What Causes Nasal Bleeding In A Child?

Hello, Thank you for writing at HCM. I can understand your concern about your child s nosebleeds. Sometimes it can be huge and scary but the good news about is is that most of the times it is not dangerous and is self limiting. Many young children get nosebleeds and they are perfectly healthy. Some of the reasons this happens is because the blood vesels in the nose mucosa are very supperficial and are very susseptible to outside changes like air changes (humidity, temperature), physical agents, minor trauma (even fingers in the nose), congestion of the mucosa, ect. Crying can increase the pressure of those vessels and predispose for bleeding. many times we do not know what might be causing and no factor identified. There are few things to help prevent them though. First you can use a vaseline or pertolium ointment in the nose mucosa to keep the nose mucosa humidified and protected. You can apply it gently in both nostrils in small amounts 2-3 times a day. if this is not helpful enough than sometimes it is found that antibiotic ointment with fuscidic acid in the nostrils might help by reducing bacteria there. Keeping humidified air might help prevent it also. Sometimes even though we try this it does not help in reducing recurrences. It is still OK as long as the child does not have gums bleeding or spots on the skin or mucosa. if there are spots on the skin or mucosa or bleeding gums with the nosebleeds you will need to urgently see a doctor. Another important issue to address here is the management of the episode of the nosebleeing. 1. keep the head of the child neutral (do not put it down as it may increase hemorrhage and do not raise it as it may cause blood go in the throat) 2. Keep the nostrils tight between fingers for at least 15 minutes (if you try to test earlier if the hemorrhage has stopped you might get bleeding and you might need to start over counting minutes) 3. Put some ice packs at the back of the neck- it is found to reduce hemorrhage 4. If you correctly do the above and the hemorrhage still goes on, go to the emergency department. Hope this answers to your question Best regards