'abnormal' sports physical?- catching breath

[SaraBellum]

I know you all have more experience with this. So when you have taken your kids in for a physical what was your experience like? 
Mine was a little worrisome- not the physical itself but some of the questions/concerns it brought about. The doctor cleared up most of it there- but then soccer practice tonight raised concerns.

DD's height and weight were fine, her blood pressure was 110/55- again fine. Her resting heart rate was 42. (normal is 60-100 bpm). This lead the doctor to ask questions about her sports training and such. Nothing to worry about- doc said she was in great shape and lower than normal is fine for runners. She has a miler's rate.

Tonight at soccer practice she couldn't catch her breath. I've googled. I'm hoping it was the bad combination of her day- she didn't drink enough, had taco bell and was running on about 5 hours sleep. Parent of the year right?    So is that what caused the breathing problems or would a low heart rate do that? Is her heart pumping enough for her? Is it an odd coincidence that I found out about her heart rate is low and then she had this issue?

So when you all take your players in do they all have these lower 'athletic' heart rates? I'm going to keep an eye on her breathing and hoping it was an isolated incident. Can anyone shed light on this?

 

[screech]

I've played competitive soccer all my life.  It is at 52 resting (sometimes 46).  Our players are training, fit, and healthier than we ever were.  42 for your kid resting is good or your doctor wouldn't have cleared her.  Not sure what the average today means but includes a lot of unhealthy kids and fewer elite young athletes.  Anxiety over hearing concern(?) at the doctors office (or usually before they go in) is common and could be a circumstantial event here...she was probably working her butt off getting ready for the season in two weeks.


Heart Rate Charts:
Heart Rate Chart: Babies to Adults
AGE Beats Per Minute (BPM)
Babies to Age 1 100 - 160
Children ages 1-10 60 - 140
Children age 10+ and adults 60 - 100
Athletes: 40 - 60

Still an athlete :-)

IMHO -- I don't work in the health field.

[URIdiotImNot]

more detail needed.
what was the activity that caused shortness of breath?
light jogging? or
100 yard wind sprints?

[MichGoBlue]

It would be good to know exactly what she was doing when she started having trouble.  Not saying this is her case, but when I really push myself hard in sprints I sometimes have a hard time catching my breath afterward.

[bigb]

I am no Dr., but my DD had the same problem, she plays multi Sports and always had a hard time Breathing after work outs...Doc. said about the same thing, that she had a runners heart, but later checked for exercise induced Asthma.  Dr. did some test and it came to be exercise induced Asthma.  Asthma can cause a disorder of the airways, which causes
attacks of wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and
coughing.


 (www.google.com/health)

[SaraBellum]

She was running- not a light jog, not wind sprints. It was early on in club practice, she had come straight from a high school practice. She had a hard time breathing and was walking out it- trying to breath- then she starting panicking.She said it felt like her throat was closing up.  By the time she made it back to the finish of the run she was in tears and breathing like she'd been crying. She just couldn't understand why she couldn't run and was saying how 'embarrassed' she was and that she was 'letting her team down' (by not keeping up).  She calmed and was ok- but it happened again later in practice and she had to focus on breathing deeply. She also took a claritin, but not until after he first incident. I'm going to hang around at the practices for the next little bit (reading a good book I hope) and will watch for the exercise induced asthma- thanks for the info bigb. That is good information for people on here.

[juggles]

A low resting heart rate is a perfectly normal finding in someone who is an endurance-type athlete. It is a positive in that the heart is functioning more efficiently.

[soccer45girls]

All very true. There's also a condition that happens in some athletes that is called Stryder's syndrome. This is just a matter of not quite breathing properly. It comes off as being like asthma, but it's a little different. I have a DK that has had both, and there is a slight difference in symptoms.
With Stryder's, the player will tighten up their airway as they push themselves to get that last step in before they take a breath. Especially if they play intensely, the player will breath very shallow, which brings in less oxygen and gives them that sense of not being able to catch their breath. This makes them feel like their throat is cut off and they can't breath. They may get that panicky feeling as well, which only makes it feel worse. We ended up taking our DK to a speech therapist. They can retrain a player in just a couple of visits to remember to breath through their lower lungs instead of the upper ones, as well as think about where their voice/air is coming from. Singers use this technique as well, which helps them project their voice to an audience--even someone in the very back row. You will hear them say "Don't sing through your nose." This causes the tinny sound, rather than a warm, deep vocal sound, and it's impossible to get volume if this happens.
Anyway, similar issue, same technique to fix if it applies to this scenario. And like others said, it may have just been a coincidence, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Good luck to you both!  

[Turner b1kr]

SB - I can certainly understand your concern for your dd. As the many other posters have suggested, athletes in good shape have low resting heart rates.  And, I doubt the heart rate had anything to do with her not being able to catch her breath.  If this is the first instance and it was my kid, I would probably see if it happens again.  If it did, I would take her back to the doctor just to be cautious.  There could be many causes, it could even be an allergy or an oncoming cold.  But, it may make you both feel better if you go back  to the doctor's office and have her checked out.  That's what doctors are for and while you may feel a little awkward marching back to the doc's office, I think it's totally understandable.

Last, we all have occassions where our kids eat taco bell and only get a few hours of sleep before practice.  Don't sweat it, this is not your fault and I doubt it's anything serious.

[ltg]

sent you a PM

[Driver]

Another very common but fairly unknown condition more present in high achiving girls presents similarly to asthma but is not asthma - is called Vocal cord dysfunction - the test to figure out if it is asthma is not the most pleasant - you have to have the dr bring on an episode with a probe down the throat - but the treatment is fairly simple - it is reteaching kids how to belly breathe etc - know several kids that have this all A students high achieving told all thier lifes it was asthma then went tot he speicailist and found it was this instead...Northwest asthma is the dr's office or PM me for more infor

[soccer45girls]

Another very common but fairly unknown condition more present in high achiving girls presents similarly to asthma but is not asthma - is called Vocal cord dysfunction - the test to figure out if it is asthma is not the most pleasant - you have to have the dr bring on an episode with a probe down the throat - but the treatment is fairly simple - it is reteaching kids how to belly breathe etc - know several kids that have this all A students high achieving told all thier lifes it was asthma then went tot he speicailist and found it was this instead...Northwest asthma is the dr's office or PM me for more infor

Exactly right, driver. Same thing one of our DK's had. Our NW Asthma doc called it Stryder's/Strider's. Interesting situation, and our doc said the same thing, only they didn't put anything down the kiddo's throat, which I'm thankful for. But it certainly is an easy fix--just retraining the breathing patterns.
You're doing a great job, sb. Just keep up what you're doing. And definitely don't feel bad if you need to go back to the doc. That's what they're there for!

[SaraBellum]

Thanks all! You're awesome. DD had practice again today and did just fine- no problems and it was a lot of running. She'd been running a lot- about 4-3 miles 4x a week, now she has daily practice. I call and she has another doc appointment next week- between now and then I am supposed to take her pulse at different times to monitor it. She was resting today and it was up to about 50. I also called my mother- ha ha- isn't that what we do? My dad has a very slow heart rate- never been a problem. So I am not as worried about that as I am about the breathing- going to get it all checked. I knew I'd get more/better info on her than I would from google. 

[Turner b1kr]

Absolutely wonderful news, great to hear she is doing better!  I think all parents' hearts sink when they hear something like this.  It's a great reminder to take time to enjoy our kids and their participation in the wonderful sport of soccer.  thanks for the follow up posting SB.