Ear wax (exciting topic for a Saturday night)

charmcitygirl · June 2011

Jacob has a crazy amount of ear wax in his right ear. Its not the regular consistency of ear wax (soft and gooey). Its more like crusty and firm. And he has some scratches in and around his ear from where he must be scratching it. Perhaps its bothering him.

When I try to get in there with a Qtip, he screams his bloody head off and cries. (I know you're not usually supposed to use a Qtip in their ears, but this is an unusual amount of ear wax and I thought it might help to get some of it out.)

Does anyone have any thoughts on what could be going on? Any remedies or ideas for removing it? TIA!

chocolatechip06 · June 2011

my pedi says to use a drop of oil in the ear everyday and let the soap and water when he is having a bath run into his ears. She said no qtips.

cjsbdl · June 2011

My pedi has a little tool she uses to safely clean it out. Maybe call and see if you can take him in?

sommerrayne · June 2011

You can also do hydrogen peroxide dropped in there. It'll help break it up and doesnt hurt at all - just tingles. You can do it to yourself first to see what it feels like if you wish.

desabean · June 2011

ok, this is gross, but you asked for ideas.

About 15 years ago I had a pain in my ear whenever I slept on that side of my head. I thought it might be an ear infection (I have never had one) so I went to the doctor and she looked inside and said there was not infection but some ear wax was in there. She used this tool to get it out (and it hurt kind of bad, she said because it was hard and stuck on the tiny little hairs in your ear....) she finally got it out, actually it was like 3 balls and one of them was almost the size of a pea and they were hard. I've never had another situation like that and didn't think to ask how or why it was like that etc. but it does sound similar.

dusk42 · June 2011

They sell make removal kits - https://www.walgreens.com/store/c/debrox-earwax-removal-aid-kit/ID=prod3092187-product

hannah&ben · June 2011

My older son has had some ear wax issues.... our pedi has us do a drop or 2 of mineral oil in the ear twice a day and eventually all that junk softens and comes out on it's own. You don't need to do anything else but the the drops of oil. TMI but the first time it happened a ball of wax the size of a raisin worked its way out. Didn't need to go after it or anything... came right to the opening and I just grabbed it with tweezers (no pain).

Kids are kind of gross

jenwill · June 2011

I don't have any home remedies, but the pedi would be able to flush it out. In the ER, we use the soft catheter from the IV hooked to a syringe and shoot warm water in the ear to flush out the wax pieces. Works like a charm!

DavezWife · June 2011

I was going to suggest the ear wax kits, too. I've used some "oto-ix" or something that just softens the wax and "cleans" the ear. Look near the swimmer's ear products, they'll be a couple things around there. (I was prone to issues when scuba diving a lot)

The little tool they speak of is just a stick with a little loop or circle on the end. to be honest, a bobby pin works great, or a large safety-pin's round loop end. It's hard to get into the kid's ear as deep as you need (don't get too crazy, lol) so that's where the ear drops help.

I did a clinic rotation in nursing school, and we had a teen come in with THEE nastiest ears you have EVER seen. Yours pale in comparisson, I'm sure ;-)

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