WAG Competing While Sick?

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tpMom

Proud Parent
Hi everyone, I'm curious how the parents and coaches on here typically handle a child who gets sick on competition day? Let me start off by saying that I do NOT let my DD attend practice sick. I think it's silly and dangerous to send an unhealthy child into a 3.5 hour day at the gym.

BUT....

Tomorrow is her mobility meet. It's literally the day the she's been working towards since March. This is it, a meet that is more important to her than any previous competition, including State laat year. The poor kid has worked so hard for this meet and she woke up this morning with a cough and sore throat. She is extremely adamant that she still wants to compete, even if she's not feeling well (of course, she'd drag herself to the gym with two broken legs if she could.) I'm tempted to let her push through and compete as long as she wants to do it and she's not running a high fever or seems too sick to do it safely, but I'm pretty torn about the decision. If anyone has any advice I'd appreciate it.
 
I don't know what our gym's policy is because ds has not been sick on a meet day yet. But I will say that last year another division at out gym competed on a Sunday afternoon after other gymnasts had been competing on the same equipment all weekend and 5 of 7 kids were not in the gym for practice for a few days because they all contracted some bug at the meet. None of them were sick supposedly on meet day. My ds's division competed at 8 am on Saturday and all of those kids from our gym stayed well. Just something to keep in the back of your mind as you evaluate your decision.
 
Hi everyone, I'm curious how the parents and coaches on here typically handle a child who gets sick on competition day? Let me start off by saying that I do NOT let my DD attend practice sick. I think it's silly and dangerous to send an unhealthy child into a 3.5 hour day at the gym.

BUT....

Tomorrow is her mobility meet. It's literally the day the she's been working towards since March. This is it, a meet that is more important to her than any previous competition, including State laat year. The poor kid has worked so hard for this meet and she woke up this morning with a cough and sore throat. She is extremely adamant that she still wants to compete, even if she's not feeling well (of course, she'd drag herself to the gym with two broken legs if she could.) I'm tempted to let her push through and compete as long as she wants to do it and she's not running a high fever or seems too sick to do it safely, but I'm pretty torn about the decision. If anyone has any advice I'd appreciate it.

I can totally understand how tempting it is to let her compete, but she can also be entered into another local meet to score out.
 
I guess I'd evaluate based on what's going on with her. Mild cold with no head congestion that could cause her balance to be off? Maybe let it slide. But if she's feverish and has a lot of head congestion, I'd say no. Worst case scenario, she does her score out at the first meet of the year and goes right on from there. If she's ready for the score out now, they can just have her work on her next level skills and routines and do a quick polish up on the ones she's scoring out of right before the first meet.

I'd tell her this now to allay her anxiety and lower the stakes. After all, she doesn't want to drag herself to the score out meet, have several falls because her balance is off, and then end up having to do another meet at that level, right?
 
I can totally understand how tempting it is to let her compete, but she can also be entered into another local meet to score out.

Don't know about OP, but our gym would not take one child to a separate away meet to secure a score for this purpose. But the scenario I proposed above really isn't that terrible even if it means waiting until January to announce to the world that she's an official Level Y instead of a Level X.
 
My son woke up sick one year before his state meet. He competed on a Sunday, and this was Saturday morning. I took him to the doc and he had pink eye, and ear infection. We got the meds started and it was over 24 hours so the doctor said he could compete. Upside down was tough, but doable. (he won floor and high bar that year).

It could just be a random thing, so I would let her rest and see how she feels. It could be nothing, or it could be something that would make it difficult to compete. But if she is too sick, then she will need to wait. It would not be safe for her.
 
Just as clarification this is not a standard mobility meet, it's the first competition of the year and, as I understand it, her one shot to score into the next level. We have a small gym in a rural community and the coach opted to have our gymnasts score out at this upcoming meet rather than attend an additional mobility meet over the summer. Going to another local meet is not an option as far as I know. It's already a super high pressure weekend just because of the way it's been planned. Right now, the kiddo just seems to have a cold. We're treating it with hot tea and rest. I do know that if shes feeling too bad tomorrow to compete safely we obviously will keep her home. It's tough because it's such a gray area right now. She's feeling kind of sick but not TOO sick if that makes sense.
 
