The case of the rusty jingle bell......

If you are the mother of toddlers you know where this is going....

Over the years I have removed countless objects from our children's noses. I am not sure what the exact appeal is to shoving random things up their nose but they all seem to feel the need to do so. I have removed beads, feathers, wheels, and now a rusty jingle bell all from my beloved little children's sinus cavities.

As a new mother I was slightly terrified to find random objects up my child's nose. I mean this isn't something they teach you in "How to take care of a baby 101".......maybe I skipped that day of training..... The thought of using tweezers or any other object to grab the item and remove it is not something I want to do on a squirming little person.

So how does one go about removing a foreign object from a child's nose? After raising 6 toddlers I have seen and tried just about all of the methods, complete with the trip to the ER. The simplest and fastest way by far has to be "The Mother's Kiss" technique. This technique requires the mother (or any responsible family member) to block to clear side of the nose by pressing it closed with their finger, put their mouth over the child's mouth ,and blow firmly through the child's mouth to clear the object from the sinus cavity.

I simply explain to the child that the object has to come out. I tell them "I am going to push here on this side of your nose and then I am going to blow into your mouth". They always look at me like I am nuts but we do it quickly and boom! There is a bead or in this case a rusty jingle bell laying on their chest.

I did make sure and check that our son is up to date on his tetanus vaccine since he had a rusty piece of metal up his nose. He is good to go however and I would like to think he has learned his lesson about putting objects up his nose. This isn't his first rodeo however so I doubt it will be the last.

I hope you never have to use this technique with your own child but if your little ones are anything like mine it is a good thing to know just in case!