challengingchildren

Hello all!

Today’s adventure took us to the doctor’s office. It would seem as though one of the newly found places of the body, for my two year old, is the nostril! At least that is where the piece of sponge ended up!

Unless the foreign object in the nose is causing pain or discomfort, it usually isn’t found until…the smell. The very putrid smell of infection. That is how we found our little angels newest body addition. She, at some point, shoved a piece of a sponge up her nose. We don’t know exactly when this happened. But, we found it by the smell. I felt horrible having to apologize to the speech therapist and explain why my daughter had that aroma about her!

Might I suggest that if your child has put something into his or her nose, you allow a professional to extract the object. Not knowing anatomy, size, or exact location can lead to damage to the nostril or sinus cavity if a parent isn’t careful. There are several methods that can be used to remove the object, depending on what it is. Admittingly, I removed the sponge myself with tweezers. What I thought was a tiny crumb of a sponge turned out to be about a half inch wide! Had I of known, it would have been a doctor pulling it out!

The symptoms can vary from one child to the next, as well as with one object to other. The symptoms of an object in the nose that we  experienced are as follows:

1. Runny nose on one side only

2. Sore under the affected nostril

3. Rawness in the opening of the nostril

4. The horrible smell that radiated not only from her nose, but her breath and her hair.

Foreign objects in the nose can lead to infections not only in the nostril, but if left untreated, it can spread throughout the membranes. (In our case, the infection has not spread and we received a script for a common antibiotic and orders to do nose flushing) The spread of infection can range from sinusitis, to ear infections, even up to meningitis. Please do not think that an incident like this is a reflection of bad parenting. It is actually fairly common! No one can watch their children constantly!Please do not avoid seeking medical attention for your child if this were to occur. If the object in the nose were to become dislodged it could go and block the airway leading to suffocation!

No, she does not like having liquid squirted up her nose and then pulled back out with a suction bulb. (this is the nose flushing) But, the first treatment did relieve us of some of the horrible smell! So, through this, I know that it is also draining the infection out! Also, the doctor did recommend NO decongestants or suppressants so that the infection will go ahead and be expelled instead of staying in her head and chest.

I am not a doctor. This is advice from parent to parent. Most of which I received from the doctor and am just passing along.

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