How to Remove Crayons and Other Objects From Your Child’s Nostril

One of the more common complaints we see in the emergency department is “foreign body in the nose”. I have recovered crayon caps, beads, pieces of tissue, berries, and a plastic Barbie shoe among other things from children’s nostrils. The question parents want answered is how to remove objects from a child’s nose at home without coming to the emergency department.

One technique which has been used with some success is called “mother’s kiss”. This is a great technique that you can use to remove objects from your child’s nostril. First pinch the nostril that does not have the foreign object and leave the other nostril open. Then blow into your child’s mouth (sort of like doing mouth to mouth) while pinching the unaffected nostril. The air pressure that blows into your child’s mouth is transmitted into their nose and pushes the object out of the un-pinched nostril. This technique was demonstrated to be effective in 60% of cases with no adverse events.

Reference:

Cook S et al. Efficacy and safety of the “mother’s kiss” technique: A systematic review of case reports and case series. CMAJ 2012 Nov 20; 184:E904