by Leigh Sanders

Created on: January 13, 2010

As parents, we all want to take the best care of our children as we can. We want to make sure that they are safe, warm, fed, and clean as often as we can make it so. Sometimes, though we certainly mean well, we go overboard. Being too worried about safety can cause us to prevent our children from experiencing some of life’s wonders. Wrapping our baby up in fifteen layers (think the younger brother in “A Christmas Story”) can definitely make things difficult when he/she has to go to the bathroom. We are all painfully aware of the life-long consequences of teaching our children to overeat when they are young. Even being too strict in our cleaning regimen can cause our precious little one damage. In the case of their ears, improper care can lead to discomfort, pain, and even permanent damage to the middle ear.

Most parents know that it’s not wise to use a q-tip in their infant’s ear, as they are just too small and it’s too easy to hurt their baby. However, not all parents are aware of the potential risks involved with other cleaning methods. For instance, with a suction bulb, improperly squeezing the bulb can lead to too much negative or positive pressure in the baby’s ear. That alone causes pain, and makes your child uncomfortable. When the baby is squirming in your lap, it’s entirely too easy to jab their inner ear with the tube of the suction bulb, causing more pain. Also, improper use of the bulb can damage the middle ear, resulting in hearing loss that may not be able to be recovered.

Frankly, the safest, easiest, and most painless way to clean an infant’s ears is to simply use a baby wipe or a wet wash cloth. These cloths are made to be tucked in to the little nooks and crannies of Baby’s outer ear and the folds just inside the outer ear, and a corner can be twisted just a little to make it perfect for cleaning right inside the ear canal. Some parents may worry that this method will not remove all of the ear wax from their child’s ear, but that’s all right. In fact, it’s a good thing!

Ear wax is a perfectly natural and essential secretion of our body. The purpose of the sticky stuff is to coat and protect our ears. The wax relieves discomfort from itching by coating the inside of the ear canal, and is sticky in order to stop some foreign objects from making it too far in to the middle ear. Really, the problems start when you get a build-up of ear wax in the ear. Such a build up can cause disruption in our hearing, and uncomfortable popping and shifting of the wax when we change altitudes or move around suddenly. So, not getting all of the ear wax out of Baby’s ear is just fine!

Helpful sources:

www.parenthood.com/article-topics/how_to_safely_clea n_your_babys_ears.html

www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/otitism.asp

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