Parents 8 year old and underwear under leotard???

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GymBeeMom

Proud Parent
Soooo, my DD hates underwear. She has never worn it under her leo. She is 8 1/2 and I am wondering, should I make her wear it? I noticed that ALL the other girls do but the coaches have never said anything to her about it. At this age does it matter? I have never noticed anything about how she looks in her leo to make me thing there is anything inappropriate about her not wearing undies, but wondering if there is some reason I am missing why she should...coaches, parents, gymnasts? Feel free to pipe in.
 
Mine never wore them until they were teens. Some Leo's need it though, see through, pale fabrics etc but we never had those.
 
My 12 year old doesn't wear them. My older daughter wore them from 8 years old because her coach at the time told them they had to.
 
Did hasn't worn them since she was in rec preschool classes several years ago but she is getting to the age where she likely will need to, or will start wearing shorts which se currently hates.
 
Most Leos have a liner. My DD doesn't wear any, but the older girls wear the special Leo briefs that are made out of Leo material, just higher cut.
 
My DD never wore panties from rec through L3. This summer while training for L5, she started complaining of chafing and rubbing and asked if she could wear panties. Of course, I said yes but I don't like to have her underwear showing under her leo so I also bought her 6-8 pairs of shorts to wear over her leos.

Some days she wears panties and shorts and somedays she is commando gymnast.

At her private this week however.......oh dear lord help me......

She has a pair of boy short panties. Now for those of you with only boy children, let me explain that the look an awful lot like shorts in that they go down onto the leg but they aren't long enough to really be considered shorts and the material is terribly thin lycra.

Her private was moved to noon because we had election day off. So it was just Bella, her coach, and me in the gym. I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention at first but I glanced through the one way mirror and noticed that my child, my dear sweet goofball child, was wearing those dang boy short panties OVER her leo. I wanted to crawl under the chair in which I was sitting and die.
 
Forgot to mention that Bella is 8YO too so she is still several years away from "knowing" that she needs to wear panties. For her, it was an issue of material rubbing on sensitive skin that made her start wearing them.
 
Oh My goodness, that is too funny!! ^^^^^ You've just helped me start my day with a giggle :D

Recently I have been thinking about this issue a bit myself. Daughter comes home from training these days and often winces in pain and oh so slowly peels her leotard off because it has been rubbing. It doesn't seem to matter which leo she wears these days - soft velvet ones or lycra and some are a size bigger than others, but we've tried them all and they are all doing the same now.

I'm not sure why it's started in the last month or two and I can't quite see how wearing underwear will help stop the seam of her leo from rubbing unless she lets her pants hang out beyond her leotard bottom - nice look!

Any ideas?
 
It doesn't seem like any of the girls in DD's gym wear them...but like others said, will when they need to.
 
Oh My goodness, that is too funny!! ^^^^^ You've just helped me start my day with a giggle :D

Recently I have been thinking about this issue a bit myself. Daughter comes home from training these days and often winces in pain and oh so slowly peels her leotard off because it has been rubbing. It doesn't seem to matter which leo she wears these days - soft velvet ones or lycra and some are a size bigger than others, but we've tried them all and they are all doing the same now.

I'm not sure why it's started in the last month or two and I can't quite see how wearing underwear will help stop the seam of her leo from rubbing unless she lets her pants hang out beyond her leotard bottom - nice look!

Any ideas?

Is the elastic exposed? My niece has a terrible reaction if elastic touches her skin.
 
None of our girls wear them. Gym policy is that all girls must wear bar shorts during warmup and stretching, but they must be removed when they start rotation. The HC feels that it is more modest during stretching (for obvious reasons), but he wants the girls to be comfortable performing in just a leo. If they always have the shorts on they may be a little embarrassed at competitions. None of the younger girls wear panties right now, but I don't really know about the older ones.
 
"Is the elastic exposed? My niece has a terrible reaction if elastic touches her skin." No the elastic isn't exposed, I've checked them to see if there is anything obvious or if it's worse with any kind of material. She has about ten leos and it seems to be with all of them now. It isn't something she ever mentioned until a few weeks ago and I'm not aware that her training regime has changed in any obvious way. I'm at a bit of a loss to be honest as it looks as though she's peeling a bandaid off when she gets changed, although it doesn't look red or sore, it clearly is!
 
It might help if she put on a thick lotion before her leo, like shea butter.
 
Shows you how much I know about gymnastics, I thought all girls wore underpants under their Leos! I just thought the older girls had some special gymnastics underpants that matched their Leo or a special dance one. My DD is only five so of course I make her where them, but at this age shes not embarrassed if her underpants show :)
 
Most Leos have a liner. My DD doesn't wear any, but the older girls wear the special Leo briefs that are made out of Leo material, just higher cut.

None of my dds Leo have had a liner. What brands do you have? I need to look into that. I asked about this a few years ago.
 
"Is the elastic exposed? My niece has a terrible reaction if elastic touches her skin." No the elastic isn't exposed, I've checked them to see if there is anything obvious or if it's worse with any kind of material. She has about ten leos and it seems to be with all of them now. It isn't something she ever mentioned until a few weeks ago and I'm not aware that her training regime has changed in any obvious way. I'm at a bit of a loss to be honest as it looks as though she's peeling a bandaid off when she gets changed, although it doesn't look red or sore, it clearly is!

Mine has a reaction to the tights type material they use in the gusset of most commercial leotards. Where is it exactly she's getting sore? Is it the seams, only the seams, all over? Could it be sweat + fabric + movement?
 
In response to the original question--the only time I've ever noticed whether a kid was wearing underwear was the time when one of the itty bitty girls came in with her leo on backwards and nothing underneath. Even then, the coach didn't notice until halfway through practice when she was spotting the kid.
 

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