The Blue Rubber Item You Get After Birth is Not a Nasal Aspirator

After a baby is born, a nurse puts a blue rubber aspirator in his bassinet. Parents commonly take this item home and use it to clean mucus from their baby’s nose. You should know, however, that this device is not a nasal aspirator. Instead, the hospital nurses use it to suck saliva or mucus out of a baby’s mouth after he spits up. The reason it should not be used in the nose is because the tip is pointy and can injure a newborn’s sensitive nasal passages. A true nasal aspirator has a blunt tip that can’t be pushed too far into a baby’s nose. The tip can also be removed so the inside can be cleaned out from time to time.