WAG Bruising and bleeding from uneven bars?!

[BouncingCzech]

Okay I'm new to this forum so I'm not sure if I'm posting in the correct area. I'm a parent of a 10 year old gymnast who just started at a new gym and she is getting more rigorous training, luckily. They are getting her caught up on the uneven bars and she has bad bruising and bleeding in her hip/pelvic area??!!! Is this normal? I know I should not freak out but I guess I'm hoping someone could tell me if this is normal? She did forget shorts a couple days but even with shorts it's bad sometimes So I should explain the freaking out a bit more.... my identical twin sister died of leukemia and one of the first signs after she gave birth to her baby girl was bruising in odd places. But I'm trying to calm myself down and tell myself it could be the bars right?!
Thanks in advance!

 

[Committed]

Okay I'm new to this forum so I'm not sure if I'm posting in the correct area. I'm a parent of a 10 year old gymnast who just started at a new gym and she is getting more rigorous training, luckily. They are getting her caught up on the uneven bars and she has bad bruising and bleeding in her hip/pelvic area??!!! Is this normal? I know I should not freak out but I guess I'm hoping someone could tell me if this is normal? She did forget shorts a couple days but even with shorts it's bad sometimes So I should explain the freaking out a bit more.... my identical twin sister died of leukemia and one of the first signs after she gave birth to her baby girl was bruising in odd places. But I'm trying to calm myself down and tell myself it could be the bars right?!
Thanks in advance!

That would happen to my DD as well. She would bruise her abdomen, right above her pelvic bone, so badly that she would bleed through her leo. I think it was just a mixture of thin skin and repeated pounding that caused the issue. She started putting a block of pit in her shorts to cushion the area until she was able to heal.

 

[BouncingCzech]

Thank you so much for responding! Ok, what is a "block of pit"?

 

[Committed]

Do they have a pit in the gym? My DD would take one of the foam cubes and put it in her shorts. It's pretty common practice at our gym. A bandaid wasn't doing the trick!

 

[ldw4mlo]

I'm sorry I don't think exessive bruising to the point of bleeding is normal. JMO, If this were my kid I would be going to the doc for a work up.

Also is your child taking any medications? Medications can be a cause of excess bruising by interfering with body's ability to clot.

 

[John]

DD occasionally gets small bruises on her hips. Never any blood.

 

[NutterButter]

Oh yes, my DD has bruised there before. I think it was right around L5. Big bruises. Never any blood but she always wears shorts. I would imagine it wouldn't be that hard to see a bit of blood depending on how the bar was hitting skin and/or leotard seam...especially if she's not wearing shorts.

 

[Flicfliclay]

My DD has bruising there pretty much all the time, but NEVER blood! I too would freak a bit if it was bloody! It has to be painful. I have heard of girls using maxi pads in that area to help from bruising?

 

[ayyyrial]

I'd get quite a few bruises and sometimes a small amount of bleeding on bars, especially during the levels where we had to do front hip circles. When we did swimming in P.E. at school, my teacher called me over to ask if everything was OK because of it! After moving on to the higher levels where there wasn't as much hips-to-the-bar stuff, the problem mostly went away for me. I also started eating better which I think reduced my skin's sensitivity to bruising.

Some of my teammates also got pretty bad bruising and swelling when working certain skills at the beginning, but as they improved their technique it wasn't as bad. My coach advised one girl to stick maxi pads under her leo to help absorb some impact during that time.

 

[Committed]

I'd get quite a few bruises and sometimes a small amount of bleeding on bars, especially during the levels where we had to do front hip circles. When we did swimming in P.E. at school, my teacher called me over to ask if everything was OK because of it! After moving on to the higher levels where there wasn't as much hips-to-the-bar stuff, the problem mostly went away for me. I also started eating better which I think reduced my skin's sensitivity to bruising.

Some of my teammates also got pretty bad bruising and swelling when working certain skills at the beginning, but as they improved their technique it wasn't as bad. My coach advised one girl to stick maxi pads under her leo to help absorb some impact during that time.

Yeah, I think DD "suffered" through this during the whole Baby Giant stage and controlling her CHS back to the bar.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

My level 5 dd and most of her teammates have had bruises in that area from hitting the bars, but never actual bleeding. They get them mostly from the baby giants and from coming down from cast handstands drills.

 

[thefellowsmom]

Dds teammate went through this. She came from a different gym and our gym was much more rigorous and coach was completely reworking her bar technique. Working loads of cast handstands and baby giants to improve her giant form.

Our gym had a piece of what looked like a pool noodle (but not that I wouldn't think) that they could put on the bar to cushion and also did the foam block in her shorts during healing and the a maxi pad to protect until she worked out her form issues.

I think it is fairly common to have bruising issues during this gymnastics development stage. The bleeding would worry me a bit unless it looks like it is rubbing raw which could definitely happen under the right circumstances.

I know it is uncomfortable but I would talk to her bar coach very discretely. Likely they have dealt with this before and may have some tools for her to use or shift the focus of her training for a few weeks to allow time for it to heal.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Bruising is fairly common especially when working casting and long hang pullovers a lot. Bleeding is not common in the hip area (only in the hands)

 

[duyetanh]

Get it checked so YOU get peace of mind. Sure as heck can't hurt.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Agreed. Bruising while working certain skills is common, bleeding not so much. I do have one current gymnast who seems to be breaking skin really easy as she has an almost road rash like situation going on (we are working a lot of front hipcircles at the moment). My DD had tons of bruises in that area working FHC and baby giants....

 

[3rd_time_around]

Both very common. They call them "hip rips" and yes, they bleed just like that palm rips, although not as bad. Its from rubbing on the bar during back hip circles and casting and such.

 

[2gymmies]

We went through it and we used an extra wrist band in the shorts to give it just a bit of padding. Also, ice that area to help it heal!

 

[CoachAlex]

If she is working a lot of casting/cast handstands/baby giants then yes it is possible to bruise where she lands on the bar (this happened to me when I was learning cast handstands). And yes, I like the term "hip rip" that someone used in an above post - when I was learning giants (from the cast handstand) I always had "rips" on my hips - yes they bled. Occasionally it happens to some of the girls I coach but it seems that wearing shorts definitely helps this. Obviously, if you are concerned there is something else going on, get her checked out - even if it is just for peace of mind.

 

[e'smum]

my dd got a deep bruise over the summer. it was so bad that it hurt and she pulled off bars completely for 3 weeks (2 of those we were out of the gym entirely). before that she had pulled off bars, done a week's vacation, came back for a week and was fine. 2nd week it started to hurt again. so they pulled her off her kips and CH. she could still practice giants if someone put her into standing position (CH). she had a bruise for a while but even after it disappeared, it still hurt. she needed those 3 weeks off bars to heal completely. she never bled though. she's been back for 3 weeks now and no more issues.

 

[duyetanh]

Op, have you followed up with dr or coach?