Why are baby boogers so sticky?

By Published On: October 3rd, 2016

0928160805Apparently it’s cold season here in New England even though fall just began. Either that or it’s Nolan bringing home sick treats from kindergarten and generously sharing them with everyone at home.

As for the title? That’s the first thing I used Google for today because Austin has some of the greenest, stickiest snot coming out of his nose lately. It kind of hinders his sleep as well. He loves his pacifier, but having a stuffy nose limits its usage. Because he also enjoys breathing, so he’ll spit it out mid-sleep.

 Speaking of spit, Google offered up a myriad of results, from how to decode them to what different colors might means. My search netted 970,000 results in .46 seconds. Isn’t the internet something else?

I clicked the one that was closest to my initial query. (I don’t really care about what as much as why.) Though, I did peruse the color article and am super stoked he doesn’t have gray or black snot, as that is caused by air pollution and sounds pretty awful.

It went on to describe mucus and mucin and polysaccharides and didn’t give me an answer. I get snot, I get that it’s mucus made from mucus membranes. But why?! I’ll pick one out of his nose, and it’s like Super Glue on my fingertips. How the heck does it leak so freely from his nose, yet I can’t get it off my finger?

Most people on the web results transitioned into discussing how to get the boogers out of the nose with nose suckers. I prefer to use baby wipes. I’ll dab his runny nose with a swaddle blanket he has already puked on, or use my fingers to gently squeeze it outta there before trying to remove it from my finger. I mean seriously, good luck picking and flicking this stuff. And I can’t even count the number of shirts that have snot all over them.

Does anyone have any answers? Why is baby snot so sticky?