Some of us have grown up seeing mothers stocking up on earbuds or cotton swabs to regularly clean their children’s ears. Although there are several products made specifically for cleaning the inside of children’s ears, many of them aren’t safe. Cotton swabs also are not safe for children either.
Ear cleaning in children occurs very commonly worldwide. Among the common reasons given for children ear cleaning was cleaning of meconium, earwax, itching, foreign-body, irritation, ear blockage, hearing impairment, ear pain and ear discharge. Other people see it as part of their normal/routine habit on a daily basis.
For instance, a prospective cross-sectional hospital-based study which was carried out in the Ear, Nose and Throat department of Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria, over a period of 6 months, between July and December 2017, puts occurrences of ear cleaning in paediatric age group at 91.1%.
Males were more affected and accounted for 53.4%. The most common reason for ear cleaning was due to personal hygiene. Ear cleaning was done in 57.1% of the children by their mothers. The majority (65.5%) of patients believed that ear cleaning was beneficial.
The commonly used object in ear cleaning were cotton buds, fingers, sticks and writing material in 35.2%, 18.6%, 13.8% and 13.4%, respectively. Common reasons they gave for cleaning were dirty/earwax, otalgia and itching in 33.6%, 30.8% and 25.9%, respectively.
Short time ear cleaning in 57.9% was more common than long time ear cleaning in 42.1%. Ear cleaning was done on a daily basis in 55.9% of patients. Common complications identified in these children with the habit were external auditory canal injury in 32.4%, impacted foreign body in 21.5% and traumatic perforated tympanic membrane in 6.5%.
Unfortunately, self-ear cleaning is a practice that has the potential to compromise the integrity of the ear’s natural, self-cleansing mechanism.
Dr Adekunle Daniel, a consultant Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon at the University College Hospital, said ear wax is not something mothers should worry about because nature has a way of cleaning out dirt in the ear.
“It’s quite normal for children to have wax. You don’t really do anything about it unless the wax is causing a problem. Moreover, the ear has a self-cleaning mechanism; if you put an indelible ink in the eardrum, in about two weeks, you will find the ink outside because the skin is self migratory.
That’s the only part of the human body where the skin is self migratory. Nature has a way of cleaning out dirt in the ear.
“Actually, it is the use of cotton bud that now causes disruption to that self migratory mechanism that now causes the wax to be more time and to become impacted which now leads to various problems.
Typically, you shouldn’t clean the ears.”
Dr Daniel declared babies, especially shed their skin after birth and this also tends to happen in the ear as well and so when mothers bath these children and the soap and water, gets into the ear and it mixes with this discriminated skin, it leads to a foul odour.
He added, that mothers whose babies have a foul odour in their ear need to visit a hospital to have a physician take a look and determine that it is not an infection and then just help to clean the wax in a gentle manner.
However, Dr Daniel said in a few individuals that lack the self migratory mechanism of the skin of the outer ear, and so have the wax starting to cause pain, noise in the ear or loss of hearing, a visit to the physician who needs to let the doctors look into the ear and then determine what is causing it and then intervene as necessary. Even in these situations, inserting a swab inside the ear is not the answer.
Earwax, which is not really wax at all, but a substance called cerumen that binds with dirt, dust and debris, is normally produced by the body as a way to clean and protect the ears. In most people, the self-cleaning process works fine.
But in others, about 10 per cent of young children, 20 per cent of adults and more than 30 per cent of elderly and developmentally disabled people, the wax collects to the point where it can completely block the ear canal.
Certainly, it’s important to keep children’s ears clean. The cleaning is required in the outer ear and the skin around while bathing the child. All that is needed is a washcloth or cotton ball and some warm water.
If you notice earwax inside the ear, you don’t need to remove it. Earwax is healthy because it’s protecting, lubricates, and has antibacterial properties. Though it may be bothersome, ear wax usually makes its way to the outer ear naturally. Self-removing the wax can cause more harm than good.
and then