Keep Calm and Corn On!

Finally summer is just around the bend, the farm markets and grocery stores are full of fresh summer produce, and there’s lots of opportunity to getting working on some good ol’ clean eating! No more cheesy comfort foods for this chicky! Yesterday, as K-aos and I were walking into our local grocers, I offered to buy her a treat. The first thing she sees when she walks in is a large wooden bin of corn. She shakes my arm, “Mommy! That’s what I want as my treat! Corn on the cob!!! Please? Please? Please?” Well, how can I say no to that one? It’s healthy, 5 for $1.95 and won’t give her a three hour sugar buzz!

            As we start to select our ears, K-aos says, “Mommy, do you remember when…”

She doesn’t have to finish her query… I know exactly what she’s going to say before she verbalizes it. Selecting the corn brings back that “not so fond” memory, of our corny incident from last summer.

I was standing in the kitchen, removing an ear of peaches and cream corn from the steaming pot, when I hear a scream from the dining room. K-aos is screaming bloody murder, and flailing around like a fish at the table, “Help me! Help me! It hurts!” She is thrashing about and screaming at such a high pitch, that I wonder if I need to call an ambulance.

The other kids at the table have to shriek, “K.aos put a corn up her nose!!!”

 Oh dear. A parent’s nightmare! We’ve all heard the trauma stories about the kid who stuck a marble up his nose, or a pencil eraser, or a piece of Lego. Well, it finally happened to me! I try my best to explain to her, “K-aos! You have to calm down. The more you freak out, the more likely you are to sniff the kernel further up your nose! You have to let me see.” It takes a lot of convincing, but she finally holds still long enough for me to get a look. There It Is. A great big corn kernel 'cork', lodged in her nostril. As it was my first experience dislodging a foreign object from a nose, I first suggest, “Let’s try blowing it out.” I grab a tissue and encourage her to blow, but that doesn’t work. She starts panicking again, and I can feel my blood pressure rising as I realize that this might be more difficult than I initially thought. I scream “K. you have to calm down. You are going to snuff it into your brain!!!!” Probably not something I should have said; however, she composed herself, and lets me sneak another look. I go get a set of tweezers and within several attempts, I am able to capture the culprit and extract it. Pheww!!!!!!!! I did it! Supermom saves the day! I hold up the piece of corn high in the air and wave it in triumph! I breathe a sigh of relief. This was followed by a lecture to all the kids never to stick anything in their noses!

So, did I go about the whole ordeal properly? Was I able to maintain my composure? Not 100%. It was pretty dramatic. So, I’ve done my research for the next time I may become a proboscis medic. For anyone who might ever be around kids, there is always a chance that you may someday have to go through the same ordeal as I. Here is a link with advice for what to do when this happens to you. Stay calm. http://www.whattoexpect.com/toddler/grooming/stuck-in-nose.aspx#

Love,

         Amy

(oh the things you learn!)