5mo arms turning purple during swimming

[perkster]

Yesterday I went swimming with DS for the third time. Twice before he's just worn swimming nappies and enjoyed it. Yesterday he had on a swimming wrap along with a nappy which was not donw up too tightly.

We were in the pool for about 5 minutes when his arms from the elbow down turned bright purple as if he had lost all circulation which was really frightening. I got him out of the pool and checked him over and he seemed OK. The weird thing was he was fine in himself and had no other signs of being cold and was in no distress at all. His lips and feet weren't blue, he didn't feel cold to the touch on his arms and fingers and if anything wondered why he was out the pool!

I put the wrap back on, a bit looser in case that was what it was but the same thing happened and he was still OK so we got out of the pool.

Does anyone have any ideas about what this could be? It's strange to think this happened the first time he wore something to keep him warm!

I am concerned that it could be a symptom of something else as the colour was so severe.

My dd gets very purple/blue hands when cold. She is 17 months now, but last winter it was really bad. I was quite concerned, but my GP checked her over and said she was fine and some babies when they're cold the blood vessels shut down, hence the discolouration.

Get him checked if your worried though.

ds2s right arm regularly went blue/purple and felt cold to the touch every so often til he was about 6-7 months. Doc checked him over and said its not unusual as their circualtory system is still immature. No loss of movement or anything and he's now 3 and its never happened since although he does feel the cold.

My little one does this also when swimming, the hv that goes with us said it was quite normal and just his circulation, the blood rushes to the hands and makes them go purple, when they get older apparently it doesn't happen I guess cause their circulation is much more mature