One Less Reason to Lose Sleep: How to Suction Your Baby’s Nose
March 10, 2006 by kate baggott
Filed under Mental Health
This blog is about caring for mothers who have just given birth. It isn’t about baby care, but parents and their babies are so connected that there is some cross-over.
That said, this post is about to get disgusting. Writing a post partum blog means that bodily fluids are a topic of conversation and, since we’ve dealt with all the others, we might as well talk about snot too.
When I was a kid one of the favourite proverbs among the elementary school set was: “You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.”
Every new mother soon learns that the proverb is both true and unfortunate. Sooner or later your baby is going to get a stuffy nose. When the air passages get clogged and the baby notices that s/he is not getting enough oxygen, they generally have one response. They scream. Usually at three a.m.
A stuffed nose can also make it difficult or impossible for the baby to nurse, which creates its own discomforts for the nursing mother.
To clean your baby’s nose, you need to arm yourself with the right equipment.
- a clean nasal suction bulb. I bought mine at the dollar store, but I am sure the Thrifty Mommy site can point you to many places to find one.
- a tissue with the corners twisted into tips
- additional tissues
- for very dry or stubborn snot situations, a bottle of infant saline drops
First, the kind of bulb you use is important. The most effective have a hard plastic tip that screws into the bulb. On the About Kids Health site, I found out that the tip is called a “mucus trap.” These work much better than the one piece suction bulbs with long, soft tips.
After squeezing all of the air out of the bulb, place it under your baby’s nostril. This is easier said than done. If you don’t have someone to help hold the baby’s head still, lie down on the bed or couch with you knees raised and feet flat as if you were going to do sit ups. Lie the baby against your thighs upright so that you can look up into the nostrils. Put the tissues on your chest so that you can grab them easily.
Use one hand to hold the baby’s head still and the other to position the bulb. When you release pressure on the bulb, you might expect the vacuum effect to suck out the snot into the bulb. Boogers, as we called snot lumps in elementary school, are more stubborn than that. Instead, you use the suction action to coax them closer and closer to the opening of the nostril until you can use the point of the tissue to drag the booger out. Your baby will not enjoy this procedure, but since you’re awake, you might as well know that the screaming is helpful in loosening the snot.
If the snot is really dry and stubborn, or too thick, you’ll have to give your baby one or two saline drops in each nostril before you suction her/his nose to get things moving. Your pharmacy sells infant saline drops or you can make your own by adding a pinch of salt (the amount that fits on the tip of a butter knife) to 500 ml (just over two cups) of boiling water. Make sure that the saline solution has cooled before using it to loosen your baby’s snot.
According to an article on the Intermountain Healthcare Organization site, too much suctioning can cause the nasal membranes to get too dry and bleed. They recommend limiting suctioning to two or three times per day.
I also find that lots of fresh air and being upright helps the nasal passages stay clear a little longer and makes the baby a bit more comfortable.
Wow. I haven’t talk honestly about snot since I was about nine. It reminds me of a joke from that period of my life. What’s the difference between snot and broccoli? Kids won’t eat broccoli.
) Hope you find someting that works for you and LO 
Hey there – thanks for this article- just an alternate opinion – although some people use suction with a bulb – our peads folk down here recommend not suctioning the nose at all, as they have seen mucosal trauma from the force of the suction.
They recommend only using the saline drops – to stimulate a sneeze to blow out the little boogers! And even this they say no more than 2-3 times per day. It actually works pretty well- just be ready to wipe with those kleenexes!
Thanks Sarah.
It’s really too bad that drops alone are so ineffective. It’s also too bad that the doctors don’t have time to instruct parents on how to suction properly so that everyone can get some sleep (which is much more important than most paediaticians, in my experience, seem to realise).
That’s why I emphasized that suction bulbs should be used to coax, not to grab. I hope people understand that using bulbs the wrong way can hurt the baby’s nose.
I’ve seen those suction tubes that you actually suck, instead of using a bulb. I have to admit, this so grossed me out that I never (successfully) suctioned either kid’s nose. I did do some saline drops, I don’t know if they really helped.
Who knew all this about motherhood before doing it? I sure didn’t!!
My girlfriend says to suction the nose and then put a couple of drops of breastmilk in and do this every 2 hrs. This is very time consuming but works every time for her. I haven’t done it because the thought of suctioning my dd’s nose every 2 hrs does not appeal to me. I guess I really am a horrible mother. I will also do my best to find the bulbs for you. I personally like the first years nasal aspirator. It doesn’t get pushed up the nose as far and seals for a good suction. You can get it at Wal-mart of your local drugstore.
http://www.epinions.com/The_First_Years_Nasal_Aspirator_3305_Bath_Hygiene_Accessories
Our daughter has had a lot of snot over the past week. We had a startling realization that just sticking the suction bulb into her nose was very ineffective. Sometimes the tip would touch a membrane and the suction bulb would stop sucking for a second. Were we giving the inside of her nose a hickie?
We tried several angles, and the best angle isn’t just sticking it up in there, but in and back, almost perpendicular to the face. I’m guessing that puts the tip into the larger sinus area and really gets the goods out. Works much better for everyone now!
I use my suction bulb almost everyday to suck out my little ones nose. I purchased mine from http://www.nasalbulbsyringe.com/ . NasalBulbSyringe.com sells the exact same blue bulb syringes they use at hospitals… Thanks for the great content!