Blowing Your Nose

I've never had this problem but one thing that helps a child overcome a fear is to make the task they are doing fun. As for blowing his nose, tell him that you are pretending to be elephants. Show him that blowing his nose makes an elephant noise. Ask him to give it a try.

Also, it could be important to find out why it scares him. Perhaps he is afraid he will blow his brain out of his nose for example. If this is the case a trip to the library or book store where you can look at a body book and show him that this is impossible might ease his fears.

The important thing is not to make light of his fears. Although they may seem silly to us, they are very real for him. It is important to help him to overcome them without belittling the fear. If we belittle the fears of our kids, then they start hiding their fears making it harder for us to be parents and for them to have peace of mind. Just some personal observations based on my experiences as a parent and as a friend watching my friend and relations husband as he belittled the fears of his daughters.

One final note, if he is afraid because it might hurt. You might try a little of "Little Noses" Saline nose spray to help break up congestion a little and make it easier to blow out.

Anyhow, good luck with your little guy. I hope this helps.

My suggestion would be to make it fun somehow. If he likes cars, tractors, and stuff like that. Tell him to get his engine going by blowing his nose and making some noise. A doctor at the pediatric allergist said to tell my son to blow out his nose like a dragon. Get creative and make it a game. He'll get on board if it's fun. If it's really difficult to get him to do it, try a reward chart. Let him put a sticker on it every time he blows his nose or does something else that you want to positively reinforce(manners,etc.). When he fills up a row, he gets a surprise. It could be doing something that he really loves to do- like blow bubbles. Or you could collect some cheap, fun toys or items from the dollar store or Walmart to give him. My son loves the reward charts. We've used them from potty-training up to reading books(so far). We always sat and made them together, which made him take more pride in using it and got him interested and involved. I would draw the lines, and he would go over them with crayons or whatever and decorate around the border. Have fun filling tissues!!

To practice blowing his nose practice when he isn't stuffed up first. Put a cotton ball or feather on a table top and tell him to make it move with the air in his nose. You can both race your feathers or cotton balls across the table. Making a game out of it might make it less scarey and more fun. Then when he is stuffy you can see if he can do the same thing into the tissue.

hahahaha! If you get the right answer, let me know. I have a 14-year old (yes, 14) who still refuses to blow his nose. He'd rather be stuffed up.

You're not alone!

My 4 yr old boy is not blowing either....
here is a joke my 6 yr old niece told us yesterday to encourage him to blow....

How do you get a tissue to dance?

Put a little boogie into it.

My just turned 4 yr old calls it "making a volcano with her nose" She likes to have the volcano erupt into the tissue. I am very excited and impressed by the volcano and also showed her the 1st time or two.
hope this might help

He's close to the age where he'll start doing it himself. My mom always tells my son: "Blowout Party! All snots invited!" It cracks him up and he started blowing.