Does your child get nosebleeds?

[WantToGoNow]

Try using a humidifier in her room all the time - day and night. My dd6 started having a lot of nosebleeds when she was 3 years old. She got to the point of having 6-8 nosebleeds a day, every day before her pediatrician sent her to the ENT. She had her nose cautered 4 times over the course of 1.5 years (she does have vessels really close to the skin that were staying irritated from her nails). During the last cauterization surgery, she had a massive bleed and they sent her to a Hematologist. They tested her for everything including cancers - finally turned up a rare genetic clotting disorder (Storage Pool Platelet Dysfunction). My older dd was tested as well and came back positive - my ds8 has never been tested because he's never shown symptoms. Even though we knew the cause of the bleeds (the clotting disorder along with the vessels), that was still a lot for a 4 year old to deal with. They tried one last surgery to stop the vessel part of the bleeding - a septoplasty. Because of the bleeding disorder, she had to go to another hospital and be treated with clotting medications before the surgery. After that, the nosebleeds continued and they said they couldn't do anything else for her. She now has atleast 1 a day - usually after she goes to bed.

 

[mousebymarriage]

DS8 gets them when the air is dry or when his allergies are really freaking out. Putting a humidifier in his room when he is sleeping has made a world of difference.

 

[chrisn]

Thank you for posting this. My 12 year old started complaining about his throat being dry a week ago and then had three nose bleeds in the past week or so.

I figured it was allergy cause my now 22 year old had started having them at about his age too.

I am going to go get a humidifier and maybe try the vaseline.

Scary.

 

[mlynn]

My daughter gets them all the time.(I did as a child t oo)The doctors say it's from allergies. As a child a doctor told mymom to light a match.Then Blow it out nad what ever side is bleeding to sniff the smoke up that side.It stops the bleeding(It does give you a bad taste in your mouth) but it works.

I would call your doctor too.Because it could be a blood vessel that needs to be quaterized.

 

[disneydad78]

My 4 y/o can be watching TV and then BAM, get a nose bleed. Happens more at night while he is sleeping....

 

[squirrel]

I remember my first big nose bleed. I too was sound asleep and when I rolled over I had this wet pillow. I thought at the time I was crying in my sleep. I turned on the light and got scared. I'm not sure how old I was but old enough that I went into my parents room and hit them on their feet to wake them up-I was trying not to get blood everywhere. One was telling me to put my head back the other telling me to tip my head forward.

I know after that I did get nosebleed quite a bit. I was told that my dad and my cousin had them when they were younger too. Whatever you do don't tell your son about cauterizing - that made me not tell my parents everytime I got one.

I know that temperature changes definately made me get one.

I rarely get them now. I outgrew them just like my dad and cousin.

 

[cantwaittoseemickey]

Our son began to have them around 6yrs old He is 10 now. Just last year he was tested for Von Willibrands Disease. Turns out he has vWB type 1. Everytime he has any kind of procedure done they have to give him some plasma to his blood will clot right. You might want to check into this. Our son bruises extremely easy as well.

 

[*Toadstool*]

I've had nose bleeds all my life. I still get them as an adult, and sadly have passed this trait onto my DD. Sometimes she gets them a couple times a week. I've brought her to 2 different doctors and they both act like it isn't a big deal. A bad nose bleed can ruin a 4 year old's day.
I've noticed if I give my daughter Zyrtec or just about any kind of allergy medication it makes it worse... but then her allergies are bad. It is definitely a struggle. I really hope she outgrows it. Sometimes we go a month without one, so I guess there is hope. We live in an area of high humidity, so it isn't a dry air thing here I am pretty sure. We do saline spray in her nose too, but she still gets them.

 

[Keri]

I used to get nose bleeds a lot in middle school. I went to the doctor, he said I had an enlarged blood vessel. He cauterized it with some silver nitrate (basically burning it closed) and that fixed the problem.

