Unfortunately in our dry Colorado climate nosebleeds (medical term: epistaxis) are very common. They can be dramatic and scary in the moment but are almost always harmless and nothing to be concerned about. Let’s talk through ways to manage them and things to look out for.
What causes nosebleeds: Triggers for nosebleeds include trauma (anyone have any nose pickers out there?!), dry air, allergies, and colds. Often, nosebleeds happen randomly without an obvious cause. They usually come in clusters because after the blood vessels in the nose are irritated enough to bleed once, they are more likely to bleed again as it can take a few days for them to fully heal.
How to stop a nosebleed:
1. Stay calm. Nosebleeds are rarely anything serious. The calmer you can stay, the calmer your child will be.
2. Have your child sit with their head tilted slightly forward/down. Do NOT have them tilt their head back – this will only cause them to swallow the blood which tastes gross and irritates their stomach.
3. Use your thumb and index finger to squeeze the soft/fleshy lower part of the nose – do not hold over the hard/bony part of the nose as this won’t do anything to stop the bleeding. Hold pressure for a good 5 minutes without taking pressure away. If you take pressure away too soon, then there isn’t enough time for the blood to clot and the bleeding can restart, causing you to have to start the process all over again.
4. After about 5-10 minutes, if there is still bleeding when you remove pressure, slightly adjust where you were holding pressure and repeat again.
What to do about recurrent nosebleeds: If your child is getting multiple nosebleeds throughout the week, it’s often because the blood vessels are having trouble healing due to ongoing irritation from things like dry climate and nose picking. To help the healing process, we recommend applying a coating of nasal saline gel at night for a week or so. The gel is different from nasal saline spray; it has a little more stickiness to it so it can provide more of a barrier to the irritated vessels. Running a humidifier is also a good idea.
If they are happening very frequently, we may place a referral to an Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) doctor for further evaluation.
When to call us or seek care:
- You think your child has lost a lot of blood or bleeding lasts for more than 10-20 minutes
- Your child is pale, dizzy, or lightheaded
- Your child is bleeding after a head injury
- Your child is bleeding from their mouth
- Your child is having other abnormal bleeding (in their urine, stool, on their gums with teeth brushing) and/or has unexplained bruising
- Your child is an infant (nosebleeds are not common in babies less than 12 months)
- You are worried (this is always a reason to call!)