers help the child.

HEADACHES that keep coming back or other pain in and around the head (e.g., the eyes or jaw)

BALANCE or dizziness problems

SENSORY problems -bothered by smells or light or sounds or has blurry or double vision; changes in taste or appetite; feels too hot or too cold; hearing loss or ringing in ears

Changes in SLEEP patterns – doesn’t sleep through the night, sleeps too much, gets days and nights mixed up

PAIN problems – especially frequent pain in neck and shoulders or other places on the body that are unexplained

BEHAVIOR changes – in personality or mood; irritable, restless, upset, frustrated easily; overreacts, cries or laughs too easily; mood swings, wants to be alone or away from people, is afraid or others, blames others; wants to be taken care of, doesn’t know how to act with people, takes risks without thinking; is sad, depressed, can’t “get started” doing anything, is tired, drowsy or slow to respond; trips, falls, drops things, is awkward; eats too little, eats all the time, or eats thing that aren’t food; takes off clothes in public; for older children: has different sexual behavior, starts using or has a different reaction to alcohol or drugs

THINKING Problems – can’t remember things, has trouble paying attention, reacts slowly, thinks slowly, takes things too literally, doesn’t get jokes; understands words but not their meaning; thinks about the same thing over and over; has trouble learning new things, putting things in order (desk, room, papers), making decisions; planning, starting, doing and finishing a task and emembering to do things on time; makes poor choices (loss of common sense)

COMMUNICATING- changes the subject, has trouble staying on topic; has trouble reading, listening, thinking of the right word, paying attention and having long conversations; doesn’t say things clearly, talks too much

If your child exhibits any of these problems AND THEY DO NOT GO AWAY, call your doctor.

The Washington State Traumatic Brain Injury Council has more information on what to look out for and what to do if your child has suffered a brain injury.

If your child has hurt her head and has any of these problems that do not go away, you should speak to a lawyer experienced in representing children with traumatic brain injuries. Your child needs a strong advocate, and you need the best information you can get. I will be glad to answer your questions about rights your child may have to recover for her losses from her brain injury caused by someone else. Call me at 703-260-6070, send me an email at Sandra@RohrstaffLaw.com or contact me through our website, www.RohrstaffLaw.com.