Cleaning Baby's Ears

[August Mom]

Okay, I've tried cleaning DS's ears with a wet washcloth, but I can't get all the wax out. How can a little guy have so much wax in his ears? Anyway, how do you all clean your little one's ears? Does anyone use a Q-Tip? How about the safety Q-Tips? I obviously don't want to injure his ears, but I want to remove the wax.

[jubilee]

Jacob had horrible problems with his ears, he had ear infection after ear infection. We probably went to the doctor's office 12 times in his first year for ear infections. It was awful: screaming baby, pulling at his ears, no sleep. Nothing was working to stop them... until the ped asked what I was doing to clean his ears. This is true confessions time... because I really felt like a horrible mother after all this. I would clean his ears out *gently* being sure not to injure him with a Q-Tip. (This was 11 years ago, so they didn't have safety Q-Tips then) He would get a wax build up daily, so I was in there daily cleaning his ears. Just like a good mom would, right? But when I told the ped, he went nuts. Apparently that's what was causing the infections! I felt so bad- here I was the cause of a year of pain to my child. He told me to pretend my child didn't have ears...I wasn't allowed to touch them. Guess what: it was the last ear infection he's ever had. Maybe the safety Q-Tips might not do that, but I'm telling you- I really thought I was gentle and being safe too. My suggestion is to ask your ped, or otherwise just pretend the wax isn't there until it's out into the outer ear, then just wipe away with a cotton ball or wash cloth.

[Karenn]

When we took Colin for his 6 month check up, I was HORRIFIED when the doctor pulled out big globs of earwax out of both of Colin's ears! Feeling like a horrible mom, I asked him how I should go about cleaning Colin's ears in the future, and he assured me that I shouldn't worry about it. He said that it wasn't a problem, and that I shouldn't do anything to clean the insides of his ears.

(BTW, the doctor used some sort of special instrument that wasn't at all like a Q-Tip to get the wax out.)


HTH,

[egoldber]

My ped told me the same thing. He said that the wax was like a natural protection from bacteria. Sticking a Qtip in there is dangerous (think wiggling baby and ear drum) also because you introduce bacteria from the Qtip!

He said to gently clean the outer ear with a wash cloth and nothing else was necessary.

HTH,

[parkersmama]

Same advice here! It's very hard for me to resist though but somehow I manage! :-)

[kathsmom]

I took my DS for his 4 month checkup and the nurse practitioner said that he had a ton of wax in his ears. I have never used anything in his ears - no Qtips, just a clean, wet washcloth on the outer part. She cleaned out his ears with a plastic instrument. She said that I should put a couple of drops of baby oil or mineral oil in his ears after his bath.

I would talk to your ped. and ask if he/she has any opinions on the subject. I just wipe out the stuff that comes to the surface in his outer ear.

Good luck!

Toni - mom to Katherine (5/19/96) and Andrew (9/23/02)