I know you are not a doctor and not giving medical advice yada yada . . . Anyway, my 7-year-old gets a couple nosebleeds a week. She’s not a picker, and if perfectly healthy in every other way. Any ideas?
How’s the weather there? Pretty dry? That’ll do it. Also, some pollens and other irritants sometimes give me problems.
Oh, and even though you say she’s not a picker, I’m going with the obligatory Ralph Wiggum reference.
Bring it up with her doctor.
My six-year-old has been susceptible to getting nose bleeds, and we have him use a non-medicated saline spraya couple of times every day, and that seems to help keep the nasal area moist.
I started getting random nosebleeds as a kid after I got kicked in the face. From about 5 or 6 until I was grown, I would just suddenly start spurting blood every so often.
Now I only tend to get them when it’s really dry, or if I’ve got a cold or something that mucks with my nasal system. I don’t even get those since i started using a neti and a cpap with humidifier.
But if you don’t know of any thing that might have caused these, I’d definitely get it checked out at your pediatrician.
I had multiple nose bleeds a day from a strep infection. You’ll never know what it is until she sees the doctor.
Dry air will do it. Constant heat/ac will do it. My brothers both got nosebleeds every time they had artificial coloring, so there went the kool-aid and soda for them!
Is this the wrong place to insert a domestic abuse joke?
There are dozens of causes for a nosebleed, from dry air to beans-up-the-nose to blood disorders.
If it’s worrying you, check with her pediatrician.
I did too at that age. They tried to blame it on me picking my nose, but, really, it had more to do with allergies and being really dry up there. My doctor’s prescribed cure was a bit of Vaseline to contain the moisture.\
But, if you haven’t seen a doctor about this, do so at least once.
ITP.
Seriously, this is one of those annoying things that is almost always nothing serious but can be a harbinger of something significant if it’s a new problem.
Dadburn kids; always something to worry about.
My boy got CONSTANT nose bleeds from about 3 on, though mostly in the summer. It turned out his blood vessels very near to the surface of his nostrils. On hot days they expanded and burst and then we had the blood noses (lots of them! 5-6 a week).
A yearly dab with silver nitrate to cauterise his nostrils sorted him out and he seemed to grow out of it at about 15.
The longest and heaviest nose bleed was almost an hour and VERY heavy. The emergency doc took one look and said “he is a frequent bleeder isn’t he!”.
Medically, they were never about anything more then those pesky blood vessels but check it out all the same.
Just dont panic!
I got frequent nose bleeds as a kid. My dad indicated that he did also as a kid. Never thought much else about it until my son was about 4 and woke us up in the middle of the night saying that his nose was running and wouldn’t stop. We turned on the lights to discover his face and pajamas covered in blood from a bad nose bleed. It happened a couple of times within a week.
His mom mentioned it to his pediatrician the next time he had an appointment. The doc didn’t think too much of it, but he had a resident that was on his rotation. The resident had just completed a rotation in the oncology department and recommended that we have our son tested for a bleeding disorder just to be on the safe side.
Mom took the son to be tested and it he came back positive for von Willebrandsbleeding disorder. It is a genetic disorder that affects about 3% of the human population, however only a significant subset of those with the disorder are even aware that they have it. Since it’s not something that you can catch, but are born with, I was tested and discovered at age 35 that I had it was well. It can range from severe to mild. My son and I (and my Dad) all have the mild form, but having knowledge of your condition is the biggest thing. If you are going to have surgery (be cut open) without knowledge of the condition you could bleed out as your blood does not clot like normal people. With advance knowledge, artificial coagulants can be introduced into your bloodstream to temporarily improve the coagulation of your blood. Also the docs know to have extra blood on hand.
I don’t know if your kid has this condition or not, but he could. The only way to know is to have his blood tested. Did either you or his mom get nosebleeds as a kid? Does the kid’s mom have heavy menstrual cycles? These are all symptoms of a mild form of von Willebrands.
Vaseline on a Q Tip helps me.
When I was a kid I swam a lot, and got a lot of nosebleeds. The doc said all of the chlorine and the snorting associated with swimming was too much for my blood vessels.
I can’t answer for a cause. Afrin nasal spray will stop a nosebleed, however. Two squirts up the affected nostril will do it; standard contra-indications on the label apply.
I had them all the time as a kid. I never got them checked out (which now reading the rest of the posts makes me think “WTH, mom?”).
Around puberty they mostly stopped. I had one last year and before that, I can’t remember the last one.
I don’t have any allergies or any chronic conditions. I apparently just grew out of them.
Er, I hate to break it to you, but kids are growing up quite fast these days. Is your little one trading on the stock market perhaps? All through the night? Yet still has lots of energy? It may be time for a sit-down…
Gee, and all these years I thought it was just talcum powder on his desk next to that rolled up twenty…
I had constant nosebleeds as a kid. At one point it was enough of a concern to go to the doctor. He looked up there and told us that for whatever reason, the blood vessel never healed properly. Didn’t help that I had allergies. So it was relatively easy from a hard sneeze to blow the seal, so to speak. They only thing they suggested at the time was to cauterize the blood vessel which apparently was going to hurt like hell.