Food up the nose/in the ear stage - any tips to avoid a&e and when do I have to go?

[Tapster]

Had to rush DD to next door neighbour who is an ex-nurse to extract with tweezers sweetcorn she had stuck up her nose. I had found one up her other nose earlier but managed to get that one out, this one had been stuck up there for about 30mins.

Sure this is a stage, a couple of weeks ago she tried to put baked beans in her ears.

DD has just turned 19 months. Now worried about leaving her alone with a plate of food.

What is the worse that can happen, do I have to go to the docs or a walk in centre if I can't remove the food quickly, presuming ears worse than nose? Any tips on how to get DD to stop this.

[dilbertina]

I think ther's something you do with holding nose shut on side without foreign body and then blow in mouth - get someone who knows properly to explain before you try it!

TBH I wouldn't leave 19m alone with plate of food anyway (largely cos dog gets it rather than anything else!)

[CatharsisItIs]

Generally, they sneeze things back out, eventually! At a similar age, my niece managed to shoot a total of three raisins out in three consecutive sneezes once. It was both impressive and stomach churning to behold.

I wouldn't leave a 19m old alone with food either. Though, beware! It wont necessarily be restricted to food. One of my DD's managed to sneak several items up hers, all of which were either easily reachable or were sneezed. None required medical attention

[desperatehousewifetoo]

My ds did this at about the same age with a raisin. Kept sneezing and pointing to his nose but couldn't get it out.

I ummed and ahh'd about going to a & e - didn't want to waste their time or be seen to be a paranoid mother.

Anyway, doc in a&e (he was so young, seemed about 10yrs old!) couldn't see anything when looking up his nose (I'm sure he thought I was a paranoid mum) but contacted ent. I asked if it had to be removed and was told that it could be aspirated i.e. inhaled into lungs if there was something there that was not removed.

In ent, took two of us to pin him down and keep him still while doc used tiny pincer/scissors to remove. Only managed to break tiny piece off (at least proved something was in there) before he took deep breath to scream again and breathed it all way down, luckily not into his lungs.

Needless to say, he didn't have raisins again and hates them now at age 6yrs - unless covered in chocolate!

Not sure what could ahppen with food in ears though. But not as bad as little girls sitting on stones and putting them 'you know where'

[Tapster]

Worried as I can't really spend my whole time checking when she is eating raisins or food or playing with stuff to check if she is sticking it into ears/nose.

She eats in the dining room as the kitchen is too small to eat in. Although the kitchen is next door, I can't see her the whole time. She tends to eat more when I am being busy in the kitchen rather than sitting with her. She loves peas and sweetcorn and not much other veg. Hope this stage doesn't last long maybe the tweezers up the nose yesterday will discourage her.