- Don’t pick your nose. That may have started it or will make it worse once you are bleeding.
- Don’t stop it with wadded tissues up your nose. Depending on how soft your tissue is, it could be just further scraping your nostril lining.
- Pinch your nostrils. Most nosebleeds happen near the front of your nose so firmly hold your nostrils together for five or ten minutes. Don’t rub or twist.
- Keep your house air moist. Many nosebleeds start because dry air irritates your tine blood vessels in your nasal lining and breaks them open.
- Leave the bridge of your nose alone. The blood vessels that usually bleed are not on the bridge of your nose. That just irritates the bone.
- Don’t tip your head back. That just causes the blood to run down your throat and can irritate your stomach. Instead lean slightly forward.
- Saline or Vaseline® may help. If you regularly spray some saline into your nose when it feels dry or gently apply a bit of petroleum jelly, you can avoid drying out the lining of your nose.
- Don’t put pressure on your neck or apply cold to your nose. Some say their grandma told them to put a cold compress on their nose or pressure the back of their neck. Doesn’t really help. Sorry, grandma.
- Use nasal decongestant if need to stop the bleeding. If your nose hasn’t stopped bleeding after 10 minutes, applying nasal decongestant may help because it restricts the blood vessels.
- If bleeding still won’t stop, get help. A nosebleed that exceeds 20 or 30 minutes needs a doctor or emergency room care. Or if the bleeding is so heavy, you feel dizzy then you’ve lost too much blood.
