Question:
When my son came out after a vaginal birth and the doctor showed him to
me he had a big red bruise on his nose. The doctor said he probably squished
his nose inside or while coming out. She said it would go away but through
the weeks the bruise became a scab on his nose. It fell off and now he
has a scar going down the nose as well as inside his left nostril. For
some reason his nostril got smaller and its a little tiny hole which is
making him have trouble breathing.
Dr A’s Answer:
I’m so sorry to hear you are having this problem. It is impossible
to say for certain without seeing your child as this issue unfolded what
is going on, however, it sounds like your child had an ischemic injury
to the nose. What this means is that for a period of time during delivery,
your baby’s nose was pressed up hard against something preventing
blood from flowing through the tissue. The tissue was injured because
of this and some of it has been replaced with scar tissue. The scar tissue
is forming a cicatrix, which means it is contracting and pulling together
too tight. This is causing the nostril to partially close up. You should
immediately find a qualified surgeon in your area. Initially treatments
will probably not be surgical and should be effective. Ideally you would
avoid surgery. The sooner you start non-surgical treatment the better.
At least you would hope that non-surgical treatments will give you time.
If indeed surgery is needed, it will likely be better to do when your
child is much older.
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