Is It Ok To Clean Baby's Ears

Is It Ok To Clean Baby's Ears

Today we have an interesting topic Is it ok to clean baby's ears? If so then how to do it correctly? in this article we will discuss only about cleaning baby's ear. To understand this, you must know about ear wax. The ear has an ear canal like a tube. This ear canal has few special cells which produces wax like material within ear canal This is called as Cerumen (or ear wax in simple terms) Now knowing the function of this wax is also important. 

1. 1st this was is sticky and holds on to dust particles that try to enter into ear 

2. Secondly, it prevents water from entering deep into the ear canal. this is achieved by the property of wax, if you put wax over water, or vice versa you will notice that it will not stick on to each other Similarly this ear wax helps to repel water and protect ear. 

3. This ear wax has anti-microbial property. So kills germs trying to enter ear. So this ear wax after forming, comes outside gradually on its own. While doing so, it also brings with it the trapped dust, germs, dirt etc. Ultimately it falls out on its own. So these are the functions of ear wax. 

So does that mean ear was is good? Of course its good for us. And if it doesn't form properly then there will be lots of problems. Doc! Looks like you are about to say that "Its not necessary to clean ear wax" Actually that's what I am trying to impress upon! Both for babies and adults, if you flash a torch into ear, you can see the wax for sure. And of you try to remove all the wax then you are removing your ear protection. If you are trying to clean baby's ears, there must be only 2 situations.

First is after bath, if you see water in your baby's ear visibly seen outside. Second, like I had said these ear wax will gradually come from deep inside the ear canal to the outer part of the ear where you can easily see it, then you can clean it. How to clean it is still more important. NEVER use ear buds, safety pin or any other hard instruments to clean it. 

The easiest and safest option to clean is to use baby's towel. Just use the tip of it to gently clean what is visible outside for you. That is more than sufficient. No need to clean it deep into the canal. Ok, so what about Doctors saying that baby has ear wax and offer removal of it. Are these all a scam? No, if we (Doctors) say that the baby has wax then we mean impacted wax. Which occurs when dirt and wax gets accumulated and get stuck inside. 

This can cause pain and problems which may need to be removed. If that is the case, if you try to use ear buds to clean the wax, there is some chance that minimal dirt/wax can stick to it and can be removed but majority of the wax and dirt will be pushed deep into the ear canal and result in problems. 

SO never attempt to clean baby's ear with any sort of hard instruments (Including buds) The major problem that can occur is if you have gone too deep, then it can damage/perforate ear drums. Ear drum is called Tympanic membrane in medical terms. It is as thin as paper and once damaged, there is a chance that it can cause permanent deafness. So please bear this in your mind.