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Are you familiar with a ‘Mother’s Kiss’?

A 'mother's kiss' is a technique mothers use to help get an object that has been inquisitively shoved up your on their child's nose.

I’m sure you are familiar with the kisses we smother our little one’s faces with each and everyday but that isn’t what I’m referring to here. A ‘mother’s kiss’ is actually a technique that is used to help get an object that has been inquisitively shoved up your child’s nose, out of their nose with the least amount of stress possible.

If you haven’t yet experienced your child sticking something up their nose consider yourself lucky! Most children will begin to explore their world and their bodies and with that comes they curiosity of their orifices. Why they decide to stick things in them I have no idea. But it can be anything from a bead, to a bean to a lego etc.

I have experienced this twice so far with 2 out of 3 of my children. And boy we’re they very different experiences! Had I known about ‘a Mothers Kiss’ when my then 2 year old daughter decided to nonchalantly shove a bead up her nose it would have saved us hours of panic, ER visits (that’s right plural because she wouldn’t let anyone touch her to even attempt to remove it), and having to watch her undergo sedation (they had to sedate her to be able to use forceps to remove the bead since she wouldn’t let anyone near her). What a traumatizing experience! So you can imagine my panic when just a few short months ago my 2 year old son (it must be a 2 year old thing) turned to me and said ‘mommy can you take bead out of my nose’….I dropped everything and holding my breath ran over to him praying he was pulling my leg. I tilted his head back only to see a bright orange bead shoved up his tiny nostril. I’m not going to lie, I started to freak out inside, while trying to remain calm on the outside so I didn’t scare him. I was just about to reach for the phone to call my husband hoping he was on his way home from work, when I remembered what they taught us in the ER, if we were ever lucky enough to experience this again…a technique called a “Mother’s Kiss’. I grabbed my sons face plugged his unobstructed nostril and blew as hard as I could into his mouth. The bead came down but not all the way. I did it one more time and sure enough out popped the bead. Phew! It worked like a charm! Thank God! And all I could think was I wish I had known to do this the first time. I decided to share this experience so that if you ever experience something similar, and majority will, as apparently this tends to be a common occurrence with these curious little ones, you are more equipped with one of the most effective ways to remove a foreign object from your child’s nose.

Here is exactly what you do:

  • The parent or caretaker places their mouth over their child’s mouth while holding the unaffected nostril closed with one finger.
  • The parent or caretaker blows into the child’s mouth.
  • The breath may force the object out.