As a parent, making decisions about what care to seek out and provide when your child is injured can be complicated. It’s hard to tell, for example, if a child’s reaction to an injury is a useful measure of how serious the problem is. It’s hard to know how to get the best care for the money you have to pay, and even how to prioritize cost relative to long-term consequences. It’s difficult to make decisions for your child, when you don’t really know what, exactly, they are experiencing, what’s really wrong, and what your treatment options are. It’s particularly overwhelming, in the moments right after an injury, when you have to decide what to do quick. You certainly don’t want to make a bad choice, and cause further problems or damage.

This book comes from 30 years of experience taking care of sports injuries, and is meant to help parents feel more confident about knowing when an injury requires urgent medical care, when professional evaluation can wait for a less urgent, less expensive setting, and when you can handle things well enough at home. When you know what specific signs to look for, and what specific steps to take, decisions can be much easier and much less stressful. Knowing what care to give will ease pain, promote a return to full function, limit the damage from an injury, and optimize your child’s longer term prognosis. Some essential knowledge will lessen stress and worry for you and for your child. You are the one who is with your child the most — care you provide can be the best and most helpful!