The Cleebo Clean

My husband and I always have a lot of fun looking at our 2 kids and trying to identify the source of their physical and character traits.

Naomi has certainly inherited his sensitive nose. The slightest changes in temperature will cause her to sneeze, often 2-3 times in a row. I have also noticed that she tends to sound wheezy in the middle of the night and in have a clogged nose in the morning when she awakens. As a result of this, her nose, especially in the early days, seemed permanently dirty. It was really amazing how a bitty baby could produce adult-sized boogers!

I agonised over how to remove the dried mucus in her nose, but because her nostrils are so tiny, I really couldn't do much except to wait for the bits to move nearer the entrance of her nose and then use either a cotton bud or sometimes, yes, a fingernail to pull it out. Neither was ideal but I really didn't know what else to use. I had gone to buy one of those suction-type nasal aspirators but found that it wasn't effective for removing dried mucus. I never had this issue previously as Noey's nose has always been rather clean.

So when the good folks at Sophie & Friends approached me to review the Cleebo a nose cleaning device specifically designed to removed dried mucus from babies noses, I immediately agreed.

The Cleebo, in its compact case

Cleebo is the brainchild of actual parents who, when faced with the difficulty of removing dried from their baby's nose, conceived and developed the product in conjunction with a paediatrician as a hygienic, safe and easy-to-use solution to their problem. Essentially a pair of ABS plastic tweezers with soft tips made from medical-grade silicone, it is, as cited by the product description, "designed to allow Mum (or Dad) to grip hold and remove dried secretions more safely than the other options to which parents often resort". I was quite excited to try it.

Each set comes with 5 different coloured interchangeable tips, and the bright colours immediately attracted Noey's attention as soon as I opened the packaging.

"Pink for Mei-Mei and Black for Noey. Black is my FAVOURITE!" he declared, while trying to convince me to just hand over the box already. He quite happily tried to assemble his preferred combination, and to my great surprise, was quite willing to offer up his own nose when I wanted to test it out. For my wary, ticklish son, this is quite unheard of.

Fiddling with the tips. Good training of fine motor skills?

To prove that it was not a fluke, when I whipped it out a couple of days later when I spotted some dried mucus, he willingly let me try it again.

On my part, it was relatively easy to use. There were 3 recommended options for use:

• Option 1: Use as conventional tweezers
  
• Option 2: Close both tips together & use with a dragging action, similar to using a cotton bud
  
• Option 3: Pull tweezers wide apart and use one side only as noted in ‘Option 2’ above.

With Noey, I used the straight-forward Option 1. My conclusion is that with a wriggly toddler, you have to be quick and it helps to be dexterous and have good hand-eye coordination! Still, I am glad to say that the Cleebo did its job. I particularly liked the fact that the tips had "wings" which prevent them from being inserted too far into the nose the way some other implement, like cotton buds, can. I therefore didn't have to worry that I was inserting the Cleebo too far up Noey's nose.

He still picked black. Maybe it is his favourite after all!

As for Naomi, because of her tiny nostrils, I decided to try Option 3. I was a little afraid of getting into her nose, but fortunately, the silicone tips are soft enough that it didn't seem to bother her much. Of course, I did wait till Naomi was in a good mood before trying! Easy-peasy and hooray, a clean nose, finally!

NOT her best angle.

After we were done, I popped off the tips and got them cleaned for the next use. I ran these through regular soap and water, but the tips can also be cleaned in a dishwasher and sterilised in a bottle steriliser if you so choose. I guess the Cleebo is staying in our stash of kiddy cleaning implements! I don't have a Cleebo to give away but Corsage does! If you want one, click on over here to enter her giveaway. You can also buy it online at Sophie & Friends.