Blowing Toddlers nose..... help!

Hi, sounds silly but can't get my 3.5 year old to blow her nose. She doesn't seem to grasp the concept and keeps sucking in when I ask.. even at that she doesn't do that well. Any tips, ideas, tricks? She has bad cold right now and would be a relief to her I think.....

My 2.5 year old can do it with no problems but not sure it was something I taught her.......

I really hope someone has a good suggestion here.  My 2.5 yo, almost 3 yo, step daughter has the same problem!  I have no other children, so I don't have any other experience.  Every time I try to get her to blow her nose, she blows through her mouth! Funny, yes, but like you, she's had a runny nose for a couple of days and I think she'd be very relieved!

I don't know what you've already tried; my kid did the same sniffing in thing until I taught her how to blow "snotrockets." It sounds foul, but I showed her how I could block one nostril & blow a "rocket" into the tissue. She caught on like, immediately. She was really, really into blowing her nose for a while after that. I dunno, maybe your kids will like blowing rockets too.

If you think about it, it's a really tough thing to learn!

I teach preschool and one of the things I tell the kids is to pretend that they are blowing out their birthday candles with their nose. She probably won't do it hard enough, but once she grasps the concept, you can tell her to blow harder.

Hope that helps.

My oldest son who is 8 learned how to blow his nose about 2 years ago.  The dr said that children usually learn to blow their noses around 10 or so because they can't grasp the concept.  On the other hand I enrolled my children in swimming 2 years ago and they taught them how to blow bubbles in the water with their noses and this is what helped my oldest.  I have 2 others sons and the youngest is 2 and he knows how to do it.  I guess what I am suggesting is to get a large bowl maybe even a rice pot and fill it up with water.  Put an object that can float in it and make it a game and see if she can blow the object around the bowl or pot.  What they used in the pool was a small rubber ducky. Hope that helps..

I'm sorry I don't have an answer. I just wanted to say that my son will be 2(on the 27th of this month) and he blows his nose great. All I do it put the kleenex up and say "blow" and he does. He even tries to do it himself but not very successfully. haha.

I hope you figure out what to do. Good luck!!!

How about making a game out of it?  Put a tissue on the table and have her blow it across the table by blowing air out of her nostrils and then take a tissue, put it on her nose (to go and blow it) and tell her if she can try to blow it off.  Also, if you don't do so already, blow your nose in front of her into a tissue.  The snot rockets and birthday candle suggestions are also great ideas!  Once she is successful at blowing her nose make a REALLY BIG deal about it with lots of praise and encouragement and she'll get the idea.

Good luck!

All great ideas...... thanks everyone. She is improving!

All great ideas ladies, i can't wait to try them either. My 3 year old has a hard time i will try the snot rockets....

You can also try having her blow cotton balls around on the counter with her nose.  You can make a game out of it by trying to have her blow them into a cup or something.  Also you can put a small mirror under her nose and have her make it "steam up".  Just a couple ideas...