Young Concussion Victims Should Ease Back into Full Mental Activity - East Idaho News
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Young Concussion Victims Should Ease Back into Full Mental Activity

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GETTY 12714 ChildMRI?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1389092841486John Foxx/Thinkstock(PHILADELPHIA) — As resilient as youngsters might be, they’ve got to take it slow after suffering a concussion.

Dr. Naomi Brown, a physician in the division of sports medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, says the tendency of kids who’ve undergone a head injury is to get back into the swing of things at school and social activities as soon as possible.

However, Brown says that rushing recovery, particularly when it comes to mental activity, might also impede recovery so she strongly urges young concussion victims to sit back and take it easy.

In that way, they can return to their favorite pastimes, such as phones, computers and TVs.

Brown says the rule of thumb is to slowly ease back into normal mental activity and to take breaks if headaches, blurred vision or dizziness return.

While parents may want to totally shut down their youngsters in fear of causing long-lasting damage, Brown argues that partial mental stimulation doesn’t put children at added risk.

Based on the findings, those kids who engaged in the most mental activity took an average of 100 days to fully recover from a concussion while patients who took it easier lopped off an average of six weeks from their recovery time.

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