4 Solutions Compared: How to Get Boogers out of Baby Nose

Table of Content

Part 1. What are Boogers Made of?

Part 2. How Do I Know If My Baby Has A Stuffy Nose

Part 3. What Causes a Congested Nose

Part 4. Why Nose Picking Could Be Harmful?

Part 5. How to Prevent Boogers?

Part 6. How to Remove Booger Safely

Part 7. 4 Best Way to Get Boogers out of Baby Nose

Part 8. When to See the Doctor

Takeaway

What would you do when your little ones are taking a nap? Let me tell you a wired but real secret: As for me, I will grab a nasal aspirator, slip into my little one's bedroom and pick her nose. Wired and gross, huh?

I believe most of you will wonder: "your answer is not ‘do my chores/work in the other room while keeping an eye on the baby monitor, take cute pictures of his/her sleeping and collect them in the milestone photo album, but nose picking?' "

Well, let me explain this for you: My younger daughter produce a lot of booger especially when she has got a cold. I've tried to pick her nose to get rid of the booger when she's awake but it comes out that it is a mission impossible. She squirms a lot and it's dangerous to put something into her nose. Raise your hand if you are also suffering from this.


The rest of this article is for anxious parents like me, for parents-to-be that are learning baby caring beforehand, and of course, those who are just curious about how to remove deep boogers of their own.

To save you time, ChildAngle prepares you this table of content so that you can just jump to the part you are interested in about how to get boogers out of baby nose:

Table of Content

Part 1. What are Boogers Made of?

Part 2. How Do I Know If My Baby Has A Stuffy Nose

Part 3. What Causes a Congested Nose

Part 4. Why Nose Picking Could Be Harmful?

Part 5. How to Prevent Boogers?

Part 6. How to Remove Booger Safely

Part 7. 4 Best Way to Get Boogers out of Baby Nose

Part 8. When to See the Doctor

Takeaway

Part 1. What is A Booger? What are Boogers Made of?

Firstly, let me walk you through the relationship between mucus, snot and booger.

Mucus is almost everywhere in our body. It is a fluid substance produced by lining tissues. They contains antibodies, bacteria-killing enzymes to keep critical organs moisture and protected. Mucus generated in nose are called nasal mucus, aka snot. 

Snot traps dust, smoke, bacteria, virus and pollen and gradually dries out, a dried out snot as a booger before it gets into your deeper nose or lung.

They work with cilia to sweep drying mucus from nasal cavity to the front of your nose until it drop out of your nose, sneezed out or picked.

Part 2. How Do I Know If My Baby Has A Stuffy Nose

In many cases, babies are more more vulnerable to nose congestion than older ones because their nostril are still not developed completely. Since babies are too young to tell us how they feel, it's our duty to find out whether our baby has a stuffy nose and proceed remedies in timely manners.

There are 7 symptoms we can easy tell when a baby has a congested nose:

 

• Noisy or noticeable breathing;
• Snoring when asleep;
• Thick discolored mucus within the nostril or surrounding the nose;
• A runny nose;
• Sneezing;
• Sniffling;
• Coughing, worse at night;
• Decrease appetite or difficulty eating due to stuffy nose;

Part 3. What Causes a Congested Nose

As babies' nostril are so vulnerable, there are different irritations that can lead to a blocked nose:

 

• Common cold, flu or upper respiratory viruses like COVID-19;
• Allergies;
• Dry Air;
• Cold weather;
• Exposure to poor air quality or other environmental irritants;

Congested nose can be uncomfortable and your baby may get fussy and will unintentionally picking their nose from time to time to ease themselves from the stuffy nose. However, nose picking can somewhat be harmful, why? Just read on to get this question answered:

 

Part 4. Why Nose Picking Could Be Harmful?

1. Picking nose with hand might easily transfer bacteria between hands and nose;

2. Picking the same part of the nose repeatedly can damage nasal tissue;

3. Picking nose could damage arteries in their front nose and result in nose bleeding

4. Avoid Q-tips and other sharp objects especially for wiggle and squirm babies;

5. Avoid Eucalyptus oil. Eucalyptus are toxic for children under 2 years old;

6. Neti pots are not ideal for children. Kids could aspirate saline and result in pneumonia

As picking nose could sometimes be risky, we'd better leave it as it is.

Part 5. How to Prevent Boogers?

However, too much mucus or boogers in nose will make your kids feel uncomfortable and tempt them to unintentionally pick their nose.

You might wonder, how to get rid of baby mucus? Is there any way to prevent boogers? Actually, there are:

1. Use a humidifier to increase moisture in the surrounding air;

2. Hydrate kids' nose with a saline spray

3. Drink more water for overall hydration;

Note: Again, don't step in unless it is getting an abnormally higher quantity.

Moreover, even though babies are too young to blow their own nose or pick nose, they know how to sneeze. Boogers will be released while they sneeze. Just let the respiratory system do its job.

 

Part 6. How to Remove Booger Safely

If your kids are having a cold or an allergy, or be in heated buildings during winter, their nose will produce more mucus to protect them.

