Newborn ear wax

Cleaning your baby's ears and nose

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Keeping your baby’s head and face clean is important for their good health. That’s because baby skin is fragile and more sensitive than adult skin, so it can easily become irritated. It can take a little while to get used to cleaning their tiny ears, eyes and nose, but with practice your confidence will grow.

Do I need to clean my baby's ears, eyes and nose?

Although young babies don’t move around much, you’d be surprised at how dirty their faces can get. Just like adults, they can develop ear wax and mucus in their nose and discharge in their eyes.

Paying special attention to these parts of your baby’s body will prevent problems in future.

When should I clean my baby's ears, eyes and nose?

Your baby’s ears, eyes and nose should be wiped every day. All you need is some cotton wool and warm water. Don’t use soap because this can dry out your baby’s sensitive skin.

A good time to clean your baby's ears, eyes and nose is just before you give them a bath. Newborn babies don't need a bath every day — 2 or 3 times a week is enough — so on other days you can just wash their face and bottom. This is known as 'top and tailing'.

Some babies get upset when you wash their faces, so choose a time when they’re relaxed. It’s best not to wash their face when they’re hungry, or right after a feed. Talking or singing while you’re washing them might help to calm them down.

How do I clean my baby's ears, eyes and nose?

If you are going to give your baby a bath, fill the bath with warm water and get together everything you need first. Always make sure the water is no hotter than 37 to 38°C. If you don’t have a thermometer, use your elbow or wrist to check the water isn't too hot.

Before you undress your baby, lay them on a safe surface. Dip some cotton wool in lukewarm water. Gently clean the corners of their eyes, wiping from the inside corner to the outside corner. Use a new cotton wool ball for each eye.

Then gently wipe around each nostril to get rid of any mucus. Wipe around your baby's ears, including around the outside.

Use a soft towel to gently dry your baby's skin, making sure you also dry behind the ears.

It's very important not to stick anything into your baby's ears or nose as this can cause damage. It can cause the lining of the inside of the nose to bleed and damage the eardrum. Pushing something into your baby's ear or nose can increase the risk of infection.

When their face is clean and dry, you can undress them and give them their bath.

Should I remove my baby's earwax?

Usually there is no need to remove your baby's earwax. It has an important role in protecting their ears. It blocks germs that could cause infection from reaching the eardrum and it prevents dirt and dust from entering your baby's ear.

Ear wax usually makes its way to the outer ear naturally. You can gently wipe it away when you're cleaning their ears. Don’t ever poke a cotton swab, finger or anything else into your baby's ears.

You should also avoid using remedies to remove ear wax. This risks damaging the ear canal and can even affect your baby’s hearing.

If you think your baby's ears are causing them discomfort — for example, if they're tugging or pulling their ears a lot — then tell your doctor in case they have an ear infection.

Sources:

The Royal Women’s Hospital (Caring for your newborn baby), Raising Children (Cleaning baby eyes, nose and ears), Raising Children (Bathing a newborn), The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne (Ear infections and glue ear)

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Last reviewed: April 2021

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Steps, Safety, When to Seek Help

It’s important to keep your baby’s ears clean. You can clean the outer ear and the skin around it while you bathe your baby. All you’ll need is a washcloth or cotton ball and some warm water.

It’s not safe to use cotton swabs or to stick anything inside your baby’s ear. If you notice earwax inside the ear, you don’t need to remove it.

Earwax is healthy for your baby because it’s protecting, lubricating, and has antibacterial propertires. Removing it can cause potentially harmful damage.

Read on to learn steps for cleaning your baby’s ears, plus safety tips.

To clean your baby’s ears on a daily or regular basis, you’ll need a cotton ball that’s been soaked with warm water. You can also use a gentle washcloth with some warm (not hot) water.

To clean baby’s ears:

Wet the washcloth or cotton ball with warm water.
Ring out the washcloth well, if using.
Gently wipe behind baby’s ears and around the outside of each ear.

Never stick the washcloth or cotton ball inside your baby’s ear. This can cause damage to the ear canal.

Eardrops

If your baby has been prescribed eardrops or you want to use them to remove wax buildup, follow these steps.

Lie your baby on their side with the affected ear facing up.
Gently pull the lower lobe down and back to open the canal.
Place 5 drops in the ear (or the amount your pediatrician recommended).
Keep the drops in your baby’s ear by keeping baby in a lying position for up to 10 minutes, then roll them over so the side with the drops is facing down.
Let the ear drops run out of your baby’s ear onto a tissue.

Always use drops according to your pediatrician’s recommendation. Follow their instructions for how many drops to administer and how often to give them to your baby.

Cotton swabs are not safe to use on infants or young children. In fact, from 1990-2010, ear cleaning was the most common cause for a child in the United States to be omitted to the emergency room for an ear injury.

More than 260,000 children were affected. Most commonly, these injuries involve an object stuck in the ear, perforated eardrums, and soft tissue injuries.

The safest rule to keep in mind is that if you see any waxy buildup or discharge on the outside of the ear, use a warm, wet washcloth to gently wipe it away.

