If you want your kids to recover from their colds sooner, don’t blow their noses.
I came across a 2002 University of Virginia study that found that the more you blow your nose when you have a cold, the longer your cold will linger. Apparently when you blow your nose, the trauma causes the virus germs to travel back into the sinuses, causing inflammation.
Wiping the nose or blotting doesn’t have this effect. Who knew? Maybe this is why kids always hate it when we try to help them blow their noses and prefer sleeves or the nearest shoulder (usually mine) to wipe their noses on?
