Swimming With Stitches or a Cast: When Can Kids Get Back in the Pool?

A cut chin at the playground, a stitched knee after a bike fall, a broken wrist in the middle of a lesson package: injuries happen, and the first question many parents ask is about swimming with stitches or a cast. Do you cancel the next lesson? Cover it and carry on? Wait a week, or a month?

This guide pulls together what pediatric, orthopedic and wound care sources say about water and healing skin, how long stitches usually stay in, which casts can go in a pool and which never should, and how to plan the return to swim lessons with the clinician who treated your child and the instructor you booked.

Swimming with stitches: why soaking is the problem

Stitches hold the edges of a cut together while the skin rebuilds itself underneath. Until that new skin seals the gap, the wound is a doorway. Water itself is not the enemy here; time spent soaking is.

MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine's patient site, puts it plainly in its surgical wound care guidance: showers are better than baths because the wound does not soak, and soaking the wound could cause it to reopen or become infected. A swim lesson keeps the skin under water far longer than any shower, and adds kicking, stretching and grabbing the wall, all of which pull on fresh stitches.

That is why a quick rinse and a swim are treated so differently. Guidance on brief wetting varies. MedlinePlus advises keeping the area clean and dry for the first 24 to 48 hours. A 2015 clinical review in American Family Physician found that stitched wounds can get wet within that window without raising infection risk, citing a trial where infection rates were 8.4% with early wetting and 8.9% with wounds kept dry and covered. Either way, that research is about a short shower, not a pool session.

How long to wait after stitches

There is no single number of days, because it depends on where the cut is, how deep it is, and how it was closed. What sources agree on is the order of events: keep it dry at first, keep it out of soaking water while it heals, and get the clinician's go ahead before a swim.

Location matters most for how long stitches stay in. A 2017 clinical review in American Family Physician gives these typical removal windows, which it notes are based on expert opinion and experience. Your child's clinician may choose differently.

A few closure types work a little differently:

• Dissolvable stitches. They are not removed, so there is no removal appointment to mark the finish line. A U.S. Masters Swimming article quoting a plastic surgeon advises keeping incisions out of the water for at least a week if possible, and generally avoiding swimming and baths until absorbable stitches dissolve. Ask the clinician when to expect that.
• Staples. MedlinePlus advises keeping the area completely dry for 24 to 48 hours after staples go in. The same soaking concerns apply until they come out.
• Skin glue or tape strips. MedlinePlus lists both as ways to close a wound. Neither page gives a swim timeline, so ask the person who closed the wound how long to keep it out of the pool.
• After removal. Removal day is not always swim day. The skin may still be fragile, especially over joints. Ask at the removal visit whether your child can go back in the water and when.

Swimming with a cast

Casts split into two very different groups, and it is worth asking the doctor which one your child has before the first bath, let alone the first lesson.

Two details trip families up. First, a store bought cast cover is not a swim cover. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) says to use two layers of plastic or a waterproof shield to keep a cast dry in the bath, then adds that even with protection, you should never submerge the cast. It also notes that keeping a cast dry is harder for kids, so many doctors recommend sponge baths until the cast comes off.

Second, a waterproof cast still has rules. KidsHealth advises flushing the cast and liner with clean water to remove soap after showers, and calling the doctor if a regular cast or liner goes under water or gets very wet. UPMC adds that kids in waterproof casts should avoid sand and natural water such as oceans, lakes and rivers.

Pool, ocean or hot tub: does the water matter?

Yes. Where the water comes from changes the risk to an open wound.

If a wound does touch ocean water, the CDC advises washing it right away with soap and clean running water.

Getting back to swim lessons

Going by typical removal times, a pause for stitches often runs from a few days to a couple of weeks, and a cast usually means a longer break. If your family was in the middle of a lesson package, here is a simple way to plan the return.

If your child is also getting over a cold or fever, our guide to swim lessons when sick covers when to skip. Kids with skin conditions can find a before and after pool routine in swimming with eczema, and families managing ear surgery recovery can read swimming with ear tubes.

Signs to call the doctor

MedlinePlus and AAOS list these as reasons to contact the clinician. Call sooner rather than later, and do not swim until the clinician has looked at it.

• Infection signs around stitches: more redness, pain, swelling, or yellow pus, or drainage that becomes thick, tan, green or yellow, or smells bad.
• Fever of 100°F (37.7°C) or higher.
• A wound that splits open or stitches or staples that come out too soon.
• Bleeding that does not stop after 10 minutes of direct pressure.
• Cast warning signs: pain getting worse, numbness or tingling, burning or stinging under the cast, a lot of swelling in the fingers or toes, or not being able to move them.
• A regular cast that got very wet or went under water.

Frequently asked questions