Stop severe nosebleeds with tampons

Hey, blood flow is blood flow. This hack may not fly in the school office, but it certainly works at home:

From Martha:

My child used to have severe nosebleeds. One night I was trying to stanch the flow using tissues without much success. Trying to keep a child still while pinching her nose is near impossible at 2 am! I happened to have a mini tampon in the drawer nearby so I unwrapped it and poked it just inside the nostril. It stopped the flow perfectly.

I told my doc about it and he said it was fine as it was sterile, absorbent and had the bonus of applying just enough pressure to constrict the blood vessel. The other bonus: it doesn't pinch the way rolled up tissue can.

Related: For the inevitable "bloody mess"

Comments

[M]

An ice pack on the back of the neck also works great!

[Bitts]

My husband did some boxing in college, and he has told me about how his trainer used to do this! I think it would work best on older kids, though, because there aren't tampons small enough to fit up my 4 & 2 year olds' noses. But when I was getting frequent nosebleeds as a tween, this would have been brilliant!

[Linda]

Tampons are not sterile.

[Benjamin Hess]

Several of my kids have chronic nosebleeds -- and our ENT specialist suggested this trick -- and it works AMAZING -- soak half-a-cotton ball in Afrin (the cold nose spray), then put up the nose. The Afrin causes the blood vessels to constrict, allowing the bleed to clot faster. Then, the day after a nose bleed, gently apply some vaseline or triple-antibiotic ointment around the inside of the nostril to rehydrate/heal the tissues inside. But Afrin is the key.

[Simone]

I heard once that dentists use something similar..

[Ergonomic Chair]

Keeping the nose down while putting pressure on it will also help stop nose bleeds.

[renee]

Wow. I had frequent, severe nosebleeds as a teen (constant headaches, too much aspirin, blood couldn't clot) and I can't believe I never thought of this. I guess tampons all had applicators back then (I'm ancient) so it never would have occurred to me to shove an applicator up my nose.

[K]

Someone's been watching Curb Your Enthusiasm

[Nancy]

I learned about this one in high school from friends who were wrestlers.

[Thedelaneyproject.wordpress.com]

I had to have surgery on my nose in my early twenties and I promise you, the two things they pulled out of my nose after surgery looked like two gigantic tampons connected with a wire. Great idea!

[Dayna]

This has been a tried and true Athletic Trainer hack for years....even and especially in schools where budgets are closely monitored.

[Christine]

I've never thought of using a tampon before. But it sure does cut down on toilet paper. You could also use vinegar.

[L.]

Do a search for nose bleed plugs. Smaller and a lot cheaper than tampons. Also no stigma.

Amazon has a pack of 50 for around $7 when you add the shipping cost.

They also have quick-clot types if your child has the occasional bad ones.

[Joe Orton]

Oh, I don't know if I could put my boys through that solution.