9 Month With Spontaneous Nose Bleeding And Diarrhea

Mom’s Question:
After a nap yesterday my baby’s nose was bleeding profusely. The blood was thick and coming out like water running out of a faucet. She messed up the pillowcases, sheets, comforter, 5 face towels, and my mother’s shirt was covered in blood as well. We managed to get her nose to stop bleeding on the way to the ER and they examined her and said they couldn’t find any reason as to why her nose was bleeding and that the cause may be a sinus infection, allergies, or cold. So we left the ER and when we’re back at home, my baby’s nose started to bleed profusely once again while she was sitting in my mother’s lap watching TV.

Each time her nose bled, she has a diaper full of boo boo. It’s coming all out the diaper. She wasn’t running a temp at all. What could be causing this with my little girl and is there anything seriously wrong with her?

Amecia

Baby Helpline:

Baby With Nose Bleeding And Diarrhea

Nose bleeding in a baby – or actually in any person, is often caused by some trauma (by a fall or by picking the nose, for example), dry air making the tiny blood vessels sensitive, colds, sinus infections or allergies. Some blood disorders, anatomical problems with the nose and drugs may also increase the risk of nose bleeding. It also seems like some people simply gets a nose bleed easier than others. Maybe their skin inside the nose is thinner or some of the blood vessels are closer to the mucous membrane in their nose and hence more sensitive to trauma or dry air.

Now you have realized that there seems to be a connection between pooping and nose bleeding for your baby. This could be for two reasons.

The first – and most probable, is that something (a cold, trauma or dry air for example) has resulted in a small wound in her nose and when she strains to poop, the wound starts bleeding again. And since most babies poop at least once per day, the wound starts bleeding again and again and never really heals.

The second possibility is that both the diarrhea and the nose bleeding are both caused by something else. Is your baby on any medication? Or have you recently introduced new foods? Gluten allergy (celiac disease) can have symptoms that include both diarrhea and nose bleeding, so if your baby recently started with pasta and bread, for example, this may be something to discuss with her doctor. Side effects of any medicines should also be discussed.

How to prevent more nose bleeds

Nose bleeds are often quite abundant without being dangerous. But of course you still want to prevent new nose bleeds.

A few things you can do to prevent future nose bleeds are the following:

• Put a humidifier in the room where your baby sleeps. That should take care of any dry air issues and help the wound (if any) to heal.
• You can also try saline drops for your baby’s nose to keep it moist.
• Put Vaseline or lanolin ointment on a q-tip and gently rub the inside of your baby’s nose twice per day.
• Use an antibiotic ointment inside the nose to help heal an inflammations or wounds. There are both over-the-counter and prescription ointments available, so discuss an appropriate ointment with your baby’s health care provider.
• If nothing helps, a doctor can cauterize the bleeding vessel to stop the bleeding.
• Finally – do follow up on any medication or allergies that may be causing the nose bleeds (and possible also the diarrhea, but I am not sure if you felt they were actually a problem too)

Remember that nose bleeds are very rarely dangerous – they just look scary! But if your baby seems to have a severe headache, starts bleeding or bruise easily in other parts of her body or if the nose bleeding keeps coming back very frequently despite taking all the precautionary measures described above, you should talk to a doctor to have her examined so that illness or allergies can be ruled out.

I hope this helps,

Paula

More on Nose Bleeds in Babies

• Baby Nose Bleeds Due To Stuffy Nose
• Small Nose Bleed After A Fall
• Baby Throwing Up Blood

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