My DS (now 7) has always had relatively frequent nosebleeds, but at the end of last summer was getting them 2-4x/week. We went to the ENT to see if we needed to have this done. She said we didn't, but recommended the following daily protocol and it has been AWESOME. I'd say he has had less than 10 nosebleeds (and only a few bad ones) since August.

*every night, we use the Neilmed saline wash on his nose. there is a pediatric size bottle or a regular one, but the tip is the same so it doesn't really matter. It's the same concept as the Nettipot, but you don't tip your head, just squeeze the bottle & it rinses the nose with a pressurized saline. She said he had a lot of crusty stuff in his nose (probably allergy related) and that was likely causing the tearing inside which was allowing the bloodflow. You can find them at grocery stores & drug stores.
*after that, he takes his own finger (sized correctly for his nose) and puts vaseline inside his nostrils and on the boney side of the inside of his nose
*we always run the humidifier. We had to replace his a few weeks ago, and in the week or so we weren't running one in his room every night, he had 3 nosebleeds.

The whole thing has made a HUGE difference.

The good news is, we are "trained" to handle them very calmly :lol: DD got one at MK last year & everyone was freaking out (the photographer who was taking our photopass pic when it happened called 911!!!) but all I needed was tissues (ice helps too -- but no one could seem to find any for me before I got it stopped.) (and as an aside, the CMs were awesome -- one gave me a voucher so I could get DD a new shirt since she bled on hers. We were clearly going to buy her one anyway, but it was nice to not have to!!)

 

[esk]

DD5 gets them all the time.....inherited from her father. Her bed looks like a crime scene most mornings.

Daycare actually "talked" to me about them when she first started in her current class. Conversation went like this:

"Um, Susie's Mom? We need to talk about Susie's medical problem"
"Her......medical problem?"
"Well, she was bleeding for no reason today"
"oh, from her nose? Yes, she gets nosebleeds, but she's 4 and knows how to handle them"
"Well, it's freaking out the other kids. I'm afraid that if you don't make her stop getting them, we'll have to think about removing her from the program"
Pause
Pause
"oh. So I should stop her getting them? Ah, now I have a reason to do that. Because I was thinking, she probably enjoys them, and since I, as a parent, have control over when she gets her nosebleeds, I can just stop them. Sure. I'll get right on that"

Haven't figured out how to stop them yet. But daycare did mellow out....seems the other kids were not quite as "freaked out" as the caregivers thought they were. As in, nobody cared.

DH still gets them occasionally. DS never gets them and I never get them. Weird. DH is left handed and so is DD. I wonder if she will also be good at math and a little OCD about hanging her clothes up by color.....

 

[polkadotsuitcase]

DD5 gets them all the time.....inherited from her father. Her bed looks like a crime scene most mornings.

Daycare actually "talked" to me about them when she first started in her current class. Conversation went like this:

"Um, Susie's Mom? We need to talk about Susie's medical problem"
"Her......medical problem?"
"Well, she was bleeding for no reason today"
"oh, from her nose? Yes, she gets nosebleeds, but she's 4 and knows how to handle them"
"Well, it's freaking out the other kids. I'm afraid that if you don't make her stop getting them, we'll have to think about removing her from the program"
Pause
Pause
"oh. So I should stop her getting them? Ah, now I have a reason to do that. Because I was thinking, she probably enjoys them, and since I, as a parent, have control over when she gets her nosebleeds, I can just stop them. Sure. I'll get right on that"

Haven't figured out how to stop them yet. But daycare did mellow out....seems the other kids were not quite as "freaked out" as the caregivers thought they were. As in, nobody cared.

DH still gets them occasionally. DS never gets them and I never get them. Weird. DH is left handed and so is DD. I wonder if she will also be good at math and a little OCD about hanging her clothes up by color.....

Bad mommy -- why wouldn't you just tell your daughter in a very firm voice, "Do not have nosebleeds anymore."?

Funny this topic pops up now, though -- on a mom's group I'm on we JUST had this very conversation (my son's a nosebleeder, too, as was I). Seems like it's an extremely common thing (although no fun, certainly).

