Keeping your kids safe is a full- time job. It’s easy to protect them from obscene content on television, but it’s difficult to protect them from themselves, when they are out of your sight. Athletes suffer from foot fungus, athlete’s feet, and staph infections.

Has a parent, your job is to help prevent your child from picking up germs in the locker room, and the best protection against staph infection is prevention. The most common kind of bacteria is staph. The bacteria causes skin infections in young sports players, and if left unnoticed and untreated, it could enter the bloodstream and become life- threatening.

Preventative Measures Brings Comfort- Relief- Peace of Mind

Following a few rules can make sports fun, clean, and worry free.

  • Encourage hand washing at home, at school, and on the field
  • Make sure your child have a clean washcloth and towel, and speak out against sharing these items
  • Wash your child’s gear and towel after each use, as moist towels accumulate bacteria
  • Encourage showering immediately after a game and on a daily basis
  • Cover skin lesions and administer first aid if needed
  • Make sure your child keeps his or her hands clean with soap and water, or hand sanitizer with alcohol

If your child has a sore or lesion, contact your child’s pediatrician for an appointment. Insist on cultures for skin lesions that worsens or seems to resist medication. Remember, staph infections and MRSA are transferable through human contact, and are often mistaken for insect bites.