Injury facts for kids

An injury means your body gets hurt or damaged. It's like when you fall and scrape your knee, or accidentally bump your head. Another word for a serious injury to the body is trauma.

Wound closed with sutures

What is an Injury?

An injury usually happens when something outside your body causes harm to it. This can be a fall, a hit, or even something like extreme heat or cold. Injuries can range from small cuts and bruises to more serious breaks or burns.

Different Kinds of Injuries

Injuries can happen in many ways. Here are some common types:

• Environmental Injuries: These are hurts caused by your surroundings. For example, a Burn from touching something very hot, or frostbite from being in extreme cold.
• Penetrating Injuries: This happens when a sharp object goes into your body. Think of a small cut from a knife or a thorn.
• Blunt Injuries: This is when something hits your body without piercing it. Examples include getting a bruise from falling or bumping into something hard.
• Chemical Injuries: These injuries happen when harmful chemicals touch your body. For instance, some strong acids can cause burns if they get on your skin.

How Injuries Happen

Injuries can happen in two main ways:

• Accidental Injuries: These are injuries that no one meant to cause. They happen by mistake. A common example is a car accident, or tripping and falling while playing. Most injuries are accidental.
• Intentional Injuries: This is when someone tries to hurt another person on purpose. This type of injury is also called non-accidental injury.

Images for kids

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  Burns by severity

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  A black eye, a common facial injury.

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  Types of bone fracture

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  Trauma surgeons operating on a United States Marine

See also

In Spanish: Traumatismo para niños