ear wax | Imamother

amother

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 3:08 am

my 2 year old has a lot of dried earwax around the outside of her ear. I looked into the ear and there is quite a lot there too. does it need removing? it doesnt block the ear completely, it just looks awful. iis it a problem ?

amother

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 3:16 am

why would u let it build up? I always clean my kids ears with the baby qtips...it looks so dirty otherwise.

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 4:18 am

I would take him to the dr. I know sometimes they remove it (by vacuum maybe?) or they tell you to put hydrogen paraxide (sp?) or maybe even olive oil in every day and that loosens the wax.

amother

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 6:07 am

my son is almost 4 and I have never cleaned out his ears is that weird?

BeershevaBubby

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 6:13 am

Sometimes it can become impacted and cause painful pressure. It can also hide ear infections and sometimes even cause them as fluids become trapped.

amother

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 6:15 am

amother wrote:

why would u let it build up? I always clean my kids ears with the baby qtips...it looks so dirty otherwise.

OP here
I do clean it on the outside of the ear. I was just wondering if it is indicative of any sort of problem with my child's ear, that's all. I was wondering if the wax on the inside needs to be removed.

amother

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 6:17 am

tm wrote:

I would take him to the dr. I know sometimes they remove it (by vacuum maybe?) or they tell you to put hydrogen paraxide (sp?) or maybe even olive oil in every day and that loosens the wax.

thanks for your reply.
so do you think it's a problem and needs to be removed?

amother

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 6:18 am

YESHASettler wrote:

Sometimes it can become impacted and cause painful pressure. It can also hide ear infections and sometimes even cause them as fluids become trapped.

I dont think it's painful, my child doesn't complain at all and I dont think she has any more infections than the average kid, maybe two or three in the past year.

BeershevaBubby

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 6:20 am

I use this type of cotton swab for my little ones' ears:

So I can clean the inside, but not get into the canal by accident.

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 7:24 am

amother wrote:

tm wrote:

I would take him to the dr. I know sometimes they remove it (by vacuum maybe?) or they tell you to put hydrogen paraxide (sp?) or maybe even olive oil in every day and that loosens the wax.

thanks for your reply.
so do you think it's a problem and needs to be removed?

I can't give you a definite answer but if you say it's in the ear and outside it, I personally would want to make sure it's not interfering with hearing, besides for the fact that it sounds kinda gross and for aesthetic reasons would want to take care of it.

Mrs Bissli

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 8:12 am

amother wrote:

why would u let it build up? I always clean my kids ears with the baby qtips...it looks so dirty otherwise.

I was told never to put cotton swabs or any similar long object to young children's ears.

My GP recommended one drop of olive oil once in a while but it really didn't achieve anything. DD got amazing accumulation of earwax, complaining that she doesn't hear well, and I had to get her to a specialist to get it removed.

I could have tried syringing but I'm really scared to use it/no clue how to do it.

amother

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 11:04 pm

I am obsessive about my kids' ears being free of visible wax, even if it's not near the outside. Q-tips and the like just push it further in. So once I was at the Dr's office and he cleaned it out with one of these long plastic sticks with a rounded end (like a spoon, only tiny). After he was finished with it, and disposed of it on the paper table cover, I lifted it and now I use it at home when necessary. Very useful.

BeershevaBubby

Tue, Apr 28 2009, 1:59 am

amother wrote:

That's really dangerous unless you know what you're doing.

And it can't be very sanitary if you're reusing it all the time.

rydys

Wed, May 13 2009, 9:34 pm

ear wax is the body's way of protecting the eardrum. it collects all the dirt, and the ear naturally pushes it out with little hairs. It is not a good idea to remove what is in the ear as that can cause problems, including damage to the eardrum. wiping off what is on the outside is fine. The wax almost never interferes with hearing and cannot cause ear infections as those occur on the other side of the eardrum.