Swimming makes my DS feel sick

[frankie3]

My DS age 7 has always enjoyed swimming but he has recently been very unhappy about going to his swimming lessons. He says he feels very sick, mainly after doing front crawl. Maybe this is because he has to take a lot of deep breaths and put his face in the water so he feels disorientated - I have no idea. He is not making it up, because after his swimming lesson yesterday he was crying and had loud gurgling noises coming from his throat!

I do not want to stop his lessons because he has not long been swimming without armbands. Has anyone else had any experience of this?

[frankie3]

bump

[GoodWilfToAllMN]

Is he swallowing lots of the water perhaps?

Or nervous?

[mimsum]

sounds like he needs to relax more - can you take him yourself just to splash around in the shallow end and boost his enjoyment and confidence without worrying about 'proper' swimming?

does he have goggles? they really help if he doesn't - and my kids love diving for divesticks/seals/fish etc - does wonders for their confidence

[exgov]

My son used to be like this. I think it must be swallowing some water. We made a point of having a small snack about an hour before swimming, which seems to help. Once they start worrying about it, it gets worse...

[IllegallyBrunette]

Dd2 is exactly like this.

She swims once a week with school and then has a lesson every sunday and she always complains afterwards of feeling sick and having tummy ache.

I think in her case she is swallowing too much water.

She always recovers on the walk home or once she has eaten something, so I tend to take a snack for afterwards now.

[frankie3]

Thanks for all your replies. He wears goggles and I don't think he swallows much water. Maybe he is nervous as he has not been swimming without armbands for long, and although he seems to be keeping up with his class really well, maybe he is finding it hard as they are doing more advanced things now such as leaering the strokes and jumping in deep end.

[lisad123]

if i pushmyself too hard I feel sick too. Maybe his being too hard on homself.

[frankie3]

Maybe he is struggling in his class - it is to difficult for him.

[babbi]

Sorry - coming very late to this - but at a similar age (a very long time ago !) I was also very sick after swimming. This progressed to child migraines so I had to quite for a couple of years (fine now).
Doc at the time told my mother it was fairly common and he felt it was triggered by a combo of the pool chemicals and water pressure on the head especially if any diving was done.

[deste]

I used to teach swimming and it sounds as if he is holding his breath. ie Not breathing slowly into the water when his face is face down in the water.