If these boogers are bringing difficulty for your kids to breathe enough fresh airs easily as they used to do (Too much boogers might get in their way). You can still take practical steps to remove boogers out of babies' nose safely:

Preparations

1. Wash your hands beforehand. ‘Cause babies have a weaker immunity, while there are a great number of bacteria on hands.

2. Make sure your babies are calm. You can remove boogers when he/she is taking a nap. Otherwise, they will wiggle and squirm a lot and hurt themselves.

Start the Process: 

How to get snot out of baby nose?

Step 1. Use a tissue to wipe outer boogers; Avoid wiping the same part repeatedly which could damage nasal tissue.

Step 2. For deeper boogers, you will need a booger sucker or other tools for the same purpose.

Step 3. Insert the end of the sucker carefully into each nostril and start the suction.

Step 4. For tough boogers, use a saline spray to moisture both nostril and wait a few minutes. When the boogers get soften, use the booger sucker again.

Clean-ups

1. Dispose the tissue or booger sucker replacement if disposable.
2. Wash other parts to make it ready for next use.
3. Wash and dry your hands.

 

Part 7. 4 Best Way to Clean up Baby Boogers

There are different kinds of baby nose suckers that can do the same work.

In this section, we will introduce 4 common remedies and nasal aspirators for babies, you can choose your best way to get boogers out of baby's nose.

1. Saline Spray

2. Bulb Syringe

3. Baby Snot Sucker

4. Electric Nasal Aspirator

1. Saline Spray
Saline spray is a perfect choice to moisture nostril and soften boogers. Just spray a few drops into each nostril and wait a few minutes since it take effect.

Since saline is not medicine, you can also make your own saline spray by mixing water and salt (1 cup water + 0.5 teaspoon salt).

Advantage: It can work with any booger suction to remove boogers.

Disadvantage: Saline spray works only to help soften tough boogers, to remove boogers you need an extra hand from other tools.

2. Bulb Syringe
A bulb syringe is a bulb shape nasal suckers that work like a pump.

Push the base of the bulb to push air out, insert the tip of the bulb syringe into your babies' nose. Then, gently release the bulb and it will start suck deep boogers into its bulb base.

Advantage: It's relatively cheap and can easily found on drug store or hospital.

Disadvantage: Bulb syringe can easily build up germs and mold, so it has to be replaced after certain use. It's somewhat disposable. As for me, it's hard for me to gently release the bulb while I need to find the boogers in my babies tiny nostril and being cautious not to wake up my baby at the same time.

3. Baby Snot Sucker
This sort of snot sucker is designed with the same vacuum operating principle as bulb syringe while it also come with a tube allowing you to use your mouth to suck boogers from babies nose to the vacuum sucker.

Even though it use a filter to stop boogers and germs from getting into your mouth through the tube, it's gross enough though.

 

Advantage: It's easily clean up and can replace the filter after use.

Disadvantage: Though there's a filter to isolate boogers, it still looks gross.

4. Electric Nasal Aspirator for Babies
If you are not a big fan of bulb syringe that you should dispose them and repurchase after certain use, or have a queasy stomach that easily get gross to suck out booger with their mouth, an electric nasal aspirator, also known as baby booger sucker is definitely designed for you. It does the suction job for you. Meanwhile, it can do it better.

 

These nasal aspirator for infants always come with a frequency changer allows you to use it with different suction strength. You can start with level 1 and add on if needed.
They also come with several baby nose suction tips to suck for outer or deeper nose.

 

To calm your baby, you can also hit on the music icon to play built-in lullaby rhythms to sooth your baby.

 

Part 8. When to See The Doctor

As mentioned above, having boogers is not a big deal to worry about. Instead, it is a defense mechanism for the body. When babies are having a running nose, you can use a nasal aspirator to suck snot out of their nose to help them feel better or keep the nostril moisture with saline spray or humidifier.

 

If your baby is suffering from any of these uncommon symptoms, pleases don't hesitate to seek medical advice:

• Any yellow or green eye goop/discharge;
• Any signs of dehydration: Dry mouth or diapers are not as wet as that before;
• Any symptoms of fever: 100.4℉ for 0-3 month-olds, 102℉ for 3-24 month-olds, 104℉ for 2+ years-old;
• Babies keeps generating a lot of boogers, resulting difficult breathing;
• Baby's snot is getting a wired yellow or green color;

 

Takeaway

Boogers are dried out mucus which contains snot, bacteria, germs, dust, pollen, and so on.

Having boogers are normal for everyone. It's a defense mechanism for the body. Most boogers fall out with the help of cilia or can be blown out of the nose. Even though newborns and babies can not blow their nose, they can sneeze out the boogers. So, there's no need to step in.

Some parents choose to pick their baby's nose to make sure they can breathe normally. However, picking nose could result in physical harm to their nose, such as damage nasal issue, bring bacteria, and so on.

To prevent this, you'd better remove deeper boogers with the best baby nasal aspirator as we've recommended. With these types of tools, baby boogers can be easily, effectively and comfortably removed.