A few weeks back at work, my end of the day meeting ran late. I arrived back at my desk around 5:30pm to a voicemail message that I assumed would be Christina inquiring about my whereabouts. What I got was a message of Jasmine crying and Christina informing me she was taking Natalie to the Children’s Hospital Emergency Room with a crayon stuck in her nose. It was quite dramatic for an end of the day voicemail. I called Christina back and arranged to meet them at the E.R., and got the full story.
Natalie had been drawing at the kitchen table with her new “My First” crayons. One of the tips of the crayons had broken off previously and was just loose in the box. When Natalie dumped out the crayons the tip fell on the table and caught her attention. Christina was heading back into the kitchen when Natalie’s sudden cries grabbed her attention. She rushed back to Natalie and found her quite distressed and exclaiming, “My nose. My nose. Crayon.” Since Christina couldn’t easily get at the crayon, but knew it was in there she told Natalie she had to go to the doctor to get it out. Natalie agreeded, repeatedly saying “Doctor. Take it out.” while she stood by the stairs waiting for Christina to get Jasmine ready. Somewhere in that chaos, she tried to get a hold of me to no avail, and settled on a voicemail.
We met at the E.R. and I took Jasmine in the Bjorn while Christina registered Natalie, complete with bracelet and everything. Since Jasmine was only a month old they kindly let us wait in a separate area to avoid her catching anything from the other patients. When the resident arrived, he took a look at Natalie and suggested that we might try a little technique first before resorting to tweezers, etc. It was such a great tip I’d like to share with other parents, who can hopefully avoid future emergency room trips:
Infant Nose Obstruction Removal
- Plug the unobstructed nostril, AND
- Blow in their mouth like you are giving them CPR.
This technique essentially blows their nose for them, and was successful for us in dislodging a crayon tip after two attempts, but your mileage may vary. As with infant CPR you’ll need be careful not to blow too forcefully. The doctor recommend making a game out of it, which worked for Natalie who thought it was fun.
Disclaimer: Attempt at your own risk. I am not a doctor.
Oh no… I hope those weren’t the crayons we gave her. I was sure she was ready for Crayola fun, and the product reviews specifically said the big ones were designed NOT to fit up the nose. :(
Glad it turned out ok though! Wait until somebody eats one (likely Jasmine, courtesy of Natalie). The colors are still quite vivid when they come out the other end. From my babysitting days, I recall that purple is most amazing…
Glad Natalie is okay!
@Keash: No worries. It was a small piece of the tip of the crayon, so there wasn’t much we could do to avoid it. In fact, the crayon in the photo is the actual crayon involved. You’ll notice there isn’t actually too much missing, so it wasn’t a huge piece.