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.