What to do if an M&M is Crammed up Your Son's Nose

Funny I would know what to do in such a situation, isn't it?

This is how I know.

A few years ago, I was making Christmas cookies to celebrate having finally finished the annual Christmas letter that I love to write every year. It's always hard to get it out and in the mail. It's worth celebrating when I get it done.

S3 was not in school yet, and he had a fascination with picking his nose. I could not brake him of it and found it super disgusting.

S3 and S4 were desperate for cookies, that weren't anywhere near being done yet, so I sent them to the living room to watch movies and eat m&m's. Because I am a good mom like that.

The m&m's that I gave them were single packs of fourth of July colored candies. We had recently found them and since we hadn't eaten them on the fourth of July because S3 was bitten by a dog and had to be rushed to the ER to have stitches on his hand (another long story) we had never eaten them. I figured they had to still be good and hoped to have the kitchen to myself to get the cookies done so I could start dinner.

It didn't take long before S3 came crying into the kitchen, blood dripping from his nose. "You picked your nose again, didn't you?" I irritatedly grabbed a tissue, spouting out how if he was gonna pick his nose, he was gonna make it bleed and I didn't feel the least bit bad for him as he sobbed and held his nose in pain. I squeezed the tissue on his nose and immediantly jumped back.

There was something IN his nose.

So as a mom who does insane things, I sniffed the kleenex.

And smelled........chocolate.

It didn't take me too long to figure out what had happened.

Cuz I am a mom to this boy who had been bitten by a dog, attacked by a chicken, scared for the wound he gained stealing chocolate...who was fascinated by what could come out of his nose. I knew he wondered what he could shove up his nose and just had........

But m&m's are the candy that "melts in your mouth, not in your hand" as their tag line so it should melt in your nose, right?

Just to be sure....I called my pediatricians office. And when Nurse Sherrie, who knows us so very well and I love her for that, called me back, she could hardly hold it together. "He did WHAT?" she giggled.

But because the chocolate was so slowly dripping from his nose, we were told to go to the ER just to get it flushed out.

Imagine their reaction as I filled out the paper work.

The ER doctor came in, checked his nose and pulled me aside. "Because of the hard candy coating on the outside, he may have cut the inside of his nose. We will be as careful as we can, but it may need more care because cuts would lead to infection." Then she got a little quieter. "I am not going to be nice to him. I don't ever want you to have to deal with this again. So if you are okay with that, we will proceed."

I agreed.

And it was awful to watch, I must admit. Here the kid is, sitting in a hospital bed, chocolate dripping from his nose, tears in his eyes, licking the chocolate snot as it hits his lip.

Pitiful.

They had to flush the nostril with water and keep the stream coming until they were sure there was no more chocolate. They then veiwed his nose to make sure it looked uncut, which it did, they gave him a very strict talking to and sent us on our way.

He has never ever picked his nose agian.

And he is not overly fond of m&m's.

As I threw together a dinner and baked cookies late into the night, I couldn't help but think "this would have been a great story for the Christmas letter".