How to force objects to load on launch if deactivated first ?

I am noticing that my game is getting several hiccups by turning on various sprites. I think I understand what is going on. I have a bunch of sprites under, lets say node A. And in the Start() script of node A, they get deactivated with childOfA.gameObject.setActiveRecursively(false);

Then and a later time, when they get turned on for the first time, it is as if the engine is loading the object for the first time causing it to do extra loads.

Is there a way to engineer around this ? A great example is a character select dialog, where the dialog gets turned off on the Start() of the main game manager, then when play is pushed the Dialog gets turned on.

It would be a pain to have to delay everything for 1 frame but any other ideas ?