My son refuses to blow his nose. Goo streams down his top lip, and he sniffs it up again if we don't catch it in time.
What's a good way to encourage a two-year-old to blow their nose into a tissue or handkerchief?
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Sign up to join this communityMy son refuses to blow his nose. Goo streams down his top lip, and he sniffs it up again if we don't catch it in time.
What's a good way to encourage a two-year-old to blow their nose into a tissue or handkerchief?
We have three boys who all learned to blow their nose probably around 1 year old. They mostly learned from watching their mom who blows her nose around them very visibly and loudly. When they had snot in their nose, she'd hold a tissue to their nose and encourage then saying, "blow your nose." At first they'd do nothing or just make a noise and we'd mostly pinch the snot out. But they all eventually started to actually blow their nose.
We used the snot bulb to suction our kid's snot-filled nose when she was a baby, and just never stopped. She hated it, learned to blow her nose in self-defense before she was 2.
Kids at that age love affection and other "treats"... putting out a realistic consequence as a result of the undesired behavior can be quite productive.
"Daddy, I want a hug."
"Oh, but you don't blow your nose properly. Go wash your hands first."
Be consistent in your implementation and always make it a realistic consequence for the undesired behavior and they will adapt to get what they want faster -- e.g. he wants the hug more than he doesn't want to blow his nose.