Many parents think that the baby's earwax is harmful to the baby, so they often use tools such as toothpicks, cotton swabs, ear spoons and so on to remove the baby's earwax, and they must clean it up. In fact, earwax has a certain protective effect on the ears, so don't dig the ears for children often.
The function of earwax
You may think it's incredible, because earwax is generally regarded as useless waste, but it's not. Earwax plays an important role in protecting people's ears
Earwax is like a sentry guarding the gate of the external auditory canal, preventing foreign matters from entering the ear and protecting the ear canal and eardrum. When the dust in the air intrudes into the ear canal of the baby, the earwax can stick them and keep the outer ear canal clean; if there are small flying insects flying into the ear canal of the baby, once they taste the bitter earwax, they will immediately 'escape'.
At the same time, earwax can also act as a 'muffler'. The reason why people can hear all kinds of sounds is that different sound waves from outside are transmitted into the ear, causing tympanic membrane vibration. However, if the sound wave is too strong, such as thunder, explosion, etc., the eardrum will be severely shaken and easily damaged. As time goes on, the hearing will be reduced. Earwax, on the other hand, can reduce the impact of sound waves like a muffler to protect the eardrum and hearing. As the baby's hearing is still in the development stage, the protection of earwax is particularly important.
In addition, earwax has certain greasiness. If the baby is in bath, carelessly water flows into the ear, earwax can play the role of "water to cover the earth", prevent the invasion of dirty water, and then prevent the possible infectious diseases, such as external otitis, otitis media.
How to deal with baby earwax?
Earwax is a substance secreted by cerumen glands on the skin of external auditory canal of human body, which is called 'cerumen' in medicine. Adult earwax can be cleaned by cotton swabs, ear spoons and long nails. The cerumen glands of newborn babies are secreted abundantly, and the external auditory canal is relatively narrow and long, the muscles are relatively loose, and the strength of joints is not enough when chewing things. Earwax is not easy to be discharged at ordinary times, and often forms a deep, yellowish brown, very thick oil like substance in the external auditory canal, commonly known as' oil earwax ', which is a normal phenomenon. The mother can use the cotton swab to dip the water in the outer ear canal of the baby to gently wipe and take out the earwax.
If too much earwax is secreted and condensed into a hard lump, it will cause blockage of the external auditory canal. At this time, once the ear water enters, the earwax embolism will naturally expand, stimulate the skin of the ear canal, and easily lead to inflammation of the outer ear canal, so it is necessary to thoroughly clean the baby's earwax. However, due to the narrow ear canal and delicate skin, if you use adult cleaning method, it is easy to cause damage to the ear canal and eardrum of your baby. At the same time, most babies don't accept that others do too many actions in their ears. They will twist their heads randomly, or they will not cooperate or even cry at all, which will also make their mother hurt their baby's eardrum by mistake. Therefore, it's best to take your baby to the hospital and ask a facial surgeon to help you deal with it. Don't force your baby to dig earwax at home.
Take out the earwax for the baby. Pay attention to two steps
The first step is to give your baby 1-2 drops of ear drops before he goes to bed. When dropping the medicine, you should let the baby lie on the bed or hold him on your knee, his head should be turned over, healthy ears should be under, and sick ears should be on top. After the medicine is dripped in, let the child keep this position for 2 minutes, so that the earwax can be fully diluted.
The second step is to put an earplug made of sterilized cotton ball in the sick ear of the baby. The next day the earplugs are removed, and the earwax may stick to them and be removed from the ear canal.
If that doesn't work, then you should go to the hospital for help. The doctor will put on the otoscope to make a 'reconnaissance' of the baby's ear, estimate the amount of earwax and the degree of blockage of the ear canal, and then inject warm water into the baby's ear with a syringe to flush out the earwax. The whole washing process may make the baby feel a little uncomfortable, but it will not make the baby feel pain or hurt the ear canal and tympanic membrane, which is very safe.