MetaChat - When a child has a cold

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17 February 2006

When a child has a cold and is having difficulty breathing through the nose, the WIVA-VAC can help. First, attach the WIVA-VAC to the vacuum cleaner and turn it on. Then, simply hold the child firmly, with one hand around the child’s waist and the other on the WIVA-VAC....→[More:]
Unlike the moppets of Hungary, however, my kid gets really edgy when the vacuum turns on. I'm afraid if I headed toward her face with it, she would have a complete meltdown. [via]

post by: danostuporstar at: 09:11 | 17 comments

The WIVA-VAC nasal aspirator is approved only to be used on the nose.

posted by kmellis 17 February | 09:15

They should market it as The Sucky Sucky Machine.

posted by iconomy 17 February | 09:18

kmellis, yeah that's too bad. I was gonna suggest it to Hugh.

posted by danostuporstar 17 February | 09:23

I'm sure I could find something to do with it.

posted by Hugh Janus 17 February | 09:29

And whatever the hell you do, don't confuse it with this.

posted by essexjan 17 February | 09:30

That's better than the one I saw in the store where you stick one tube up the child's nose and then you suck from another tube.

posted by furtive 17 February | 09:30

It is true though - you have to deal with endless supplies of snot when you have little kids. It's pretty disgusting. We used one of these, which we always referred to as The Snoggerizer 2000. When the kids got older they would ask what happened to The Snoggerizer 1000, to which we would reply "You don't want to know".

(mainly because we couldn't think of anything clever to say)

posted by iconomy 17 February | 09:42

I would use those on my babies, iconomy, but not when they got as old as the kids on the wiva-vac site. The day they get old enough to blow their own nose is majoy holiday in our house.

posted by danostuporstar 17 February | 09:57

Yeah, dano. My kid learned to blow at a precociously early age. It was the source of much pride and bragging.

Perhaps that explains why she likes this game so much.

posted by jrossi4r 17 February | 09:59

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by brainwidth 17 February | 10:00

Heh, I've never seen that game, rossi. It's not scientifically valid, of course. Your eyes don't really pop out when you sneeze. (requires scrolling)

posted by danostuporstar 17 February | 10:17

Well of course not, dano. When we want to be sticklers for scientific accuracy, we break out Operation. (But the HIPAA privacy regs now make it impossible to keep score.)

posted by jrossi4r 17 February | 10:27

"Your eyes don't really pop out when you sneeze."

Actually, I've noticed lately that, being constantly congested, when I blow my nose it creates that shiny/dark spot at the upper-left hand corner of my vision in my left eye (which actually is pressure on the bottom-right next to the bridge of my nose). This didn't use to happen. It worries me.

posted by kmellis 17 February | 10:58

When I was your age we mouth pipettes clogged nasal passages - and we liked it!

posted by porpoise 17 February | 12:54

Ewww, one of the major reasons to NOT have children.

braindwidth: thanks for the new desktop!

posted by deborah 17 February | 14:33

A know a mother who would just suck the snot out by putting her mouth over her kid's nose. She would also bite the kid's nails to keep them short. Personally I like to keep my mouth away from my children's bodily detritus. I'm not fond of thinking of my vacuum cleaner bag being full of snot, either.

posted by tracicle 17 February | 14:37

Eww, tracicle!

You know how one can do the "toothpick test" to see if a cake is cooked? If it comes out clean, it's done. Well my wife actually does a "finger test" to see if a diaper needs changing. I'm pretty sure it's legal grounds for divorce in 35 states.

posted by danostuporstar 17 February | 14:53

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