What Every Parent Should Know

In our last post, we wrote about how Zachary gets a gumball out of his gumball machine everytime he successfully poops in the potty. Well, here is today's story . . .

Zachary used the potty and put a penny in his gumball machine and got a white gumball. It was almost naptime, and I didn't want to take his gum away, since he just earned it, so I figured he would either throw it away in his room garbage can (which he is quite good at) or swallow it (which he is also good at) before he fell asleep.

I put him down for his nap and a few minutes later I here, "My GUM!!!! My GUUUUMMMMM!" Accompanied by whines and cries. I figure he either swallowed it or dropped it. He goes on to cry for a bit and I finally go into his room and say, "Zachary, you really need to go to sleep."
"But, my gum!"
"Where is your gum?"
"In my nose." And he proceeds to point up in his nose.

Great, I never thought this would happen to me. I get a headlight and look into his nose and, sure enough, there is white gum clear up there. So far up there that I was nervous to use tweezers to get it out. So I did what any mom would do: I called my mom. She told me that I could try giving him a bath to see if the water would dislodge the gum, but she didn't sound so confident that it would work. I hung up with her and called the on-call pediatric office (this happened on a Saturday). They are closed for the day. Ok, I start to look for the InstaCare office's number when my mom calls back. She luckily just happens to be with one of my cousins whose son got a carrot piece stuck up his nose, and this is how the doctor got it out. So without further ado, I will tell all of you parents how to save a co-pay or an ER visit, because chances are, you will probably need this information one day.

#1 - Lay the child down.
#2 - Plug the nostril that is NOT clogged.
#3 - Place your mouth over the child's, like you are giving CPR.
#4 - Puff into the child's mouth until the object flies out of the clogged nostril.

It took three blows, but it came out great and Zachary was laughing while I was doing it. Thank goodness for mothers and cousins.

But seriously, why does a kid insist upon pushing objects up their nose?!?!