Parents Sick before a meet - what to do?

[Lilbert]

My dd who is 10 has her state championship meet this weekend. She has achieved first place all around in the last 5 out of 6 meets and has a great shot at placing top 5. She had a bad cold yesterday (no fever just stuffy and runny) and I kept her home from school and practice. Much better this am and back at school today but not 100%. Concerned she won't recover enough in time. She's never missed a meet in two years. Any advice for speedier recovery? How much practice for next three days? She's doing all the typical stuff, lots of liquids, hot soup, saline nasal spray, humidifier in bedroom, eating high vitamin c foods, getting more sleep. Should I get her on antibiotics to prevent any kind of secondary infection? Would love your thoughts. Thanks!

 

[krisnkids]

First check your gym's policies. Some gyms have a policy that if they miss a practice during meet week especially because they are sick, they cannot compete. Stuffy and runny aren't bad imo, but i'm not a doctor, and I do not keep my kids home from school for that. You won't find many doctors that will put a child on antibiotics for stuffy and runny. What level is your dd?

 

[MaryA]

I would say to send her to practice and let the HC know what's going on. At least at DD's gym, HC would prefer a kid who is recovering from a cold (well enough to be at school) to be at practice. If HC is aware of the situation, she's likely to keep an eye on things and be aware that she might be weak or might get worn out more quickly, and will modify her workout accordingly. If she's recovering on her own, I doubt antibiotics would do anything for her.

As for not being her best at States, it's a shame, but it is what it is. Beyond following basic standards for keeping our kids healthy (enough sleep, good food, etc.) we have no control over when our kids get sick. There will be other States meets. If she doesn't do as well as she would like at States, keep the focus on what a great season she had and how proud she should be of herself. Nothing she does at States can take that away from her.

Good luck to her! Sending healing fairies her way!

 

[Lilbert]

Thanks. Gym has an 80% rule and so missing last night was fine. She is a level 5. Kept her home from school because she was very contagious and not fair to send her. Also was really feeling lousy.

 

[Lilbert]

Thanks. I plan on sending her tonight although she complained her chest hurt a little this am (hoping no bronchitis brewing). Told her to have the school call me if it persists but the day is almost over and have not heard anything so hopefully is on the mend. She rarely has missed practice and never gets sick! We are frequent hand washers here but like you said sometimes there is just no control. I guess that's the case with States. If she's not her best it's not her fault and you're right, we are all proud of her season and she should be too. Thanks for the healing wishes!

 

[krisnkids]

She should be fine then. My gymmie had a horrible time one year, 2 weeks before states she used a bug repellant with DEET in it, not knowing she was allergic to it, gave her a severe headache. 2 ER trips, doctors telling me she was having emotional issues. CT scans because it obviously had to be a head injury because she is a gymnast ended with me demanding that the ER doctor give her a migraine cocktail. 4 hours later she still had a headache, but was not crying in pain. She was out of the gym with the lingering headach for a week, still on migraine meds. Ended up back in the gym the week before states, half the time in tears because her head hurt, but refusing to leave the gym floor because she wanted to go to states. Went to states, didn't have a spectacular meet, but was a happy child because she had worked so hard to go.
In the end I left it up to her, I wasn't going to push her to go, but I wasn't go to tell her she couldn't if she was determined.

 

[Lilbert]

Wow. That's quite the experience. Glad she was OK. Thanks for the perspective.

 

[Gymmommy71]

You have at least three days for her to recover - I'm sure she'll be fine (especially since she's at the point now where she's able to go to school). FWIW...I've seen gymnasts come to meets pumped full of motrin controlling 103 degree fevers and compete and do just fine ...I've even seen a few vomit mid-meet and come right back out and do the next event... It's all about how important that specific meet is to them (like a kid who already qualified and has had several great meets already isn't going to push themselves for one more run of the mill meet, but a kid coming off an injury who needs that score to qualify will push themselves). In my state, meet season coincides w/ flu season, so there are always at least one or two kids from DD's team who are battling some sickness every meet weekend.

 

[wallinbl]

It's only Wednesday - plenty of time to recover! Do too much, too soon and you might slow the recovery. I'd think about skipping today's practice for extra rest and working out a private lesson for Thursday or Friday to polish things up.

 

[thefellowsmom]

Our last meet was our travel meet and my daughter had a fever and threw up the night before the meet. She woke up feeling a little better and no fever but threw up one more time in the morning. I told her no one would be upset with her for not competing and tried to convince her to stay in bed the she was not having it. She told me to give her some crackers, fill a water bottler and bring an advil because there was no way she was going to miss that meet, especially after traveling all that way.

I wasn't sure it was the right thing to do, but I followed her lead as I do with everything else having to do with this sport.

We went and talked to her coach and the two of them agreed to take it minute by minute and stay in constant communication about how she was feeling. If her coach or I had felt that it was unsafe for her at any time, we would have pulled her.

But, she did great. She had an excellent meet (personal best AA score) and by the end of the day was feeling on top of the world and no more tummy issues.

Every kid is different but I would listen to your daughter. Unless there is something more serious going on, let her decide how she feels. I think three days is plenty of time to recover from a minor cold and she has earned the right to go for that state title. Sounds like she had an excellent season.

