Comment: Lots of our kids suffer from nose bleeds. I thought this might be helpful.
While it can be scary to see blood coming out of the nose, staying calm is very important. If you follow the steps below, you should be able to successfully stop a nose bleed.
Pinching Method
- Pinch your nose hard just below the bridge. There is a vein just below the nose bone that is the culprit in 99% of bloody noses. Pinching puts pressure on it, which arrests the bleeding and speeds the clotting process.
- Find a bathroom as you continue pinching. Now that you have slowed the bleeding by pinching, you should find a bathroom where you can clean up once the bleeding has stopped.
- Keep applying pressure for at least 5 minutes at a time. Periodically stop pinching to check if it is still bleeding. (This is also a good time to quickly wash any blood off your hands and get a paper towel or toilet paper to pinch with so that blood gets on the paper and not your hand.) If it is, continue pinching. Don't check every 30 seconds, as the key is constant pressure.
Clotting Method
- Lie down or sit down with your head tilted back. Put a few drops of melted butter (ghee in Hindi) in the nostril that's bleeding, and remain with your head tilted back for a few minutes. The butter will help the nosebleed coagulate. The remaining butter will trickle out when you straighten your head so keep a kleenex at hand.
Pressure Method
- Find the two very slight depressions on the back of the skull, approximately four finger-widths from the base of the skull (in line with the tops of the ears) and four finger-widths from the mid-line of the back of the skull. If you had eyes in the back of your head, this is where they would be.
- Press the spots firmly, but gently, and if you have connected correctly, the bleeding should stop immediately. Keep up the pressure for about five minutes and then release. If the bleeding starts again, just repeat the process, but hold it longer: you may have to keep up the pressure for ten to fifteen minutes to stop it completely.
Upper Lip Method
- Roll up a piece of gauze or tissue into a "cigar shape" approximately 2 inches long and a little thicker than a pencil.
- Wedge the tube under your upper lip where it's tight and close your lip over it.
- Apply light pressure by compressing your lip over the wad. Tilt your head forward.
After the Nose Bleed
- Clean out your nose after the bleeding has stopped. Lightly blow your nose to clear out any excess blood. You might try twirling the edge of a paper towel to use as a makeshift swab to help clean your nose. Be delicate. This should not start the bleeding again but if it does, that is a sign that it wasn’t properly stopped in the first place.
- Clean up everything else. Your hands, your face, the sink--anything you dropped blood on needs to be cleaned.
- Moisturize. If you have chap stick, moisturizer or Neosporin on hand, put a little of that in your nose to help healing and prevent it from bleeding again. If you are prone to bloody noses, it is a good idea to do this every morning to prevent bleeding, especially in dry weather.
- Put an extra paper towel in your pocket just in case it starts to bleed again. If it doesn’t start for the next hour, you should be in the clear.
- Avoid doing anything to cause your nose to bleed. Don't blow your nose, pick your nose, or bump it if at all possible. Nose bleeds can be caused by accidents, but are more commonly caused by dry conditions, causing the nasal membranes to dry out and crack. While we don't feel this, the end result is obvious.
Tips
- There are as many ways to stop a nose bleed as there are to cure hiccups. You'll have to experiment to find which one(s) work most effectively for you. Some other tips and tricks to consider are:
- For severe nose bleeds (lasting longer than 5 minutes) you may need to hold an ice pack to your nose. This will constrict blood vessels slowing the flow of blood.
- Keep a set of metal keys in the freezer in a ziplock baggie, and when a nose bleed starts, take them out of the freezer and hold to the back of your neck until the bleeding stops.
- Take a junior "light" tampon and push it a little ways into the nostril. It will soak up all the blood and when you stop bleeding, you can gently pull it out. While tampons are not considered sterile, they are generally low in bacteria count.
- You can also apply pressure to the hollows next to the spine directly where it joins the skull, as this helps to keep the sinuses clear.
- A folk method that sometimes works is to lift one of the sufferer's legs, take off their shoe, and smack the bottom of their foot several times. While it sounds rather odd, it sometimes actually works.
- Open your mouth when you sneeze. This reduces pressure on your nose if you've previously had a nose bleed and are worried about starting another one.
- If you get a lot of nose bleeds, talk to your doctor about getting your nose cauterized. This can greatly reduce them if not stop them all together.
- Use a saline nose spray during allergy season if you get frequent nose bleeds during this time.
- *Breathe through your mouth during the nosebleed, you'll do this automatically, but don't try to inhale through your nose, it won't be fun. Exhaling through your nose will encourage the nosebleed.
- To prevent problems in the future, raise the humidity level in your living quarters by using a humidifier. Most nosebleeds occur when nasal blood vessels become dry and cracked.
- Blood washes out of clothes best with cold water, hot water sets the stain.
Warnings
- It is not recommended that you tilt your head back while suffering a nose bleed (contrary to popular belief). This allows blood to flow into the esophagus and poses a choking hazard. Tilt forward instead.
- Nose bleeds can be very dangerous. If you start to feel dizzy or light headed, call a doctor immediately.
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