Leave anything inside the ear (the part you can’t see) alone. Injury to the eardrum, hearing bone, or inner ear can all cause long-term health complications for your child.

Earwax buildup in infants is rare. Usually, the ear canal makes the correct amount of earwax it needs. But in some cases, excess earwax buildup can interfere with hearing, or cause pain or discomfort. Your baby may tug on their ear to indicate discomfort.

Some causes of earwax buildup include:

Using cotton swabs. These push the wax back in and pack it down instead of removing it
Sticking fingers in the ear. If wax is pushed back by your infant’s fingers, it may build up.
Wearing ear plugs. Ear plugs can push wax back in the ear, causing buildup.

Don’t try to remove earwax buildup at home. If you’re concerned about earwax buildup, see a pediatrician. They can determine if your infant’s earwax needs to be removed.

Is earwax dangerous?

Earwax is not dangerous. It serves many important functions including:

protecting the eardrum and ear canal, keeping it dry, and preventing germs from causing infection
trapping dirt, dust, and other particles so they don’t enter the ear canal and cause irritation or injury

Let your baby’s pediatrician know if your infant is tugging at their ears. If you don’t already have a pediatrician, you can browse doctors in your area through the Healthline FindCare tool. Also let them know if you suspect a blocked ear canal is making it difficult for your baby to hear you, or if you notice any yellow-green discharge from your child’s ear.

Your doctor may remove the wax if it’s causing discomfort, pain, or interfering with hearing.

A pediatrician can usually remove the wax during a regular office appointment without requiring any further treatment. In rare cases, the wax may need to be removed under general anesthesia in the operating room.

If your pediatrician notices signs of an ear infection, they may prescribe antibiotic eardrops for your baby.

Seek medical help right away if you notice bleeding from the ear after an object was inserted in the ear canal. You should also seek medical help if your child looks or acts very sick, or their walking is unsteady.

It’s important to keep your baby’s ears clean. In most cases, you can clean the outer ear and area around the ears during your regularly scheduled bath time. You’ll just need a washcloth and warm water.

Although there are several products on the market made specifically for cleaning the inside of your baby’s ears, many of them aren’t safe. Cotton swabs also aren’t safe for your baby.

If you notice a large amount of wax buildup or are concerned about your baby’s ears, let your pediatrician know. They can determine if it needs to be removed and advise you on the best treatment.

Wax plug in the ear of a child - causes, symptoms, methods of prevention

Wax plug is a blockage of earwax in the ear canal as a result of increased secretion of the sulfur glands that are located in the skin. Earwax does not come out of the ear because it has a viscous structure that keeps it there. If the ear canal has a tortuous structure and a narrow passage, then sulfur accumulates at the eardrum, which leads to the formation of a sulfuric plug.

Causes

Predisposition to excess secretion of sulfur.
The anatomical features of the structure of the ear canal - narrowness or tortuosity, which interfere with the natural release of sulfur.
Water ingress during diving, swimming, shampooing. Sulfur swells and closes the ear canal.
The presence of foreign bodies in the ear.
Otitis, eczema, dermatitis, wearing a hearing aid, frequent use of headphones.
Too frequent cleaning of the ear canal from earwax with cotton swabs.
Insufficient humidity in the room affects the appearance of hard sulfur plugs in children.

Symptoms

Noise, earache, congestion, hum and ringing.
Itching of the external auditory canal, autophony - increased resonance of one's own voice.
Hearing loss: the child does not respond to the call of the parents, often asks again, shudders when strangers appear near him.
The child's constant restlessness, his regular desire to scratch or touch the ear.
Reflex symptoms: cough, nausea, dizziness, headache, in severe cases - cardiac disorders, facial paralysis.

To diagnose a sulfur plug in a child, a visual examination of the outer ear is performed, as well as to establish the causes that accompany the disease, so that the correct treatment can be prescribed.

In the examination, a bellied probe is used, which determines the consistency of the sulfur plug.

Prophylaxis

Regularly visit an otolaryngologist (at least 2 times a year).
Practice proper ear hygiene: after bathing, use cotton swabs, but do not push them too far to avoid injury to the eardrum.
Do not allow children to use headphones that are inserted into the ear.
In the cold season, protect your ears from the cold and cover them with hats.
Do not allow girls to wear large earrings as this affects the blood supply.
It is enough to clean the ears of small children once a week. This is done by wiping the visible area of the ear canal with a cotton swab.
Use special protective equipment (if your child swims in the pool) to avoid fungal and bacterial diseases.
Use preparations that soften the wax (children prone to excessive accumulation of sulfur).

More about pediatric otorhinolaryngology at the YugMed clinic

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Sulfur plug in children: description of the disease, causes, symptoms, cost of treatment in Moscow

Wax plug in a child is a common problem when an excessive amount of earwax accumulates in the ear canal, which thickens and forms a dense lump that causes discomfort and impairs hearing. It can appear at any age, even a year or earlier. Despite the fact that the violation is not considered severe, if not properly and timely treated, it can easily lead to the development of serious complications. It is better to entrust the removal of the cork to a specialist.

