Fever after swimming – Causes & Treatment

Many people complain of having fever after swimming, either themselves or when their kids go to the swimming pool. Well, there can be various reasons for the situation. Ideal thing is to visit a doctor personally and discuss your case with them to get the best diagnosis as per your specific case.

However, we’ll discuss various causes of fever after swimming here with tips on how to overcome or avoid it.

Symptoms along with fever after swimming

Fever can be associated with other symptoms too. They include:

• Headache
• Nausea or vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Skin rash
• Exhaustion and lethargy

Or any other symptoms, depending upon the cause of fever and the disease pattern going on in the body, presenting as fever.

Causes of fever after swimming and management

Fever is a sign of many different issues that our body might have. It can be accompanied with chills or shivering or without it too. If the fever is high (or even mild), visit a doctor as soon as possible to get proper diagnosis and treatment.

There can be various causes due to which you or your baby has a fever after swimming in public pool or even in private one if the pool was having cold water.

Infection due to swimming

If you’re having diarrhea and / or nausea along with fever after swimming in a public pool specially, most probably you’ve got infected from some bacteria in the pool. There are many people who swim in the public pool and they may bring along various diseases. No matter how much you negate, people do pee in the pool too. Also, they don’t shower properly before coming in the pool. The water keeps going into our stomach as we swim and eventually makes us ill. This is especially true for apparently and grossly dirty pools and also swimming in lake water if it’s dirty too.

You need to take anti-pyretics, anti-emetics, anti-diarrheals and antibiotics in such case. You may need ORS or intravenous drip to replenish water and minerals in your body.

Please visit your doctor immediately to get diagnosed and get the medication best suited for you.

Fever without infection after swimming

If you’re having only fever after swimming, with generalized fatigue and tiredness and without any other symptoms of some infection, then probably your body is just tired and there isn’t any infection as such.

This is because your body needs some rest and is exhausted. Give it some rest along with good diet and water to help it out. Antipyretics might be useful. Skip a day or more sessions of swimming and other exercise if you’re feeling tired and having fever.

Note that some people jog to the swimming pool and jump into the cold water without cooling down or relaxing their body first.

There are two issues in it. First of all your body wasn’t ready and you just switched it from warm to cold environment, which will lead to various changes in the body appearing as fever and related symptoms. Secondly, people don’t start swimming and exertion as they get into the cold water pool when they get in after jogging. This leads to further cooling down of body and temperature difference stuff, resulting in fever.

It’s better to have the rest after jogging or running outside the pool, which you’re doing inside the pool in cold water before starting swimming and doing the lengths.

Ideal is to avoid any abrupt temperature changes in your body to avoid sickness. Keep it fresh and hydrated before getting into the pool and maintain the temperature after getting out too. Any abrupt changes in temperature may lead to fever too.

Please note, that fever after swimming can be a serious infection too. It should be evaluated as soon as possible without starting self medication. So visit a doctor when you or your child gets fever after swimming with or without symptoms of any other illness! It may be useful to skip a day or more of swimming or other exercise if you’re having fever.