 

[chrisn]

I took my 12 year old to the Dr. as he had been getting 1 or two everyday at school, at friends houses, plus a really gunky throat every morning. Poor thing.

Doc put him on Flonase. Hasn't had one since. I feel much better.

 

[j9psu]

Dd (8) gets them too. Used to really scare me, but she seems relatively un-phased by it, and has learned to handle them well on her own. I know that she picks sometimes, but I really think it has more to do with seasonal allergies. Although we have never had her tested, I have allergies (without nosebleeds) and others have suggested that this might be the cause. At certain times of the year she is pretty much guaranteed one fairly big nosebleed per day. I started giving her one Children's Claritin (24 hr.), a day and this has really helped. If we miss a few days in a row, the nosebleeds return. We run a humidifier in her room too, as a precaution, but I'm not sure that this makes much difference either way. Good luck figuring it out!

 

[DisneyWorldbuff]

My son, 3 yrs old, gets nosebleeds a lot, but almost always at night. His pillowcase will be soaked. We live in Colorado and its very dry here, We've always chalked it up to the dry air. I'm going to try some of the suggestions here though and see if it helps. Its tiring to always be scrubbing out blood stains. But, another reason to go to Florida, right?

 

[rbork]

My DS had them too between the ages of 10-12. Terrible ones with ALOT of blood. He had them so frequently I was concerned about him becoming anemic. So I put him on a multi vit, nasal saline spray every day, sometimes twice a day (in the morning and at night). They have since subsided. He will be going to camp at 6k feet up to 10K feet. I'm thinking he'll be the kid that has a nose bleed every thousand foot elevation

 

[PrincessBelle39]

My dd5 gets them all the time - anything upto 5-6 times a week. We did go to the doctor about it who couldn't see anything wrong and said not to worry. That was about 12 months ago. This year she is at school. The school have all entry level children tested by a speech pathologist to identify any problems early on. The speech pathologist suggested that we should take dd to see an Ear Nose and Throat specialist for her constantly croaky voice. When I went to the GP for a referral, they mentioned that the nose bleeds could be related. Our appointment with the ENT is tomorrow so I'm quite interested to hear her thoughts.

 

[cinjam]

My DS9 has been getting them since he was 18 months old. Some days our bathroom looks like a horror movie. We took him to our pediatrician way back when. For us it has to do with the dry air and also allergies. The allergies cause the bleeds, but then some of the medications we've tried have been sooo drying that is causes a bleed.

After 8 years of this, we are all old pros. We have his nose cauterized twice, this has just been a short-term solution for us. They come back.

You should see your doctor. You need his/her input and guidance. Aidan has been anemic due to this so he does take iron supplements (our ped does semi-annual blood work). She also gave us QR nosebleed powder (over the counter) - we use this when the bleed goes on for more than 10 minutes. Our ENT taught Aidan (and us) the correct way to apply pressure to the nose.

My well-meaning people have told him to tip his head back (that's a no-no). He is usually the one calming the people around him. If he gets upset & cries during a bleed (and this is usually because someone around him has become agitated & it affects him), the blood will mix with his tears and REALLY freak people out. And, if he gets one while he sleeps and enough blood has made it into his stomach he will vomit.

We've become very use to it through the years, so much so we had a JetBlue flight attendant make a comment to us during a recent flight. We were in the bulkhead row. Aidan gets a bleed on take off (change is pressure causes it too). I am just handing him tissues and bagging the used ones while maintaining a conversation with my husband (we were discussing my MIL so it was an animated conversation LOL!). The bleed was tapering off (I could tell by the tissue discards) and the FA unbuckles himself and asks Aidan if he can get him anything, water, more tissues. Aidan declines. He turns to us and says, "He must get them often." I said yes, how did you know (thinking the FA must get the too and we'd share stories). He says, "I have never seen parents so un-phased over that much blood coming from their child as you two"

Yeah, bloody noses since 18 months will do that to you!