You probably know you shouldn't use a cotton swab to remove earwax...but what IS the safest way to deal with a build-up?
Sonya Henderson’s son, Noah, was three-and-a-half years old when the Toronto mother noticed he was having hearing troubles. Noah would ask her to turn up the TV, even though his sister, who was sitting next to him, could hear it fine. When he started
, Henderson took him to the doctor, who checked Noah’s ear and said that the eardrum was completely blocked with wax.Earwax, which is made of secretions from glands in our ear canals, sweat, sebum and skin that has been shed, plays an important role in keeping our ears healthy, says Frederick Kozak, a Vancouver paediatric otolaryngologist . “Wax fights infection, moistens and lubricates the ear canal, and traps little bits of dirt and dust,” he explains.
Problems can arise if wax gets impacted, or your child happens to produce a lot of it. Wax covering the eardrum can cause hearing to be muffled or fuzzy and can also block a doctor’s view of the eardrum to complicate identifying anWhile the rule of thumb is not to clear your child’s ear of wax, if a doctor says there’s too much buildup, you’ll likely be sent home with instructions on how to remove it with olive or mineral oil.
Luckily for Noah, olive oil did the trick. “On the third day of using the drops, hard chunks of wax started coming out of his ear,” says Henderson, who is happy to report that when Noah watches TV these days, she can’t hear every word from the other room.You can find a variety of earwax-removal products at your local pharmacy, which include drops made from carbamide peroxide, peanut oil and olive oil, and special tools to remove the wax.
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