My 22mo son stuck a pinto bean up his nose. How should it be extracted?

Question

We tried plugging the un-entered nostril and blowing in to his mouth and got nothing but boogers coming out. We went to urgent care and they had us repeat the same "trick" and nothing came out. They didn't see anything through the small scope thing they use with the disposable cones. They just said to watch for "pussy looking" boogers and a fever.

My son slept in short periods but awoke every 30-40 minutes crying and rubbing his nose which is abnormal to his sleeping routine.

Has anyone else had this happen with their kids? What was the treatment?

I guess i'm looking more for other's experience with this and information on treatment more than anything.

Answer 1

Hospitals have a specialized tool for safely removing items lodged in the nasal cavity. One of my friends had this happen to her son recently with a bead, and was quite disappointed to have to spend the money to visit the emergency room to have it dislodged, but it is a fairly quick procedure and not especially painful. This definitely not a do it yourself project, you don't want to get it stuck worse than it already is or cause further injury. Please leave this to a professional! Take your child to a nearby emergency room to have the bean removed.

Answer 2

This goes into the "don't try this at home" category, go back to the hospital and leave this to the professionals with the experience and tools to do the job.

Answer 3

I had a corn (much like the un-popped corn at the bottom of a bag of popcorn) stuck in my nostril when I was about 4-5 years old. My parents took me to a hospital (we lived in India then) and the doctor their recommended surgery. My parents then took me to another hospital. There they used a tool to dislodge the corn from my nose. It was fast, took them like maybe a minute. I don't remember what kind of tool it was, but it was like a metal strip. And again, as other posters have said, this should be left to the professionals. Hospitals should have the stuff to deal with these kinds of situations.

Answer 4

When I was a kid I stuck a small stone in my ear. My mother had to take me to the hospital to have it removed. This nurse came out with this very large metal syringe.

It was something like this image.

Water was injected into my ear and then quickly sucked out with the syringe. The stone popped out on the first try. The nurse did it so quickly that it was over before I realizes what she did.

Now, I was about 10 years old when this happen. I don't recommend doing this own your own to a 2 year old.

The other issue is that it's gone to far up the nose to be seen. There should be no problem with the bean passing up through the nostril into the back of the throat. So either it comes out going forward or it comes out going deeper.

There isn't really much you can do unless it doesn't go away on it's own. You could try washing it out with non-medicated nose spray, or you could try the syringe approach.

Please don't stick anything up there to try and poke it or grab it. That would be very bad.

Answer 5

After visiting 2 urgent cares and our pediatrician the recommendation is unanimous. Sit and wait for:

1. Fever or pussy boogers.
2. Weird smell to produce (a sign the bean has sprouted)
3. Nothing to happen and the bean 'likely' dislodged on it's own and he swallowed it.

What is driving us crazy with worry is that we just don't know for absolute certainty what happened to the bean. Both nostrils are very stuffed up right now and little man is pretty unhappy with that. no fever, nasty smells, or signs of major discomfort.

So far, all docs have said that because my son wont allow them to get a good look in his nose that he would need to be sedated to extract it assuming it is still there. =\