For All The Ladies In The House - Mouth to Nose for Little Bao Bao

Lantian
September 10, 2007, 04:59 PM posted in General Discussion

SNOTTY KIDS - Okay, I wonder if talking about really weird stuff is a good indicator of one's level of Chinese. Tonight I'm not sure if I should be proud or shocked about my conversation. 

Somehow or another the conversation got around to this little bit of trivia. In China, it's quite common that when a little baby gets a cold and the sniffles in their nose, mom will help clear it out. How you ask? A little tissue? Nope.

 A little bit of mom's mouth-to-baby's nose extraction. A mother's love they say.

Now my first reaction was shock, and a searching of my mental lexicon for the Chinese words for eye-dropper, plunger, heck I wasn't even sure what to call the little dohicky thing in English! I asserted this was how it was done in the good ol'USA. I drew pictures.

Upon reflection, however, it did seem a very practical kind of a thing. So then I thought, maybe I'm just a stupid guy and don't know anything. Don't answer that.

So my question to the ladies is, how do you get the snot out of little luv'bumpkin's nose anyhow? And maybe some dad's know too.

And Amber, Jenny, Connie, XiaXao, Aggie, I want opinions. Was someone just pulling my leg!???!! 

(I bet this post does wonders for my depressed rankings, and it blasts the heck out of Jenny's bit of fascination with all things in the commode) 

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bazza
September 10, 2007, 05:14 PM

我想吐。 :P

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scottyb
September 12, 2007, 07:55 PM

Lantian, 真是丢脸

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man2toe
September 10, 2007, 09:01 PM

What an ingenious way of doing it! Think I will try it the next time the child has a cold.:) or maybe not:)

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azerdocmom
September 10, 2007, 10:42 PM

eeeee....ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

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amber
September 11, 2007, 12:34 AM

yes...eeeeeeeeew! ok, this is definitely going to be on Dear Amber this week... if i don't throw up.

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henning
September 11, 2007, 12:38 AM

Never seen that. Long fingernails are the instrument of choice for lobotomy or related surgical procedures.

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MexicoBob
September 11, 2007, 01:12 AM

Lantian, You may already know this but for those that don't or hadn't thought about it, where do you think that kissing came from? It sprang by imitation from mothers feeding their children by chewing their food and then giving it to their children mouth to mouth. This is still done to this very day in some primitive cultures. In regards to snotty noses, Mom's little finger or a Q-tip are your modern day best bet. I'm sure that a lot of people will also remember their Mom smearing Vicks Vapo-Rub on their chest to help reduce the mucous in their nose when they went to sleep. Remember how cold it felt? Sniff, sniff...I really miss my Mom :(

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tvan
September 11, 2007, 01:43 AM

Never seen or heard of that. Sounds like one of those Calveras jumping frog stories...

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wildyaks
September 11, 2007, 02:14 AM

Mexico Bob, ..."in some primitive cultures". I take issue with your choice of words here. I live among a very civilized people group these days and they do exactly that - feeding their children by chewing their food and then giving it mouth to mouth. However, the nose cleaning thing... no way! Never seen it done that way in any of the many places I traveled to over the years

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TaiPan
September 11, 2007, 03:07 AM

Are the mom's inhaling or exhaling? sucking it in or blowing it back?

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trevelyan
September 10, 2007, 05:39 PM

you should be shocked Lantian, shocked. I think we all are....

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Lantian
September 11, 2007, 08:50 AM

我真想听别的中国人的想法。过来写你的评论吧!

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scottyb
September 11, 2007, 11:26 AM

再见早饭。 现在我的奴儿感冒。 我觉得我不干哪。

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Lantian
September 11, 2007, 11:35 AM

我跟她们聊聊的时候,我问了她们爸爸做还是不做,她们说男人肯定不会做,是母爱的事。 :)

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tvan
September 11, 2007, 12:25 PM

In that case, glad I'm a dad!!!

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Kyle
September 11, 2007, 12:59 PM

A buddy of mine was traveling in a very remote part of SE Asia a couple years ago and came across the same thing. Essentially, at the time removing the mucus from the child's nose was a matter of life or death. Now, think back 100 years ago before modern medicine, people did the same thing for 2 reasons: a) because if was effective, b) they didn't know of a better method. Today we have lots of gismos and machines to do all of that "gross" stuff for us, so, especially in the West, we don't come across these types of "procedures" really at all. However, in places where medicine is not so developed, or convenient, these more "primitive" techniques are more widely used.

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scottyb
September 11, 2007, 01:42 PM

Lantian, 我要告诉我的太太他的事, 但是我觉得他也不喜欢。

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wei1xiao4
September 11, 2007, 02:58 PM

See how much culture we learn on Chinesepod! Mothers will do anything to keep their children from suffering.

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Lantian
September 11, 2007, 06:38 PM

Scottyb, I hope your wife is 她 and not 他, otherwise I might have to revisit that "That's Pat" lesson. :p Hi Kyle, Actually, I don't know if the "western" approach is any better. Upon reflection, it seems a pretty practical approach and I don't see any real downsides to it. I guess I can count you as one vote for "no way" though. :)

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azerdocmom
September 11, 2007, 03:55 AM

Taipan DOUBLE eeewwwwww!