How old can babies clean their ears?

It is strictly forbidden to pick the ears of babies. Generally speaking, as long as the child's ears do not have symptoms of pain or itching, do not pick the ears. After all, the ears are very fragile and may cause damage to the ear canal, easily induce infection, and cause otitis media, which will seriously affect the child's hearing. If there are indeed certain problems with the child's ear health, you cannot handle it on your own at this time and should go to the hospital for examination.

How old can babies clean their ears?

Generally speaking, as long as the child's ears do not hurt or itch and his hearing is good, earwax does not need to be removed artificially. And earwax has certain functions. 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 film" that can help block strong sound impact.

In addition, the baby's earwax and fine hair can absorb microorganisms and dust that enter the ear canal from the air, thus preventing bacterial infection of the eardrum. Another point is that everyone has experienced small flies harassing the ears. Earwax tastes bitter and is oily, so earwax can prevent small flies from flying into the baby's ears! It makes the insects afraid of earwax.

Therefore, earwax is also a treasure to a certain extent, and it protects the baby's auditory organs, so mothers don't have to worry about their baby's earwax. In addition, if earwax is secreted too much and condenses into hard lumps, it will cause blockage of the external auditory canal. At this time, once water enters the ear, the earwax plug will naturally expand, irritate the skin of the ear canal, and easily cause external ear 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 making excessive movements on their ears. They will twist their heads around, or simply refuse to cooperate or even cry, which may cause mothers to accidentally injure their baby's eardrums. Therefore, it is best to take your baby to the hospital and ask an ENT doctor for help, and never force your baby to remove earwax at home.

If you have any of the following ear problems, you should see a doctor

Experts say that if the ear is sick, there will be no obvious symptoms in the early stages. But as the condition worsens, each person will experience different symptoms. Some patients experience itching in the external auditory canal, which may be extremely itchy and sometimes becomes more itchy the more they dig. Other symptoms include water discharge from the ears, or accompanied by ear pain, stuffy ears, and varying degrees of hearing loss.

Once such symptoms appear, you must pay attention and go to the hospital for treatment in time. Be careful not to dig your ears with your hands or touch your ears with sharp objects at this time, and do not use any medicine without authorization.

Dr. Liu reminds that children should be particularly careful. Children are still in the growth and development stage, their skin is more sensitive, and their immune system resistance is not as good as that of adults. The water in the ears should be cleaned out promptly after bathing or swimming to prevent fungal infection of the external ear canal caused by bacteria brought in by water. It is also worth noting that some child patients developed upper respiratory tract infections due to lack of timely treatment.