What This Mom Thought Was A Cold Was Not Even Close

A 5-year-old had a safety pin stuck up her nose for 6 months

File under, this happened. A mother was going crazy trying to figure out why her 5-year-old was having cold symptoms for months: her nose would not stop running. Katelyn Powell took her daughter Khloe to three different doctors, and ear, nose and throat specialist, and a dentist trying to figure out what was going on.

Most of them believed Khloe was just suffering from a sinus infection, but antibiotics did not relieve any of her symptoms. Powell was at a loss. She told ABC News nothing was helping her daughter’s constant “green runny nose” that “smelled horrific.”

This weekend, Khloe’s mystery illness was finally solved, when she blew her nose really hard and a 1.5 inch safety pin flew out.

Nightmare fuel.

Is there a parent out there who isn’t terrified of this scenario? My daughter went through a brief stretch of shoving everything she could get her hands on up her nose. It was horrifying. Once she sneezed and three different crayon tips came flying out. So to those who think this scenario is impossible or some kind of parenting fail — no. This thing — while horrific — could happen to anyone.

Powell says her daughter acted clueless at first, but finally admitted she stumbled upon a small bag of safety pins a few months earlier and tried to see how far she could get the pins up her nose. Because, kids.

“She said she was pulling it out and back in and out, and I was just like, how did I not notice her doing this?” Powell said. She doesn’t blame the doctors for not catching the pin, either. It’s kind of nice to hear a story where there is no outrage. Just a mom admitting her kid did a kid thing and she’s relieved they figured out what it was. This is the internet, however. People have not been kind.

“I never thought I’d be sitting in my room crying over the terrible things people have said about both me and Khloe but I am and it sucks,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “I’m human and it is effecting me even though I wish it wasn’t.” The Perfect Parents™ always show up to wonder how in the hell something like this can ever happen? Please. So many weird things happen with kids constantly. There are definitely way more parents who are telling their own weird stories about their kid shoving something up their nose than there are actually judging this woman.

This could happen to anyone, mom (though it’s admittedly weird!) Don’t let the Perfect Parents™ get you down.