Winter Sports and the Agonizing Decision to Keep Playing

We are all agonizing over the decision of whether to let our kids play indoor winter sports.  That’s because neither the Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics has taken a hard position on indoor sports.  But thank you to the New York Times and contributing writer Jenny Marder for providing us with some straight forward guidance on what really matters.  

A few key recommendations from the experts in the article on how to stay and keep playing winter sports:

• Whenever possible, have the players wear masks when at play
• Adapt training and games to maximize safety
• Avoid shared equipment
• Role play scenarios with your kids
• Consider the downside health and emotional impact of kids opting out
• But also consider the risk of bringing home germs to at-risk family and friends

The incredible experts that the New York Times cited in its article:

• Dr. Susannah Briskin, pediatric sports medicine specialist at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital and Co-Author of the COVID-19 interim guidelines on youth sports, released by the American Academy of Pediatrics
• Dr. Susan Huang, medical director for epidemiology and infection prevention at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine
• Dr. Mark Cameron, Associate Professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and emerging infectious disease researcher
• Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, Professor of medicine and infectious disease at the University of California, San Francisco
• Dr. Christine Salvatore, Chief of pediatric infectious disease at New York-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital

Read the full New York Times article here and have a safe sports season.