Three- and 4-year-olds Playing Team Sports?

“These days you can sign up your toddler for soccer, swimming, gymnastics, karate, dance, even rugby (yes, there are rugby classes for 3-year-olds). But should you? Allston Stubbs, M.D., an orthopedist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, in Winston-Salem, NC, says he’s seeing more adolescents and preteens with serious overuse injuries than ever before. “They’re coming in with major shoulder, knee and hip problems, including pulled or torn ACLs. And it’s in large part due to the fact that kids are starting sports at very young ages when their bones are still developing.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 3.5 million kids under age 14 receive medical treatment for sports injuries each year, and the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine reports that in just the past ten years, there’s been a fivefold increase in the number of serious shoulder and elbow injuries among youth baseball and softball players. “Kids are starting sports too young,” says Pete McCall, an exercise physiologist and a spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise.”

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