What causes excessive earwax in children? What causes excessive earwax in children?

Is there something wrong with children's body if they have too much earwax? Today I will tell you what to do if children have too much earwax. Parents who want to know more about the problem of children's excessive earwax can refer to the detailed introduction below. Do not remove earwax by yourself.

What causes excessive earwax in children?

1. The ears have a self-cleaning function. After a certain period of time, earwax will flow to the outer ear by itself. Then you can use a cotton swab or soft gauze dipped in water to clean it out.

2. Earwax is a protective barrier for baby's ears. For example, when a baby spits up milk, sometimes while lying down, or chokes on milk, it will flow into the ear. If it flows in from the outside, it will be blocked by earwax, while if it chokes in from the inside, earwax will absorb part of it and prevent the milk from flowing into the inner ear, thus preventing otitis media.

What causes excessive earwax in children?

The cerumen glands of newborn babies secrete more vigorously, and the external auditory canal is relatively narrow and long, the muscles are relatively loose, and the joint strength is not enough when chewing. Usually, earwax is not easy to be discharged, and darker, yellow-brown, and very sticky oily substances are often formed in the external auditory canal, commonly known as "oily earwax". This is a normal phenomenon. Mothers can use cotton swabs dipped in water to gently wipe the baby's external auditory canal to remove earwax.

If the earwax is secreted too much and condenses into hard lumps, it will cause the external auditory canal to be blocked. At this time, once water enters the ear, the earwax plug will naturally expand, irritate the ear canal skin, and easily cause external auditory canal inflammation. In this case, the baby's earwax should be thoroughly cleaned. However, because the baby's ear canal is narrow and the skin is delicate, if the adult cleaning method is used, it is easy to cause damage to the baby's ear canal and eardrum. At the same time, most babies do not accept others doing too much in their ears. They will twist their heads randomly, or simply refuse to cooperate or even cry, which will also cause the mother to accidentally injure the baby's eardrum. Therefore, it is best to take the baby to the hospital and ask the ENT doctor to help deal with it. Do not force the baby to dig earwax at home.

Do children need to remove too much earwax?

Earwax is medically called cerumen, also known as earwax. It is a sticky substance secreted by the cerumen glands in the subcutaneous tissue of the external auditory canal. It can keep the ear canal lubricated and maintain a certain humidity. In the external auditory canal, cerumen can adhere to and block dust, shed cells produced by local skin metabolism, flying insects and other foreign objects together with the ear hair growing in the external auditory canal, playing a role in protecting the external auditory canal and the eardrum. There is a thin layer of light yellow cerumen attached to the normal external auditory canal. Under normal circumstances, as long as the child's ears do not hurt or itch and the hearing is good, the cerumen does not need to be removed manually. When talking, eating or sneezing, with the movement of the lower jaw, the flaky cerumen in the ear canal will slowly loosen and fall off, and be discharged unconsciously. A few children have vigorous cerumen gland secretion, their external auditory canals are relatively narrow and long, their muscles are relatively loose, and their jaw joints are not strong enough when chewing things, so cerumen is not easy to be removed at ordinary times; if you often use fingers with bacteria to pick your ears, it will damage the skin of the external auditory canal and cause inflammation, and the cerumen will increase, gather with external dust, form larger clumps, and even harden, forming brown cerumen plugs, which are tightly blocked in the ear canal. Cerumen plugs will compress the tympanic membrane, causing ear pain, tinnitus and even dizziness. Once water is poured into the ear canal during bathing or washing hair, the cerumen plug will be softened and enlarged, aggravating the blockage and causing inflammation of the external auditory canal and tympanic membrane. In order to remove more cerumen in the ears of children, some parents often use hairpins, toothpicks, matchsticks, ear spoons, etc. to pick the cerumen in the ears of their children, which is harmful to health.

1. It is easy to damage the skin of the external auditory canal, causing inflammation or furunculosis of the external auditory canal in children.

2. Frequent stimulation of the skin of the external auditory canal causes blood stasis, which in turn increases earwax secretion.

3. If the ears are dug too deep, and the child does not cooperate, struggles or stimulates the external auditory canal to trigger a cough reflex, the eardrum may be injured, causing chronic inflammation; or the eardrum may be perforated, causing otitis media. It can be seen from this that if a child has a lot of earwax, parents must be cautious and wipe it gently when digging the earwax in the ears; if it is difficult to remove the earwax, under the guidance of a doctor, a few drops of sesame oil or general ear drops should be dropped into the ear, and then the hospital's ENT doctor can directly remove it with the help of a forehead mirror and an otoscope. If there is often a lot of earwax, you can go to the hospital regularly to remove it as appropriate. Usually, pay attention to keeping the external auditory canal dry to avoid earwax embolism and cause local infection. Children with particularly much earwax are often accompanied by external ear canal inflammation, and should consult a doctor in time.