Ear Wax

[human bean]

Do you clean your child's ears/have them cleaned if there is a build up of wax?

I haven't ever cleaned DD's as I've always thought they were self cleaning and my GP has always backed this up. The thought of doing damage is just a little too scary for me to even think about attempting it, and as far as I'm aware that's the general recommendation anyways. DD does have a problem with recurring ear infections and has had glue ear in the past, however her speech is developing normally. Never have they suggested either having them cleaned by the GP or an ENT, or us doing it ourselves.

On the weekend DD was quite sick and hospitalised, and both the ED doc and the Pediatrician on the ward commented that her ears were full of wax and they couldn't see her ear canal. Neither said anything more, but I do think there were much bigger issues for them to worry about so it was quickly forgotten. My brain was pretty frazzled at the time too so I didn't think to ask about it after.

Now I've had time to think I'm wondering if maybe once DD is fully well again I should check with my GP if they need to be cleaned? What does everyone else do with waxy ears?

[Rouge]

We get DS to lay down in the bath for a bit (with his ears under water) every so often to help melt away the wax. He used to have absolutely HORRENDOUS wax problems but now this trick (which was told to me by my gf) is keeping it at bay.

[LimeSlice]

Once a year or so I will syringe my own ears with warm water. Quite scary how much stuff actually comes out of them!! lol *eeew*

But I have never cleaned the girls' ears, despite them being "full of wax" on several doctor's visits...Nobody has ever suggested it either.

[Trillian]

My girls get a shocking build up of ear wax so I need to make sure I keep on top of it and syringe them once every two months or so, sometimes more if they need it. I don't believe that ears are self cleaning in all people. My boys hardly ever have ear wax, but if I left the girls ears to self clean they'd end up with a candle in there LOL!

[EsJay]

We just went through some issues with DD1 having incredible amoiunts of ear wax & recurring ear issues which could never be fully diagnosed as noone could see her ear drum. An ent gave me a prescription for some drops to dissolve the wax so she could see the problem which left me with horrendous amoubts of ear wax coming out of her. Anyway she ended up gettibg grommets, despite all my efforts the build up was too much & had gone hard whi h was causing her pain & ear infections. The ent said ears are meant to be left alone but when you can see the wax just glimpsing in the general ear area u really should remove the outer excess & keep an eye on it. HTH

I like the water idea though, if i could get DD to do that i thibk thatd solve some of our problems

[Arcadia]

I do remove what I can see (ie it's running out if the ear) but only in dd. My theory is the oily skin people have more ear wax, because dh and dd have heaps and I have never really had any to clean!?

[AnyDream]

I'm with Rouge on the lying down in the bath trick. You would be surprised how much can come out that way.

[Olive]

My understanding is that the more you clean/remove the wax, the more you produce.
I don't really understand ear wax and glue ear though because glue ear (fluid) is behind the drum as is infection...infection has more to do with issues in middle ear/eusation tubes.