I'm sure that most parents had this happen to them.

I can't answer your question as to WHY they do it, just something little kids do, I guess. My son, when he first started crawling, would put his mouth to the floor and stick his tongue on it. Every room in my house had a different kind of flooring. I guess he was just exploring the different textures. And, yes, he did stick things up his nose. One day, I gave him some sixlets(little chocolate candies), which he popped in his mouth. No big deal, they are small and he was big enough that I didn't worry about him choking on them. A little while later, I looked at him, and he had blood running down his nose. I asked if he hurt himself. He said no, I wiped the blood away, and we went on with what we were doing. It just kept bleeding. He kept snorting, like he got a bug up his nose or something. It dawned on me that it was not blood, but the color coating on the candy. He had gotten one in his nose when he popped it in his mouth. I tried to get him to blow his nose to get it out. He kept sniffing it further up because he had not learned to blow, yet. I could feel the candy from the outside of his nose, so, I just kind of pushed it down until it was far enough that I could get it out with a tissue. He thought it was pretty funny. I thought I was going to have to take him to the dr. to get a stupid piece of candy out of his nose!

Oh, Honey!! I can't explain why they do this, but I can share a story or two. When my nephew was about 2 he developed a runny nose. The next day, what was running clear the day before, became a faint orange. By the time my mom-in-law got home from work that evening, it was very orange. She shined a flashlight up his nose, and low and behold, there was something up there. She took him to the ER. They pulled out a very frazzled looking pain pill(fortunately, a mild one).

When my son was about 2 1/2, he got sick, it had taken a week to develop what looked and smelled like a sinus infection. It was really bad, and remembering my nephew, I got my flashlight and took a peek. There was something in there, so I rushed him to the ER. After about 30 seconds the doc told me he had a foreign object lodged in his nasal passage. It took 4 of us to hold him still so the doc could get up his nose with these incredibly long, skinny tweezers. He pulled out an infection covered piece of sponge that wasn't much bigger than a pea. We don't know where he got it or how long it had been up there, but it took 2 weeks of antibiotics to get over what it gave him.

I think it's all part of the discovery process, but I'm sure not all kids go through it. My girls didn't get caught doing it, so I don't actually know if they tried or not.

I don't remember my son ever shoving anything up his nose. My 19 month old daughter has not tried it yet either. One of my friends when I was growing up had a baby brother that shoved a grape up his nose.

I really wish I knew .. out of 7 kids only 1 did that. I wouldnt have known it if his breath hadnt stunk so bad, smelled just awful. I made him brush his teeth over and over and his tongue and I just couldnt understand why his breath smelled like something killed over.
Took him to the doctors the next day and they had to remove a piece of styrofoam that I used to pack things for auctions. It was fused to the inside of his nostril and quite gross. They got it out finally and he had to be on antibiotics for awhile.

hi seppy I think its because they are curious about things
and decide to see what would happen if they stuck a bean in
their nose, or a straw up their ear. just be glad it was a
fairly large piece of pretzle rod and not a pea or a bean. Sometimes one needs a forceps to pull out the offending
object. My son when he was a toddler stuck a lima bean up his nose and we had to take him to the family doctor to get the
darned thing out. It had swelled up and I could not grasp it.
Thankfully he recovered without any serious effects.