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Are Heely's Safe for Your Son or Daughter?
Important Points
 Heely's are shoes that have a wheel in the heel that allows kids to use their shoes as skates.
Protective gear is recommended, but not practical.
Fall on an outstretched hand is most common injury.
- If
you see a kid rolling by with one heel up and he or she is just wearing
tennis shoes, they are probably wearing Heelys. While these are
becoming more common, more and more injuries are occurring. Head
injuries and admissions to hospital were frequent with common age of 9
years old.. (1) Another study has shown falling on an
outstretched
hand along with arm and elbow injuries were most common and 20% of
injuries happened when using the Heely's for first time. (2) None of
the 67 children injuried were wearing protective gear and there were 56
girls injured compared to 11 boys.
Another
study of 953 patients showed over half were being supervised, but only
31% were wearing safetry equipment. (3) Most parents were not
aware
that safety equipment was even recommended. Most kids wear these shoes
around the gym or even going shopping so it is not reasonable to think
they will put on protective equipment for these outings. The
studies have recommended close supervision of children using
Heelys or Street Gliders during the steep learning curve and usage of
protective gear at all times. As a physical therapist, the
constant stretching on the achilles tendon would possibly cause
tendinitis, although we have not treated any patients nor read any
studies as of the date of this article.
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