But, this is coming from the mom who just sent her kid into a meet telling her to make sure she didn't puke on the floor so what do I know

 

[ellabella]

Coming from a parent whose child stays sick from Oct-Mar with what I affectionally call "the junk", she'll be fine. DD pretty much competes every year with it. It comes and goes. She has weeks where she has such a bad cough and so much gunk and others where she is better. It always seems to fall right before a meet when it is the worst with her not being able to breath, coughing all night, etc.

Now one year she was sick 2 weeks before a meet with 10 days of fever and a bad cough. We went to the dr 3 times in this 10 days and kept being told it was a virus, go home and wait it out. She was finally fever free the Friday before her Sunday meet so I let her practice and she wanted to compete on Sunday. Practice went okay Friday night. She went home only to wake up screaming in the middle of night. Turns out she had a double ear infection. She begged to compete and I let her. She had an awful, awful meet. In hindsight it was a bad decision on my part and I would never do it again. It was hard because it was the first meet of the season, she didn't have a fever and wanted to go so badly! The only up side was she scored 5 entire points higher at her next meet when she was well again. It looked might impressive to go from a 33 to a 38 in such a short amount of time lol.

 

[gym law mom]

I would hope the coaches let her do a limited practice today and then increase tomorrow. Lots of rest/fluids---she should be feeling better by Saturday. Good luck.

 

[ellabella]

Our last meet was our travel meet and my daughter had a fever and threw up the night before the meet. She woke up feeling a little better and no fever but threw up one more time in the morning. I told her no one would be upset with her for not competing and tried to convince her to stay in bed the she was not having it. She told me to give her some crackers, fill a water bottler and bring an advil because there was no way she was going to miss that meet, especially after traveling all that way.

I wasn't sure it was the right thing to do, but I followed her lead as I do with everything else having to do with this sport.

We went and talked to her coach and the two of them agreed to take it minute by minute and stay in constant communication about how she was feeling. If her coach or I had felt that it was unsafe for her at any time, we would have pulled her.

But, she did great. She had an excellent meet (personal best AA score) and by the end of the day was feeling on top of the world and no more tummy issues.

Every kid is different but I would listen to your daughter. Unless there is something more serious going on, let her decide how she feels. I think three days is plenty of time to recover from a minor cold and she has earned the right to go for that state title. Sounds like she had an excellent season.

But, this is coming from the mom who just sent her kid into a meet telling her to make sure she didn't puke on the floor so what do I know

I'm glad your DD did fine and ended up okay, but sending a kid who has been vomitting to meet to expose everyone else is not cool in my book. We have had several situations at our gym where the kids pass that stomach bug back and forth. The gym has set a very strict policy that you do not return to the gym until it is 24 hours after the last stomach issue. It's just out of respect to everyone else. Our coaches even got the bug because kids were coming to practice after trying to push through it. A cold is a lot different.

 

[thefellowsmom]

Totally get it and I wouldn't have had it been a virus. It wasn't a stomach flu thing, more of a over stressed, dehydrated thing. This happens to her when she gets overwhelmed and regularly when we travel. Sorry, should have clarified

 

[lhmom]

DD had a stomach bug and fever the weekend before her state meet. She missed the Monday before the meet because she hadn't been fever free for 24 hours. Her HC had her come in that Wednesday instead to practice (usually an off day). She felt kinda tired up until that Wednesday and practices were pretty blah for her. All I could do was hope for the best and she ended up doing better than I expected (ended up coming in 1st in her age group.). Hope that your DD feels better soon and good luck to her this weekend!

 

[Lilbert]

Thanks for all of the feedback. Given the way she was last night and her chest pain this morning I thought the worst despite not being an alarmist. Good news is that she came home from school looking great and with energy to boot. Just dropped her at the gym and they'll use their judgement on how hard to work out. Looks like it may all work out.

 

[Ariekannairb]

If you aren't already, add some elderberry into her vitamins. Have her take it even when she feels fine. Elderberry is known for decreasing the number and length of colds and the flu. She can take a therapeutic dose when she is sick and then drop it back to preventative during the rest of the winter.

 

[profmom]

Eh, I don't know. DS's teammate was feeling queasy the morning of the meet earlier this month and looked green around the gills. Got halfway through warmups and came off to collapse on his mom's lap. At some point they dashed to the bathroom and he didn't quite make it. He felt great afterward, though, and rejoined his team. He competed floor and did an awesome job. Then he turned green again and came off; this time they made it to the bathroom. About 45 minutes later, they called it a day and headed off for the (ugh!) seven hour drive home. DS caught what I think was the same bug a few days later. There's always another meet.

Oh, and if it's ever strep? Please don't do it! They are competitors -- they want to compete -- but sometimes it's up to the parent to be the parent and say no. Even as cute little L4s, they are doing skills that could get them hurt if they aren't close to 100%, and a strep epidemic in a gym is no fun at all for anyone.

I hope your DD recovers quickly and is 100% for her meet. Advise her on taking precautions not to spread the bug to her teammates!

 

[skschlag]

I agree. We have a hard time getting things out of the gym. Colds are one thing, but fevers/vomiting, stay home. Right now, we have had 3 gymnasts with flu (actually tested positive.) They are losing weight, and strength. They tend to be out about a week. But they are "contagious" for about a week before they know they are sick. So it is just a matter of time....

 

[Foxy's Leos]

Lots of rest, fluids, fluids, oh, did I say fluids... A mixture of
http://www.livestrong.com/article/266326-what-are-the-health-benefits-of-ginger-lemon-honey-tea/
Here is a link for a good drink she can sip.....should help!