I’m guessing most of you have heard of a neti pot, although many of you likely can’t get past the idea of forcing warm water up your nose. My sister, on seeing me prepare for it, sometimes asks if I’m going to waterboard myself again. I admit it’s a little gross, but being a parent for a week – honestly, a day – introduced me to far worse, and doing it daily means that I rarely have to take any allergy medication.
Levi has a lot of mucus, so we started doing it for him, too, as soon as he could figure out what to do.
We use the squeeze bottle version instead of a pot, but it’s a staple around our house.
Maybe a year ago, Paul asked me to start the “nose hose” for Levi. I stuck the bottle full of water in the microwave for the prescribed amount of time and set it on the counter. Paul made his way over and got Levi.
As soon as the first blast went into Levi’s nose, he started yelling. “It’s poison!! Stop! Stop, it’s poison!”
Paul stopped, but we could not figure out what was going on. After some confusion and accusation (the latter mostly but not entirely from Levi), we discovered that Paul and I have different processes. He adds the saline packet to the water before he heats it. I add it after. So … it was never added. We shot plain water up Levi’s nose.
I admit, I thought he was being a drama queen. I mean, I knew you were supposed to add the stuff, but how bad could it be?
This morning, I got my own nose hose ready and shot the first blast, and discovered that Levi had been perhaps a little restrained.
I’d forgotten to add the saline packet. My eyes did not stop watering for two full minutes. (On the positive side, my sinuses feel VERY CLEAR.)
It’s not a lesson I will soon forget. And I’ll have to add it to the list of apologies I owe my children.
Let’s not talk about how long that list is …