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My ten-month-old daughter just got stick (seems like cold/flu). What's really strange for me is that she holds her sneezes in. In fact, sometimes she's almost shaking from the exertion of holding her sneezes in.
Granted that she has very mucousy sneezes, and that she doesn't like wiping her nose (which kid does?) -- but I'm a bit weirded out by her holding in the sneezes.
This doesn't seem like something common in that age either.
Is it simply amusing, or potentially problematic?
It might just be an interesting experience to her. She might have copied it from someone (many adults do that) and she wants to try it out.
Holding a sneeze in can be uncomfortable but I know several people who prefer that because they feel it's less uncomfortable than the alternative. To each their own. At her age, it's unlikely that you can deliberately teach her a specific way to sneeze.
However, the pressure of the sneeze has to go somewhere and when it can't escape through the mouth then it finds other ways: the ears, sinuses, etc. This re-routing could potentially push mucus into areas, and I imagine that it could cause infections there. If you're concerned about this, please ask your pediatrician.
