Nosebleeds in children are a very common phenomenon. In the hot summer and dry winter seasons, nosebleeds are more common, especially in children who often have nosebleeds at night, and parents cannot help but worry about this.
There are many reasons for pediatric nosebleeds. Generally speaking, children before the age of 2 rarely have nosebleeds because the capillary network of the nasal cavity is not well developed in this age group. The site of nasal bleeding in children is mostly in the capillary network in the anterior part of the nasal septum, also known as the Lai’s area. This vascular network is superficial and distributed in the mucous membrane layer of the nasal septum. Such as various rhinitis, sinusitis, nasal tuberculosis, nasal syphilis, nasal trauma, nasal septal deviation, nasal foreign body, nasal tumor, etc.; or poor climatic conditions, such as dry air, hot, low air pressure, cold, high room temperature, etc., can cause nasal bleeding. In addition, some children have the bad habit of picking their nostrils with their hands, which can easily cause nose bleeding when the nasal mucosa is dry; picky eating, partial eating and not eating green vegetables can cause nasal bleeding due to vitamin deficiency.
Nasal bleeding is mostly manifested by blood flowing from the front nostrils or to the pharynx through the back nostrils, and the two situations can occur simultaneously when the bleeding volume is large. Sometimes the nosebleed flows to the pharynx, which may appear as “vomiting blood”. When the nosebleed is serious, more blood is swallowed, which can cause abdominal pain, pallor, sweating and vomiting of coffee-like substance after stimulating the stomach, which is due to the reaction between stomach acid and blood and turns into coffee color. Some children may also have black stools. When the amount of bleeding is too large, it can cause hemorrhagic shock, which can be life-threatening. Long-term repeated bleeding can also cause anemia, which should be taken seriously.
Nasal bleeding is an emergency and should be stopped as soon as it occurs. A simple method is to stuff the bleeding nostril with sterilized cotton balls or pinch the bilateral nostrils with the thumb and index finger, or you can use the index finger to compress the affected nostril for 5-10 minutes to stop the bleeding. Try to keep the child quiet and avoid crying at this time. It is better to let the child take a sitting position with head slightly tilted forward and try to spit out the blood, so that the amount of bleeding can be known as well as to avoid swallowing the nosebleed into the stomach and stimulating the stomach to cause abdominal pain and vomiting. If the amount of bleeding is large and there are precursors of hemorrhagic shock, such as pallor, sweating, rapid heart rate and poor mental health, the patient should be placed in a semi-recumbent position and sent to the hospital for treatment as soon as possible. The doctor will give appropriate treatment according to the site of nosebleed and the amount of bleeding. Most nasal bleeding in children occurs in the first third of the nasal septum in the Lee’s area. Recurrent bleeding can be treated locally with freezing, laser, microwave and chemicals. Smaller amounts of rhinorrhea can also be treated with nasal drops containing 1% ephedrine to stop the bleeding by constricting the blood vessels. It should be emphasized that the treatment of rhinorrhea should start from the cause.
How to prevent rhinorrhea? For children with frequent nasal bleeding, apply paraffin oil, gentamycin cod liver oil, etc. This can make the nasal mucosa moist; some children often have nose bleeding at night, you can use a cotton swab dipped in gentamycin ointment to apply a thin layer in the nasal cavity before going to bed, which can treat the dryness of the nasal mucosa and effectively reduce nasal bleeding; when the amount of nasal bleeding is large and not easy to stop the bleeding, it should be sent to the hospital for consultation and treatment. Parents should also learn the simple treatment of nosebleeds to avoid panic when they encounter nosebleeds.