Nose-wiping at pre-school

[Anna8888]

My daughter (2.10) has just started French école maternelle (pre-school). She caught a little cold on the second day of school and her nose has been running very slightly ever since.

I sent her to school with tissues on the first day of her cold, but the school told me not to bother as they have tissues at school.

Every day when I pick my daughter up (sessions last for just under three hours) she has a very snotty nose and snot all over her face. No-one is helping her wipe her nose. Do you think this is reasonable/normal? What would you expect? Ought she be able to blow her own nose by now? (except she has hardly been ill in her life so has had no opportunity to learn).

[LizaRose]

My 4 year old still has trouble wiping his own nose. I would certainly not expect a 2 year old to do so without help.

[Smittals]

Hi Anna. It does sound like some help wouldn't go amiss. But I'm sure I read a 'nose wiping' debate on here, which said that for little children the thinking is not to wipe as it helps slow down/stop the running (yuk!). I did see a very crusty little girl on my first visit to DD's nursery which seemed unkind, but now I realise they must have done it for a reason as they are very caring about everything else.

[Anna8888]

Smittals - oh yuck

I can't abide snotty noses. Actually, I think the problem also stems from the fact that my daughter now no longer has a morning bath. She always used to have a hot steamy bath in the morning which loosened any residue, and I've hardly ever needed to wipe her nose as a result. Now she no longer has a morning bath she goes to school with all the nighttime gunk still up there, and it comes down during the morning (sorry, TMI). Any ideas about how to clean her nose without the hot steamy bath?

[nailpolish]

it only takes a second to wipe a childs nose. i think its very sad they cant even take the time to do so
id speak to them
you could give her a cotton hankie to keep up her sleeve - thats what i do with my dds but they dont always remember

[pooka]

No ideas on how to get rid of the morning gunk.
DD often comes out of pre-school with a tissue tucked up her sleeve. Am pleased that she is being given tissues, but always shudder when getting them out of her sleeve - much better to have just binned them IMO.

[Anna8888]

nailpolish - yes, my gut reaction is to find the absence of nosewiping rather negligent .

This is France, however, and expectations of when children reach developmental milestones are wildly different to the UK. I wanted to test whether my own cultural assumptions that 2 year olds still need help having their noses wiped were correct before I had a word with the school .