Should children be playing sports in extreme heat?

Korin Miller, of Yahoo Life, spoke to several health experts to help parents understand if it is fine for their children to play sport in such weather.

Doctors say the biggest concern is heat illness.

"Heat illness refers to a spectrum of illness ranging from mild heat cramps to heat exhaustion and severe heat stroke," Yahoo Life quoted Dr Tracy Zaslow, a board-certified pediatrician and pediatric sports medicine specialist at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles, as saying.

According to the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS), exertional heat stroke is the leading cause of preventable death in high school athletes.

"It's uncommon for children to die of heat stroke, but if it's your kid ... It should never occur," said Dr Lewis Nelson, chair of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents be on the lookout for the following symptoms of heat illness:

• Feeling faint

• Extreme tiredness (e.g., unusually sleepy, drowsy or hard to arouse)

• Headache

• Fever

• Intense thirst

• Not urinating for many hours

• Nausea

• Vomiting

• Breathing faster or deeper than normal

• Skin numbness or tingling

• Muscle aches

• Muscle spasms

Here are several things you can do to protect kids playing sports in the heat:

• Keep them well hydrated.
• Give them time to adapt.
• Balance outdoor time with indoor time.
• Wear lightweight, loose-fitting clothes.

Source: Yahoo Life