Nosebleeds in toddlers and babies | Nosebleeds

Nosebleeds in toddlers and babies

Nosebleed (epistaxis) is a very annoying symptom for most patients. Especially children, toddlers and babies suffer more often from nosebleeds. Mostly it is a harmless nosebleed, which disappears after a few seconds to minutes.

Especially in winter, when it is very cold, it can easily lead to nosebleeds. The cause of nosebleeds is a rupture of several small veins in the nose. In some children, these veins can be very thin-walled and therefore rupture more quickly.

Frequent nose-picking or blowing too hard can easily lead to nosebleeds. It is always important to ask the child whether he or she has stuck something up the nose which has led to bleeding. Especially small children like to stick a small object into their nose, which can then injure the veins.

It is important to remove this object from the nose! The psychological component should also be considered. Some children get nosebleeds when under pressure to perform or under too much psychological strain.

For example, fear of school or of classmates can lead to increased nosebleeds. In addition, the over-frequent use of nasal sprays should be avoided in children as well as in adults, as otherwise the children tend to get nosebleeds very quickly due to the permanent mucous membrane strain. If the nosebleed suddenly occurs while playing and frolicking, it is of course also possible that the child has bumped his or her nose severely and therefore one of the veins is torn.

In some cases, children are very often plagued by nosebleeds. This can be an abnormal vascularization, which then leads to sometimes very frequent nosebleeds. Sometimes the only thing that helps here is to obliterate the vessels so that bleeding is no longer possible.

In very rare cases in children there is a purulent inflammation (abscess) or a tumor, a so-called neoplasia, behind the nosebleed. For this reason, if children have frequent nosebleeds, they should always consult an ENT specialist so that he or she can examine the nose and initiate a possible obliteration.