Hi ! My name is Lisa and my daughter Samantha is 13 and joined a swim team this year. She was doing amazing and had moved up to the main level but then hurt her wrist and has been out for 3 months. We are back for the last few weeks and I am baffled by what is going on when we come home from practice. Sam gets home from school at 3 and has swim practice from 5-7. She comes home from school starving and has a whole wheat bagel with a banana and a cheese stick. I am afraid to give her dinner because I was told she could throw up. We come from the world of competition dance where all you do is eat eat and eat. When we come home at 7:00 after practice she is so hungry but then she sits down and says she can't eat. She almost feels very gassy and like she could throw up.
Is this normal? She has no eating issues any other time so I have to believe it stems from the swimming. The practice is an intense non- stop 2 hours. I don't know what to do. I am hoping someone will be kind enough to guide me.
It really depends on what she eats and how much.
2 hours is enough time for me to digest a complex carbo meal for sure. If there is a lot of fat in it the stomach empties more slowly. I think you have to experiment and add calories to the pre-work out meal slowly.
I agree that the after practice nausea will probably get better over time too (I wish I still had it but I am ravenous -- and fat)
Would she throw up if I fed her dinner at 3:00 when she came home?
This really varies from person to person. Some people can eat a full meal immediately before practice, others feel sick if they eat anything. She's really got to try it and see, I think.
As it has only been a few weeks since she has been back practicing it will probably get better with time. I found when I returned to swimming after a few months it was much easier to eat before practice and keep my stomach settled.
Thanks for the quick responses. So are you saying when you refer to electrolytes that I should give her something like gatorade to drink during practice? Right now I give her vitamin water but she barely touches it.
Would she throw up if I fed her dinner at 3:00 when she came home? Would the two hours be enough time to digest without getting sick. I am so afraid that she would puke in the pool.
I agree with brain. I have found a wide spread of eating issues with swimmers. She needs more drinks at practice & easy on her tummy food when she gets home, maybe pastas?
Thanks for the quick responses. So are you saying when you refer to electrolytes that I should give her something like gatorade to drink during practice? Right now I give her vitamin water but she barely touches it.
Would she throw up if I fed her dinner at 3:00 when she came home? Would the two hours be enough time to digest without getting sick. I am so afraid that she would puke in the pool.
Vitamin water, gatorade, smart water, potato chips, most prepared food, they all have electrolytes. You will have to ask her why she isn't drinking the vitamin water. If she just wants pure water during practice, she can always eat saltier foods pre practice.
Do you own a scale? Have her weigh herself before and after practice. That weight loss should (assuming no limbs were lost during practice) be water. If it is more than 2% bodyweight, she isn't getting enough electrolytes pre-workout or enough fluids during workout. Whatever her weight loss was should to be made up with fluids before sleep.
She definitely needs more liquid during practice. If she prefers plain water, that is fine but some liquid needs to be going in her. During a 2 hour practice, she should be drinking about 24 oz.
In my experience the world of competitive swimming in HS was very similar to how you describe competition dance. I could not eat enough. I ate a huge dinner before practice and would then come home and put away a second dinner. 2+ hours of cardio (not to mention puberty) required a LOT of energy. I would definitely try giving her more to eat before practice. I've found that if I don't eat before afternoon practices my stomach may cramp up from the lack of food (hunger pains on steroids). That may be causing her not to feel well enough to eat after practice too...
I could have written your post. I started with an age group team 3 years ago, practicing 6-8 at night. I couldn't eat before for the same reasons and when I got home, I was starving and yet nauseous and couldn't eat. To top it off, if I didn't eat enough, I would wake up with a migraine. I finally realized that my body just can't do intense workouts that late in the day. I now only swim in the mornings and if I go to the afternoon workout, it's for dryland only.
I hope you can find a solution. Sounds like electrolytes would help. Good luck and let her know she is not alone.
Dehydration can have that effect. More water during practice, introduce calories+electrolytes during practice (will take some experimenting to find what works without cramping).
Things to do now. Bigger lunch, start eating sooner after school and experiment with volume. Try to figure out how to get more solids inside her when she is currently able to eat (breakfast, lunch, after school snack) and make sure she isn't flooding herself with water, washing out all her electrolytes pre workout. It is good to be hydrated, but over hydration makes it easier to dehydrate.
Competitive athletes have this blessing/curse. Once they have attained a certain level of working out, they can surprisingly still perform similarly after a long lay off. You daughter might be pushing herself beyond what she can recover from right now because it is the level she was used to working out at. If it isn't too extreme she will readapt and all will be fine. If not, her body will fail in a way to get the recovery time it needs (mono, injury, exhaustion). It is like a childhood rite of passage.
All just theories, my medical knowledge is limited to take icing things that hurt.
