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.
Parents
Former Member
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.
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.
