What does white foam coming from the nose indicate?

Posted on Fri, 14 Mar 2014

Question: My daughter told me tonight that her little girl.....1 1/2.....has had white foam coming out of her nose for two days. She is on an antibiotic for a double ear ache. Also, my daughter saw her chin 'trembling' as if she felt very cold and asked the doctor about it. She caught her on video and showed her doctor the pictures. XXXXXXX is scheduled for an EEG next week. Could they all be related?

Answered by Dr. Praveen Tayal (2 hours later)

Brief Answer: Not likely to be related. Detailed Answer: Hello, Thanks for posting your query. The white foam from the nose can be due to a blocked nose or due to the infection in the nasal cavity. A direct examination will help in detecting the cause. This is not likely to be related to the trembling of the chin that she noticed. The trembling is likely to be a fasciculation that can happen due to spontaneous discharge of a bundle of skeletal muscle fibers. This could indicate the possibility of a endocrine or a electrolyte deficiency. The treatment this is usually easy and the condition will resolve with multi vitamin supplements and electrolyte rich fruit juices. In some cases, prescription medications might be needed to stop severe symptoms. I hope this answers your query. In case you have additional questions or doubts, you can forward them to me, and I shall be glad to help you out. Wishing you good health. Regards. Dr. Praveen Tayal. For future query, you can directly approach me through my profile URL http://bit.ly/Dr-Praveen-Tayal

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar