Nosiboo nasal aspirator review - My Mills BabyMy Mills Baby

When children get ill, especially younger children, it’s hellish. I can handle bad nappies and sickness, but runny noses make me feel physically ill. I dole out tissues but the kids just end up smearing it across their cheeks. It’s that or over-ambitious wiping gives them sore chaffed noses that sends them into hiding at the sight of a Kleenex box. Worse still, a nasty cold will inevitably result in a phlegmy cough that keeps them up at night. The whole thing leaves parents stressed and tired, and children sluggish.

I’ve written recently about using aromatherapy to combat coughs and colds, but it’s not enough on its own. You need to get rid of the ugly stuff to ease your little ones suffering. Yet this is easier send than done when your child is yet to master nose-blowing. This is where we’ve traditionally turned to nasal aspirators - those sucky tube things that draw out snot into a chamber. I’ve written about these too, and how they send my children into blind panic.

So what if there was a nasal aspirator that was child-friendly, less labour intensive, and left parents hands-free to calm and reassure anxious little ones? … Get ready to want one of these then…

The Nosiboo Nasal Aspirator

When I was originally contacted about the Nosiboo nasal aspirator, I was dealing with a poorly Dexter with a seriously sore nose. A constantly streaming nose for 2 weeks had left the skin on his nose and upper lip red and angry-looking. I therefore jumped all over this email to get my hands on one. I was willing to try anything that might help.

That said, I wasn’t expecting this bit of kit to be so amazing. For me, it revolutionises how parents will deal with coughs and colds, and I’d go so far as to call it a must-have for any parent. I’m not the only one to recognise this either, as this bad boy is picking up award after award from industry experts, it’s even scooped up a much coveted Red Dot Design Award & German Design Award Special Mention.

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Why use a nasal aspirator?

Nasal aspirators are more essential than you might think. Infants cannot breathe through their mouths so clogged noses can result in insufficient oxygen-supply. This will affect everything - their ability to feed, sleep or simply use a pacifier. Furthermore, if mucus is left to stagnate, it can result in more severe illnesses such as chest infections and ear infections. With children catching colds up to 6 times a year, continual infections off the back of this can mean lots of trips to your GP, and children developing an immunity to prescribed medication. It’s a vicious cycle.

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Getting technical for a moment, simply blowing the nose is insufficient because of the anatomy of the maxillary sinuses and the enlarged adenoid (caused by teeth-growth). Worse news still, the auditory tube of children is much shorter and steeper than that of an adult, so unchecked nasal mucus can get into the middle ear without hindrance.

In short, not using an aspirator can mean a cold quickly escalates into something far nastier. Removing mucus from the lower nasal cavities and the ethmoidal cells means that you can accelerate the healing process, reduce the threat of infection and prevent medication.

So what makes the Nosiboo aspirator so ingenious?

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In it’s crudest sense, the Nosiboo is a electric nasal aspirator that aims to remove stagnating nasal mucus effortlessly, quickly and effectively. The suction can be adjusted to suit the age / sensitivities of your child, and operates at the maximum recommended suction, ensuring you are not damaging the delicate capillaries in your baby’s / child’s nose or irritating the nasal membrane. It’s clever Colibri head, means that any secretion is pulled into a chamber for ease of disposing and cleaning.

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Traditional suction aspirators involve a parent physically sucking on a tube to perform this operation. Not only will your child not thank you for it, there’s the additional danger of sucking too hard and aggravating the nose. Furthermore, if your children, like mine, hate the aspirator, they’ll also struggle against you and thrash their heads from side to side - given the aspirator is inserted close to the nasal cavity, this can mean it is thrust into the nose where it could cause untold harm.

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The beauty of the Nosiboo is that you don’t have to loom over your child and can sit beside them whilst it does its thing. It also won’t suck so hard as to cause any discomfort. Toddlers can also guide the head themselves so they feel in better control of the process.

The machine isn’t noisy or scary-looking either. In fact it’s reassuringly quiet and attractive, with handles for ease of transporting around your home. It’s not heavy either (although the dimensions are a little cumbersome) so is fine for air travel. The actual head bit is made from soft almost flexible silicone so it won’t further irritate chapped and sore skin. It’s also a cinch to clean as you can detach it from the tube and simply soak in a hot water solution.

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To summarise, I’m seriously impressed. Treating and reassuring the kids during cold and flu season used to see me pulling 24 hour shifts with them glued to my side, but now I can simply whip out the Nosiboo, purge the snot, and they can go about their day. Rather than sticking around for weeks, minor colds are shifted in a matter of days, with no sore or ugly red noses. Better still, setting Nosiboo to work before bedtime allows them (and us) to achieve a more restful sleep.

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At £115 from Amazon, it’s not cheap - especially when you consider an off-the-shelf self-suck version will set you back a fiver. However, for allergy-prone children the Nosiboo is just too good not to invest in one. My children are nursery and toddler-group age so are forever coming into contact with poorly children and insufficiently disinfected toys - they get colds some 10 times a year so the Nosiboo is likely to be used monthly. You can’t put a price on a good night’s sleep and happy healthy children, so the Nosiboo is definitely worth its weight in gold.