Earwax in its composition is a mixture of secretion of sulfuric, sebaceous and sweat glands, as well as dead cells of the epithelium located in the ear canal. This substance contains immunoglobulins that suppress the development of pathogenic microflora, and bacteria necessary for the body.

The development of a secret occurs constantly, as it is necessary to cleanse the ear canal from harmful bacteria, viruses and dust. Normally, sulfur itself is removed from the ear canal to the outside during chewing. If, due to something, the process of sulfur outflow is disturbed, it begins to accumulate inside and, gradually compacting, forms a plug of a larger or smaller size. Significant plugs completely block the ear canal and cause severe hearing loss.

Causes

The formation of accumulation of ear secretions can occur for many reasons, which is why the disease is widespread. As the main reasons for the appearance of a pathological condition, doctors call the following:

individual structural features - sometimes the ear canal turns out to be rather narrow, due to which sulfur from it, even with slightly increased thickening, loses the ability to fully stand out, and its compaction begins;
errors when cleaning the ears - if cotton swabs or similar items are used, they cannot remove the secret, but only tamp it. This mishandling technique is one of the main reasons why children have a problem;
inflammation of the ear canal due to trauma - in this case, local edema disrupts the process of sulfur release and causes it to compact and dry out. Injuries are most often obtained by improper cleaning of the ear, as well as swimming in open water;
excessively frequent cleaning of the ears - with it, the ear canals turn out to be catastrophically overdried. To moisturize their epithelium, the body begins to actively produce sulfur, which, due to the large amount, does not have time to stand out in sufficient volume and accumulates, thickening;
long stay in a room with dry air - in such conditions, the tissues in the ear begin to dry out, and sulfur is required in large quantities to moisturize them. The process of violation is similar to the previous cause of the problem;
the presence of a foreign body - it mechanically blocks the channel and does not allow the secret to stand out. At the same time, its production does not stop, and it begins to quickly thicken, forming large plugs, which can cause particularly severe discomfort. This cause of the disease, as a rule, occurs in preschool children, who, out of curiosity, can put an object in their ear.

Whatever caused the appearance of pathology, it must be eliminated competently. It is also important to make sure that the problem is related to the accumulation of sulfur, and not to any tumor process, the symptoms of which at first are almost the same. A sulfur plug in the ear of a child can also sometimes be similar in manifestations to a large foreign body.

Is it possible to determine by eye

If the plug is not deep, you can see it when examining the ear. In this case, it will be noticeable that the auditory canal is completely blocked by a black, brown, gray or yellowish formation. When an inflammatory process is attached, purulent discharge or blood can be seen. Trying to pick such plugs is strictly prohibited. From such an attempt to help the child will only harm. To eliminate education, you need to consult a doctor or, in extreme cases, use the funds purchased at the pharmacy at home.

What a sulfur plug looks like in children is useful for all parents to know. In the photo you can look at the accumulation of sulfur in the ear of an infant and an older child.

Species

Doctors distinguish three types of traffic jams, depending on the consistency of the secret of which they consist. This partly determines how the foreign object will be removed from the ear canal. It is important that there is no tissue damage during treatment, otherwise there is a high risk of infection. Sulfur plugs in children can be:

pasty - their color is from light yellow to rich yellow with an orange tint. They are soft, so removing such a foreign body is quite simple. It cannot damage tissue and does not cause pain when removed;
plasticine-like - denser dark brown, they can cause pain when removed, and in case of careless manipulation - injure tissues. Such corks develop from pasty ones if they are not removed in time;
hard - black in color, they are particularly dense and easily cause damage even with the most careful removal. In some cases, local anesthesia may be required before they are removed. They are most often formed if the pathology was not promptly paid attention and treatment was not carried out.

The type of formation that takes place in a particular case is determined by the otolaryngologist after examining the patient. Also, on the basis of the examination, it is also determined how the object will be removed from the ear, as well as whether there are any local complications of the pathology.

Who treats

To get rid of the sulfur plug in the ear of a child, you need to contact an otolaryngologist. He has all the necessary skills and tools for treatment. A general practitioner can help in such a situation, but only as a last resort, if there is no way to get help from an ENT.

Diagnostics

Diagnosis of pathology is not difficult. In young children, plugs are often found by chance by a pediatrician during a general examination. Parents may not be aware of the problem because the child is not yet talking and cannot show that he or she has a disorder. Usually, after the pediatrician on the same day, it is recommended to visit an otolaryngologist to clean the ear and check for the presence of pathological complications.

A profile specialist conducts an examination of the patient, in which not only the presence of sulfur accumulation is diagnosed, but the density of the lump and the general hearing loss are determined. Inspection with an otoscope allows you to determine the size of the plug and the presence of local effects from it. With the help of a special probe, the density of the accumulation is determined. Also, the otolaryngologist necessarily establishes whether there are tumor formations or foreign objects in the ear canal, due to which the secretion accumulates.

In cases where the presence of complications is detected, the doctor prescribes the necessary therapy after removal of the sulfur plug. It can be general or local. Hospitalization is usually not required for the patient. Only with the appearance of severe consequences of pathology at an early age, a specialist can recommend leaving the child under medical supervision.