Being Nosy

A three year old little girl was brought in by mom.  "She stuck something up her nose"

Tonight's foreign body was a little piece of plastic that came out with relative ease.  I always have some fun with this kind of thing.  Sometimes the parents know what the object might be, sometimes not.  . 

Here are a few examples of the responses I have gotten when I asked the kiddo WHAT was up nose:
"An eraser!"
"Kleenex!"
"A Barbie shoe!"
"Playdoh!"
"A cat treat!"
"A flower!  I was smelling it and it just stuck there!"
"Nothing!  Just boogers!"

I trust you have seen the image of the little girl who suffered for years with recurrent sinus problems who, it turns out, had a safety pin lodged up there in her sinus cavity.  Google "girl with safety pin in nose" to see it, I'm too lazy to post a link.  It's an impressive example of the kinds of shenanigans kids can get up to when you turn your back on them for like, 2 seconds.  When I was a school nurse one of my favorite kindergarten teachers brought two adorable little 5 year olds fresh from the playground.

Mrs. J: "Lacey, tell Mrs. EdN why we came to see her today"
Lacey: "I put a pebble up my nose!"
Me: (coughing to hide a laugh) "Lacey, how come you put a pebble in your nose?"
Lacey: "'Cause it was little!"
Mrs. J: "Now, Gina, will you please tell Mrs. EdN why we came to see her?"
Gina: "I put a pebble up my nose too!  I was showing Mrs. J. how Lacey did it!"
Me: (really, really trying not to laugh but really, really not succeeding) "Oh, I understand.  So the pebbles are still stuck up your nose?"
Lacey: "No, mine came out!"
Gina: "Mine fell out when I sneezed!"
Me: "Well that's good.  Let me just look and make sure, then I'll call your moms.  No more anything up the nose though, right girls?"
Lacey and Gina: (in little sing-song voices) "Noooooooo!!
Mrs. J: "And why don't we want to put anything up our nose?"
Lacey and Gina: "Because it's BAAAAAAAAD!!!"

Definitely everything we need to know we learned in kindergarten, sometimes the hard way.