Probably not, but it depends somewhat on whom you ask.

In 2002, the Institute of Medicine (part of the National Academy of Sciences) sponsored a workshop at which experts discussed potential injuries to kids’ brains from playing soccer. Even though people usually think of soccer as safer than football, according to a summary of the report on the IOM website, soccer players probably experience concussions about as often as football players. But these are usually from banging one’s head against another player’s head or knee, or against the ground or goal post, not from intentionally heading the ball, explained a contributor to that report, Joseph Crisco, director of the bioengineering laboratory in the department of orthopedics at Brown University Medical School in Providence, R.I..

So far, he said, there have been no documented cases of concussion, although some studies have suggested milder problems – such as cognitive impairment – in older, professional soccer players. But no cognitive deficits have been found in college players, nor in young children. For these reasons, he argued, kids don’t need to wear helmets when they play soccer.

On the other hand, Dr. Arthur Day, program director of the Neurological Sports Injury Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said he would “put a helmet on everybody. We have done it for almost all other sports. Why not soccer?” Alternatively, he said, youth sports organizations could just change the rules to outlaw heading. (A bill now languishing in the Massachusetts legislature would charge a $100 fine for heading.)

Overall, though, heading the ball does not appear as dangerous as it might look to parents, although the IOM report noted that a more conclusive view may be available in a few years, when a 5-year study on the long-term consequences of heading funded by the United States Soccer Foundation should be finished.

In the meantime, it may be comforting to know that, as the IOM report noted, a review in May, 2000 of the possible use of helmets by young soccer players by the Consumer Product Safety Commission concluded that the available evidence does not support mandatory adoption of helmets. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which monitors childhood injuries, has also not recommended against heading in youth soccer.

In other words, play ball. But watch out for the goal posts!