How old is a child? It is generally not recommended to clean his ears.

Ear picking is a very common phenomenon. So, at what age can a child pick his ears?

How old can a child clean his ears?

It is generally not recommended to

Generally speaking, as long as the child's ears do not hurt or itch and the hearing is good, earwax does not need to be removed manually. And earwax has its certain role. On the one hand, it is used to protect the eardrum. In fact, the eardrum is very thin, not to mention the baby's eardrum. The earwax covering it becomes a natural "protective membrane" that can help block strong sound impact. In addition, the baby's earwax and fine hair can also absorb microorganisms and dust that enter the ear canal from the air, which prevents the eardrum from bacterial infection. Another point is that everyone has the experience of small flies harassing the ears. Earwax tastes bitter and is oily, so earwax can resist small flies from flying into the baby's ears! Let the insects be afraid of earwax. Therefore, earwax is also a treasure to a certain extent, which protects the baby's auditory organs, so mothers don't have to worry about the baby's earwax.

How to clean baby's earwax

You may ask, is there no adverse effect if there is too much earwax accumulation? The answer is of course no. If there is too much earwax accumulation in the baby's ear, the earwax becomes dry, or even fills the ear canal, and it cannot be discharged by itself, it is entirely possible to bring negative effects, such as impeding hearing, causing partial deafness, or inducing infection and tinnitus due to ear blockage. At this time, you can try the following methods:

The first step is to put 1-2 drops of ear drops into your baby before he goes to sleep. When putting the drops, you should let your baby lie on the bed or hold him on your knees, with his head turned sideways, with the healthy ear at the bottom and the diseased ear at the top. After the drops are put in, let the child maintain this position for 2 minutes to fully dilute the earwax.

The second step is to put an earplug made of a sterilized cotton ball in the baby's diseased ear. Take out the earplug the next day, and the earwax may stick to it and be removed from the ear canal.

If the above methods do not work, you should go to the hospital to seek help from a doctor. The doctor will wear an otoscope to "reconnoitre" the baby's ears, estimate the amount of earwax and the degree of blockage in the ear canal, and then use a syringe to inject warm water into the baby's ear to flush out the earwax. The whole flushing process may make the baby feel a little uncomfortable, but it will not make the baby feel pain, nor will it hurt the baby's ear canal and eardrum, so it is very safe.

Many parents think that baby's earwax is harmful to the baby, so they often use tools such as toothpicks, cotton swabs, ear spoons, etc. to remove the baby's earwax, and they must remove it until it is clean. You may think that there is nothing wrong with this. But do you know that frequently removing earwax from your baby is harmful to the baby's health!

The dangers of cleaning children's ears

Many parents believe that children’s ears should be cleaned in time, otherwise it will easily affect their hearing. But in fact, this practice is extremely inappropriate. If you are not careful, it is likely to cause infection in the child’s ears, and even lead to a series of ear diseases. In fact, earwax has a certain protective effect on the ears. It can prevent the skin from drying out and dust from sticking to it. It is good for preventing infection. It can also help our ears to be waterproof. And under normal circumstances, earwax will be discharged automatically, so parents do not need to deliberately clean their children’s ears.

Moreover, since the child's eardrum is relatively thin and not fully developed, if the ears are cleaned frequently, it is easy to accidentally cause certain damage to the external auditory canal, which can easily cause swelling and inflammation. Once this phenomenon occurs, it will directly affect the child's hearing. Many parents will use some unsterilized ear cleaning tools to clean the ear canal for their children, which is extremely unhygienic for the children's ears. You must pay special attention to the tools for ear cleaning, and do not just choose some hard objects to clean your child's ears. Experts show that a large part of the reasons for children's ear infections and hearing loss are caused by ear cleaning, so parents must pay special attention.

Therefore, it is recommended that parents do not clean their children's ears privately on weekdays. If you want to clean your child's ear canal, you can gently wipe the child's ear canal with a towel while washing your face. Therefore, parents must pay more attention on weekdays and never clean their children's ears frequently without permission.

How do we deal with excessive earwax?

There are generally two situations:

1. Earwax becomes dry and becomes flakes and crumbs under the action of air after being secreted. In this case, the child can excrete it by himself through normal chewing, opening the mouth and other movements. In this case, we only need to observe it at any time.

2. If you find that too much earwax has accumulated in the ear, affecting the child's hearing and forming a hard lump (commonly known as beef jerky) plug, it needs to be treated.