Swim moms:

[...................]

What do you do when your kids get cuts?  My dd has two nasty scrapes from yesterday's fall into the bush incident, and she just fell again in the backyard and put a hole in her knee.  We do have the very expensive 3M waterproof band aids.  I was thinking, I should keep her home tomorrow, but for Wednesday to apply the waterproof band aids.  By then, they will not be open sores, but they will still have some scabbing and weak skin.  

 

Is that acceptable?  Will it protect my dd from bacteria as well as prevent other kids or parents from being too grossed out?  

[mom2bee]

I would have to wait until the day-off to make a decision. I might use the cuts as a good example of consequence for my daughter if I were trying to make a point about her reckless tendencies. "Daughter, because you were reckless in play and got hurt, you may not swim again until you heal up."

But if she's a serious swimmer or with a team, it would complicate things a bit.

ETA: Can you email the coach/teacher and ask them there opinion? Maybe include a picture of the gash.

[zimom]

nm

[Alte Veste Academy]

Yes, an expensive waterproof band aid is sufficient. :) And I know the ones you mean. Sooooo expensive! :lol: But it is because they stay on.

[blondeviolin]

Right before our statewide competition this past fall my son dropped a due cast monster truck on his face. He needed glue to close all of te layer of the skin. His doctor was more than fine with him swimming with a waterproof bandage on. "Good," said Emmett, "because I have a big swim meet tomorrow!"

[Gil]

If its the expensive, high quality sort you should be good to go with the water-proof bandaid.

[...................]

Ok Thanks ladies.  I just had no idea what is acceptable and what others do.  She might have to miss tomorrow but with the bandages it's a possibility. I'll have to see how it heals.

[Shannon in TN]

I second what the PP said about the chlorinated pools.  My dd dives at the local university and at one of the college dive teams' practices, a diver grazed his head on the platform.  On a side note, can I just tell you how I cringed????  Anyway, when he got out of the water and laid down on the back board, there was blood everywhere because of the water spreading it out.  Obviously practice stopped for a while, but once they whisked him off, they washed off the platform where he was laying (with pool water) and resumed practice.  There's so much chlorine in those pools, there's really no way any bacteria or viruses could survive.

[Leav97]

If you really had to a gauze bandage with duck tape will work.  A 3M bandaid will work just fine.

[amsunshine]

You might want to check with the pool's policies.  One of the pools our dds swim at does not allow bandaids.

[kewb]

As long as there is a scab into the pool they go.  It only stings for a minute or two and all that chlorine kills anything that may be trying to cause an infection.