[EngineerGalinIA]

This past week my daughter has had some pretty bad nose bleeds. Yesterday she had two of them and today one. Each of these times it has taken at least 5 minutes to stop. It freaks her (and me) out to say the least. She is not picking her nose when this occurs so I can rule out this out. We live in Iowa so it's not very dry here this time of the year.

Have any of you had experience with it, and if so what did you do?
Ann

[Travelkid]

We have lots of experience with them - my son (3 yo) has them often. We've been to the ped and were told that some children are more prone to them.

As soon as we see the first drop of blood we lean him forward and pinch his nostrils for at least 3 minutes (NOT FUN with a todder ). My dr rec'ds this vs. leaning him back (he can choke on the blood) or inserting cotton/tissue in the nostril. Also, try to put a thin layer of vaseline up your childs nose to keep it moist.

It makes no sense that he gets them in the summer as we live in humid SE VA. I've heard that sometimes hot weather can cause them in some children? Doesn't make sense to me, but ped mentioned that too.

BTW, the best product that I've found to use fof blood stains is Oxyclean spray.

Good luck to you, its pretty scary when it happens.

[Carrie7310]

My daughter gets them quite a bit. I spoke with her doctor and she said the same thing, that some kids just get them more than others.

When she gets one, I make sure to put aquaphor in her nostrils (I use a q-tip) to prevent any more. I have found this really helps a night time when my daughter seems to get them the most.

I too think oxyclean works, but if you soak the item with blood on it in cold water for a while, the blood will come out on its own and you can usually just launder it as normal.

Good luck!

[DPline]

I am finding this really interesting because DD had a nose bleed last night. While of my three she is the one prone to nose bleeds, I am sitting there at 2:30 AM thinking 'Who gets a nose bleed in the middle of the summer?' On probably the most humid day of the year? Hers aren't ever that bad so I wasn't really concerned about it, but just thought it such an odd time of year for it. Guess it isn't as unusal as I thought!

Spray N' Wash Duel Power takes blood out really well too, even after it has dried.

[Mommy K]

In additon to the other great advice,little noses saline spray helps too.

[kirbystarcat]

We've had some pretty scary ones too with DD. One was so bad I actually took her to the ER. Like others have said lean them forward and pinch the nostrils. I recommend Aquaphor and little noses saline as well. We also run a humidifier in her room every night. Our ped. is keeping an eye on it and says if we have another recurrent bout with them he will send her for testing to rule out a clotting problem. DD gets very anxious after she has had a bad one fearing she will get another. Teaching her how to hold her head and pinch her nose and telling her we are using the aquaphor, saline and humidifier to help keep them away has been very reassuring to her.

[kirbystarcat]

I should add that the bright side is the ped gave her a little talk on how picking her nose could cause one to start so she is very adamant that she will not pick her nose because it may make it bleed. So no more embarrassing toddler nose picking for us

[Belenbaby]

In my experience, dry weather has nothing to do with it (obviously from your posts) Allergies could trigger them, but who knows. My son would get them so bad they would last for 1/2 hours. That is a looooong time to have a nose bleed. Doc would say after 20 min, bring him to the ER, but then it would stop. 2 things. First it is generally a swollen blood vessel close to the front of the nose that ruptures and causes the bleed. (He had that vessel cauterized twice and has now mostly outgrown them) second, afrin nasal spray for a bit older kids (do they make pediatric afrin?) stops it immediately. Afrin contracts the blood vessels in the nose, that is how it works. Pinch the nose and apply ice to the bridge, that shrinks the vessel, although slower than afrin.

[angieandstever]

My daughters gets them too. She has been getting them since she was a year old. She has bad allergies. She is on allegra, nasonex, and we use a humidifier every night.

Just a couple of months ago she was getting a couple a day, every day. We went to our pediatrician and he cauterized her nose. That worked well for a month but we had one day where it bled, stopped for an hour, and started gushing again. After about 10 rounds of this we called and went back to the pediatrician. He went to cauterize her nose and it started gushing again - she was not happy at all at the doctor! So he sent us to her ENT who did her tubes (two sets) thinking she might need to be put under to get it cauterized again but a more thorough job. The ENT gave us steroid drops and told us to put a tiny bit of vaseline on a q-tip and put in her nose(not all of the way up, just in until you can't see the fuzzy part of the q-tip.) Within a day the nose bleeds were gone! The steroids aren't to be used non stop so we discontinued after 3 days and so far she hasn't had any nose bleeds at all in over 2 weeks. We are setting a record here and it is great!

Good luck. If they don't stop I would take her to the doctor just to be safe.

[momraine]

I get them easily too. Remember even when it's humid outside if you are indoors the air conditioning makes it dry in the house. A humidifier in the bedroom can help for nightime ones.

[tooskis]

Our son who is 4 was getting them a lot over the past year. He has a cow when we try to put drops in his nose so the doctor recommended that we put a humidifier in his bedroom so that his nose doesn't dry out at night. It seems to have done the trick. Since we started this about two months ago, he hasn't had any nosebleeds.

[hoping123]

My daughter has been getting them pretty much since she came home at 7 months old. We just went to the ENT about two months ago and he also pretty much said that some children are more prone to them.

Ent recommended we use AYR saline gel twice a day. I put it on a q-tip and coat her nostrils with it and since the doctor recommended, my daughter has only had one nosebleed. My daughter actually looks forward to letting me put it in her nose and this was the same kid that every time she saw a q-tip and thought I was going to clean out her nose screamed.