So if it's the first meet of the year, why can't she score out at the second meet of the year if she's too sick to compete tomorrow?
 
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So it’s now or not at all this year? My Dd has been to gyms that set arbitrary rules like that so I understand. If that’s the case and she feels well enough and she seems healthy enough to be safe, I would let her go. I would also be having her rest up today and do whatever cold preventing/stopping measures are standard to your family.
 
So if it's the first meet of the year, why can't she score out at the second meet of the year if she's too sick to compete tomorrow?
That's a good question, I've got an email into the coach. The next competition is in January and it's one of 4 before State. I think the idea was that they wanted the girls to compete at least 4 meets at the higher level before State. Some of this information is coming from DD so I'm in the process of clarifying. Either way, it's a big meet that she's been building toward for a long time. My heart is hurting for her.
 
Cough and sore throat but no fever or anything? I'd have her rest today, hydrate like there was no tomorrow (hot tea with honey, Gatorade, etc) and as long as she was the same or better tomorrow, let her compete. Give her a Tylenol before the meet and some cough drops in her bag if she needs them. If she starts running a fever, feels terrible tomorrow, or the cough gets so bad it becomes an issue then I would keep her home.
 
Cough and sore throat but no fever or anything? I'd have her rest today, hydrate like there was no tomorrow (hot tea with honey, Gatorade, etc) and as long as she was the same or better tomorrow, let her compete. Give her a Tylenol before the meet and some cough drops in her bag if she needs them. If she starts running a fever, feels terrible tomorrow, or the cough gets so bad it becomes an issue then I would keep her home.

That's exactly what I'd be doing.
 
Maybe with some rest she'll feel " better enough" in the morning. If she's used to competing, she can probably power through if she's not overly stuffy or feverish. I'd probably pull her if she had a high fever that wasn't better with a bit of Tylenol, but my dd has competed several times with a cough or cold - it's hard to avoid for 5 months during the winter/spring and eventually I think all kids will be in this position if they stay in the sport long enough. I've been known to keep her home from school if she was coming down with something leading up to an important meet...hopefully you can do the same? It's not fun, and I wouldn't expect super results. I might change the decision, too, depending on where the coach is thinking she will score (like, would you reasonably expect her to score out comfortably based on her skill level, or was it already going to be a nail biter?). In the end, though, if she absolutely can't compete and had to score out at the next meet, and only got to compete 3 meets at higher level before state, it won't be the end of the world. It will just be what it is, and she'll be ok.
 
All you can do is what you are doing. Hopefully she can shake the thing off. But if she cant, yes, much better safe than sorry. And i am so sorry as well! Just an awful feeling. Was the plan to score out of level 5, i assume?
 
Cough and sore throat but no fever or anything? I'd have her rest today, hydrate like there was no tomorrow (hot tea with honey, Gatorade, etc) and as long as she was the same or better tomorrow, let her compete. Give her a Tylenol before the meet and some cough drops in her bag if she needs them. If she starts running a fever, feels terrible tomorrow, or the cough gets so bad it becomes an issue then I would keep her home.

Exactly what I would do. If everything I gad a cold and stayed home from work I wouldn't have a job. Cold go something worse stay home.
 
Honestly, if it's just a cold, no fever, I'd just have her rest all day and plan to compete unless she's worse tomorrow.
 
I have competed in that sick but not really sick state and ended up being fine. That said we don't know how bad it is with your DD. You are the mom. As long as she says she is good enough to compete (because she might lie bc of the stakes at this meet you could also ask her if she would be good enough for a practice). If she says yes, I would let her.

One of the girls had surgery the day of a meet and she did fine. Just surgery in the morning, and competing in the afternoon.
 
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What Momnipotent said. Because of when season falls here (usually Jan-Mar or Apr) it is pretty much guaranteed that some gymmie has a little something at most meets. Unless there is violent puking or a kid is just so lethargic and out of it that competing becomes difficult.... for compulsories, doctor them up and send them. For upper level Optionals it becomes a little trickier when eqilibrium being off can actually mean serious injuries... but I am assuming we are talking compulsory here. I'm sorry she isn't feeling good!!
 

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