Musings on a Runny Nose

We have been drowning in snot at our house this weekend. I’ve been dealing with a nasty cold/sinus infection and Saturday we took BG into the pediatrician because she had been up in the night a bit more than normal and was pulling on her ear. Since she just got over an ear infection in mid-January I didn’t think she could already have another one, but turns out that she does. The doctor suggested that she never really got over the last ear infection which made me feel less guilty about the fact that even though she has had a ferociously runny nose, I wasn’t suctioning it. She’s gotten pretty good at the wax on wax off move and I just don’t have the heart to suck her brains out. It always looks so uncomfortable to have snot sucked out of your nose.

On Friday, BG didn’t need a suction though because she had a constant stream of snot running down her face and I noticed a few things.

1. No matter how much she hates it, I have to wipe a runny nose. She’s got those karate moves down as well as a vigorous headshake, but there’s something in me that can’t leave a runny nose alone.



2. Maybe that’s because invariably, she wipes that runny nose on me. For some reason, whenever she wants me to pick her up, she crawls to me until her head runs into my leg and then she grabs my jeans and starts to pull herself up. I think she’d climb my leg if I could.



3. I also learned the hard way, that when I go for the wipe and that head starts to shake, it’s better for everyone if she’s not near anything she can bang her head on. One time when I tried to wipe her nose, she shook her head right into our desk.



4. Staring at the snot all day, I started to wonder if that little crease between the nose and the top lip isn’t a sort of snot canal to help divert that stream of snot into the mouth.

Lucky for me and for BG’s raw nose, the snot stream dried up by Saturday morning and now we’re pumping a good dose of antibiotics into her every night. Unfortunately that leads to other unpleasant side effects (I don’t understand how she can have diarrhea 30 seconds after I give her the antibiotics). At any rate, she’s doing better and even slept through the night twice this week. I’m still waking up at three wondering if she’s okay, but I figure it’s all about baby steps.