Freezing shivering 7 year old after swim

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My DS loves swimming and is good for age. Sometimes though, after a 30 min swim or hour swim, he comes out of the pool with blue lips and shivering and white with cold. Today he swam for just 30mins, worked exceptionally hard (lengths up and down pool for whole 30 mins), and when he came out he shivered uncontrollably, had blueish lips and looked extremely pale. His brother, who is younger and spent half the time sitting about not swimming, was fine.

Is there something medically wrong with DS? He is thin but I thought swimming pools only caused this reaction in the under 5s? And not if you are swimming intensively (and I assume therefore generating a lot of heat?)

Any advice please? I'm really worried but he loves swimming and hopes to join a club with hour long regular swims in a coldish pool soon, so I don't want to stop him swimming???

I don’t have medical advice but I do remember a skinny childhood friend with this exact problem and she was never unwell. You can get swimming wetsuits for kids which may be worth a look?

I always used to go blue in swimming pools although didn't actually feel cold.

I put mine in a wetsuit type thing but with material arms. Keeps them toasty.

I have an extremely skinny 7 year old who shivers uncontrollably when he comes out of the pool. He is absolutely fine.

That does sound extreme. I’d run that by a GP, personally, with photos of the blue lips as evidence.

My very skinny six year old is like this, always has been in cold weather etc too. GP says it's just cos he doesn't have much body fat! He's very healthy and gets fewer colds etc than the average child.

Get a warmer swimsuit if it bothers him and mention it to your GP if it's troubling you, but it's most likely down to his slim build!

My DS, almost 7, is exactly the same.

Thanks all! Haggisfish - have you got a link to that wetsuit thing? Thanks!

KIDS SHORTY WETSUIT SHORTIE CHILDS CHILDRENS BOYS GIRLS UV SWIM SUN WET SUIT PIRATE SEAHORSE (Pink Seahorse, 5-6 Years) www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GQFWZDW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_b6aJCbMXKW84Q?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

I got ds the red one.

My dd is the same, our gp said to give a snack straight after swimming and provide something really warm, as the body has used lots of energy. I was worried about her very skinny and eats like a horse! Like others have said it's lack of fat so a wetsuit may work, but we opted for s fleece onesie which works brilliantly

You can get thermal swim tops ( called two bare feet thermal rash vests) we brought one for our DS and it has an almost fleece lining. He didn't like wearing it due to sensory issues so can't tell you if they make a difference!

Round here we have what's called a 'chittering bite'. It's a snack of any sort for after swimming.

When DS used to have swimming lessons, they would split part of the pool off for lessons and the public were allowed to swim in the other part. One day when he was having a lesson, a member of the public went up and had a chat with the swimming instructor as he was so concerned about the child who had turned blue in the pool DS was always cold and shivery, he also was very skinny. But he always warmed up afterwards.

Maybe get a dryrobe and scoop him straight into that after swimming?

He won't be allowed to wear a wetsuit at swimming club so maybe best to not go there now.

Thanks all! And thanks for the link haggisfish! Yes reefedsail, I did wonder if swimming club would say no to a wetsuit. Do you think they'd b ok with a thermal rash vest? I'm thinking maybe not, but I've been googling and convinced myself he'll get hypothermia and be rushed to hospital once he starts hour lessons at the swim club (it's a notoriously cold pool!) (By the way - is that actually likely to happen? I am genuinely worrying a lot about this!)

The rash vest we got looks no different to the normal swim tops you can get. You can get long and short sleeved ones. If they are allowed normal swim tops them then I can't see them saying no to these.