Lessons to be learned from my four-year-old inserting a bead up her nose

Where to begin…

It all started when she inserted a bead up her nose. Yep, you read that right.

Apparently, it’s quite common. If you’re a parent, you’re probably already rolling your eyes. Kids, eh! Sheesh.

So there I was a couple of weeks ago, brushing my teeth in the bathroom on a Sunday morning. We were planning on going out as a family. While I scrubbed my teeth with the plastic fibres of my oral hygiene implement, I heard my daughter begin crying from her bedroom.

It wasn’t the typical scream that resulted from her various acrobatic endeavours; jumping off a sofa and landing with a thud, sprinting into a wall, turning around suddenly and bashing her face on a door frame.

It was nothing like that. It wasn’t a sudden, violent reaction. It escalated slowly over the course of ten or so seconds until she was sobbing uncontrollably struggling to explain what was happening.

You hurt your nose?

*sobs*

How did you hurt it? Did you bang it?

*sobs*

You bead it? Sorry I don’t understand you pickle.

*sobs*

You’ve got a bead up your nose, did you say?

*sobs*

Hun, she’s got a bead up her nose!

For a moment, we thought we’d have to take her to A&E but I was not in the mood for that. Daddy would fix this. I actually said those words:

“I’ll fix this.”

Super-dad to the rescue!

I checked up her nose and verified the presence of a small yellow bead halfway up her right nostril. It was one of those little beads from those kiddy bracelet kits. The kind that would be super useful in a Home Alone type situation if you wanted to combat intruders by putting their backs out by making them slip up on beads scattered across the floor.

After a minute of thought, and a really bad idea of trying to prise the offending object out of my daughter’s nose with a hair clip (no no no no!!!), we decided to try and get her to blow her nose to dislodge it.

Only took two attempts.

Success! The bead shot out from her nostril like a little Lego canon ball from a little Lego canon.

So you won’t be putting beads up your nose again will you pickle?

*sobs* No, daddy…

Poor little thing. Her mum and I were laughing about it for hours. It was so unexpected.

And I couldn’t help imagining the thought processes our little four-year-old went through to end up with a bead wedged up her nose.

I guess they like to experiment. Exploring things and shoving objects into holes on their face. Thinking about it, I guess this kind of experimentation starts early. Normally it’s the mouth. Babies shove everything in their mouths. I suppose our little girl had moved onto bigger things.

Nostrils.

So, in summary, the lesson I took from all this:

Experimentation. It’s a good thing. Unless it involves nostrils and bracelet beads.

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