How to clean your child’s ears: tips for parents

From an early age, parents try to accustom the child to order, instill in him the basic rules of hygiene. By the age of three, the baby can independently wash his hands, brush his teeth and ears. And while he is still small, you have to do it for him. How to clean the child’s ears so that the process is as safe and painless as possible? Let's figure it out in order.

Does the child need to clean his ears

The fact is that the human body is largely autonomous. It can do without outside interference. The auditory system is no exception. In the human ear canal, a special lubricant is produced - sulfur. It protects the thin skin of the passage from inflammation, dirt, infections. Sulfur lubricates the eardrum and prevents it from drying out.

The human body is designed in such a way that sulfur itself is eliminated. The cartilage located on the front wall of the external auditory canal is involved. When chewing, sucking, coughing, laughing, swallowing, and talking, the cartilage moves and expels an excess of sulfur. It can be gray, yellow and greenish, depending on humidity and contact with oxygen. When sulfur is in the auricle, this is where you need to clean. That is, you need to clean only the external parts of the auditory system, but do not climb into the auditory canal.

How to clean your child’s ears

Ear cleaning is a rather delicate process that requires attention and great care. It is not recommended to clean the ears of children in the first weeks of life. Immediately after birth, the baby organs should adapt a little to the outside world, do not immediately expose them. It is best to clean the baby’s ears after two weeks of age.

1. It is best to clean your ears after bathing - the skin at this moment is soft, supple.
2. After water procedures, put the baby on the changing table, turn it on the barrel.
3. Prepare a small flagella from cotton wool - just twist a sterile piece of cotton wool in the form of a turunchka. In no case should you clean your child’s ears with a cotton swab, even with limiters. A cotton swab can only be used to cleanse the external parts of the auditory system.
4. Carefully lower the cotton flagellum into the ear and clean the auditory meatus with rotary movements.
5. The auricle can be wiped with a towel or cotton pad.
6. If you notice a piece of sulfur that cannot be reached with a flagellum, drop a drop of oil or petroleum jelly into the ear canal. A fatty substance will soften sulfur and will be easy to bring out.

It is not necessary to clean the ears of the newborn often, once a week. You can wipe the ears with a towel after each bath.

Sulfur plugs

If you have used cotton buds since the birth of a child, the crumbs may have sulfur cork - be prepared for this. The fact is that a cotton swab cleans only part of the sulfur. The rest of the stick is simply rammed, compacting it near the eardrum. This leads to the fact that the body can no longer remove this sulfur on its own. In addition, frequent cleansing leads to drying out of the skin and sulfur is produced in large quantities. All this leads to the formation of sulfur plugs.

Often, sulfur plug does not give out its presence until it closes more than half of the ear canal. The child begins to hear worse, he is worried about itching, pain or buzzing in the ears. A newborn baby can rub or scratch his ear, is naughty, cries a lot. This is especially amplified after swimming. The fact is that the sulfur cork swells after getting wet.Due to the increase in volume, this cork presses on the eardrum, which causes the baby serious inconvenience.

If you notice similar symptoms in a child, you should immediately show it to an ENT specialist. Never attempt to remove the plug yourself. If the exacerbation occurred at night, when it is difficult to get to a specialist, you can temporarily get rid of the pain in the following way. Pour warm water into the heating pad and put the baby with a sick ear on this heating pad. This will alleviate the suffering of the crumbs and help you wait for a doctor.

The doctor will evaluate the situation and decide on removing the plug. Usually the cork is washed with a syringe and a powerful jet. If the cork is soft, flushing can be done immediately. If the cork is hard and hard, it must first be softened. To do this, in each ear in the morning and evening you need to drip hydrogen peroxide or warm vegetable oil. After three days of such softening, you need to go to the doctor. He makes a weak solution of furatsilin and washes the cork with a sufficiently strong stream of water. Then you need to make sure that no pieces of sulfur are left in the ear. After that, a cotton swab is placed in the ear canal for several hours.

To avoid sulfur plugs, do not use cotton swabs to clean the ear canals. If the child is prone to the appearance of sulfur plugs, he should be shown to the doctor every six months.

Water treatments

Sometimes careless swimming can lead to unpleasant consequences. During water procedures, keep the baby's head on the surface so that water does not get into his ears. After all, the newborn baby is still so small, he can not shake his head to get rid of excess water in the ear. If moisture gets into your ear, you need to put a cotton tow in the ear for a while, which absorbs excess water. After this, the tourniquet must be removed and the ear canal closed with a cotton swab for a couple of hours so as not to catch the ears.

Of course, every mother wants to ideally meet all hygiene standards, especially when it comes to the child. However, sometimes an excessive desire for cleanliness can be harmful and even dangerous. The baby's sterile habitat can lead to serious allergic reactions in the baby. And thoroughly cleansing the ears - to inflammation and the formation of sulfur plugs. Take care of your baby from yourself - know everything to the best!

Video: how to clean the ears of a child and an adult