[kamikazismom]

Dr. Bob,

Yesterday afternoon my 2-year-old chewed about 1/2 the cover off one of his board books, spit it out and piece by piece shoved the whole thing up one of his nostrils. It was several hours before I figured out what happened. Once I realized what had happened, I used my fingernail to dig it all out of his nose, then I used a flashlight to look up his nostril to make sure I got it all. It looked clear, so we went to bed. This morning, he has sneezed twice, and both times large globs of yellow mucus mixed with pieces of the board book have come out of his nose. So even though his nose looks clear, it is still in there somewhere, perhaps in his sinus cavity. I sprayed a saline solution up his nose and used the nasal aspirator, but nothing came out. My question is, if there are still pieces of the book in his sinus cavity, will this harm him? I don't want to take him to the ER (my only option on the weekend) and have them do invasive testing that could be traumatic to him if it's not necessary. Thanks for your time! I really value your opinion!

 

[DrBobSears]

sorry I didn't see this over the weekend. You probably wouldn't need to go to the ER for this - can wait until you can see your doctor on monday

 

[mareseatoats]

My daughter put a plastic jewel up her nose at daycare once. I did go to the ER, and all they had me do was plug the side of her nose that the jewel was not in and blow sharply into her mouth. The jewel flew across the room!

 

[kamikazismom]

Thank you! I decided to take a wait and see approach, and he eventually ended up sneezing it all out