The Tale of 5 Corn Kernels Up a Toddler's Nose

My 5 year old thinks it's funny to put peas and corn kernels up her nose. Unfortunately, last night my 2 year old thought it was even funnier to imitate his big sister. He stuck 5 corn kernels up his nose and said, "Gook, Mama!"

My tweezers removed most of the offenders, but when my husband shone a flashlight up our son's nose, we could still see a piece of corn in there. So I Googled it. (What did moms do before Google?) After reading up:

* I tried sprinkling pepper on my hand and pinching off my son's clear nostril. The idea was to make him sneeze. Instead, he got mad...especially when I accidentally poured pepper into his mouth.

* Then I blocked the good nostril and blew into his mouth. Sort of like mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. That made him laugh so hard I could barely get my mouth over his.*

* Then my hubby tried blocking off the good nostril while compressing his abdomen. That made our son fart....then, naturally, he fell into a giggle fit.

* Then we tried suctioning his nose with a baby aspirator. We thought the vacuum might work better - but ultimately decided this might make our doctor question our parenting abilities.

Then we checked his nose again. No sign of the corn kernel.


So...we decided to assume he swallowed it. But should you consider this article a journalistic how-to piece, I should tell you every medical site I've seen recommends taking the child to the doctor if tweezers, pepper, blowing, compressions, or suctioning doesn't work. Oh, and see the note below.

*NOTE: After the fact, we read the mouth-to-mouth trick should only be done by a medical professional.

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