I was in Seattle last weekend for a wedding when I witnessed the worst nosebleed I had ever seen…and much to my horror; my grandson was the one having this severe bleed. I thought to myself, “What the heck is with my kids and grandkids always getting nosebleeds?” They get the worst nosebleeds a person could possibly get during childhood. My oldest daughter Ashley and (in this case) her son Blaze have or have had such severe nosebleeds that I seriously think they are going to bleed to death. I don’t see how a person could possibly lose that much blood and come out unscathed. And then to make matters worse, both of my daughters faint at the site of blood, so for us, a nosebleed can be a life threatening episode depending on how the scenario pans out. Let’s put it this way…the bleed must be stopped and stopped as quickly and effortlessly as possible or we end up with an emergency and a major mess (on a number of levels) on our hands.

After hearing every wives tale (head tilted forward, tilted backward, cotton under lip, tissue in nostril, blah, blah, blah) known to mankind and having unsuccessfully tried them all, I quickly learned last weekend that there is only one surefire way to stop a nosebleed…And it’s called compression. Think about how many times you’ve had blood tests or an IV removed and the one thing you must do is hold pressure for at least five minutes on the cotton to ensure the bleeding will stop. However, with a nose bleed you must hold pressure for 10 to 15 minutes for it to be effective in helping the body with its natural clotting process, and pinching a nose for that long is tiring and most of us give up only to have the bleeding recur and a very unhappy child. Having said that, we still ultimately know that compression is virtually the only way to stop it so there needed to be a way to keep the pressure (without discomfort) and tiring out both mom and child.

That’s where this amazing little patented soft, comfy, and effective jewel of a (FDA approved) medical product steps in. NoseAid is a compression device specifically developed for the management and control of a nosebleed and was the brainchild of a well respected ER physician. Many hospitals and school nurses already use it, but I have yet to see it available in the general public. And it truly should and needs to be in every parent’s first-aid kit.

Thankfully, there happened to be an ER physician at the reception and he saw all the commotion and frightened look on all our faces. He came over to us, told us to pinch the soft portion of the nose until he got back from his car. He came back with a NoseAid appliance and placed it on Blaze’s nose and not only did it work in terms of stopping the bleed, it kept us from getting tired from holding the nose closed with our thumb and forefinger and holding onto a squiggly, wiggly, upset child. Even better Blaze thought the soft little pincher was cool! He didn’t even want to take it off after the 15 minutes when it was obvious that the bleeding episode was well over and even wanted to keep it as a souvenir! So much for the Hershey Bar gifts with the wedding couple’s last name on the wrapper or the cute little bubbles! We said he could keep it until we saw him trying to put it in his little mini rented tux pocket. The doctor was a real champion not only because he stopped the nosebleed but because he went back to his car to bring back Blaze a brand new (clean) NoseAid to keep as a souvenir!

My hope is that my favorite pharmacy (www.drugstore.com) starts stocking this brilliant yet simple little device, because I will indeed order it and it will be a staple in my first aid kit…And I would venture to say, every other parent’s medicine cabinet as well.  My only gripe…is why on Earth I didn’t know about this when my girls were young?!?

For more information on stopping nosebleeds click on the links below:

http://www.stopnosebleeds.com/how_to_stop_a_nosebleed.html

http://www.stopnosebleeds.com/faq.html