Softening up ear wax

Pediatrics for Parents, April, 2004

Getting excessive earwax out of a child's ear can be a trying task. The scared child is screaming and writhing, the parent and nurse are trying to hold the child still, and the doctor is carefully using an instrument called an ear currette to remove the wax so the ear drum can be seen. One way to prevent the problem is to keep your child's earwax soft since soft wax tends to flow out on its own.

There are commercial products that help to do this. However, you probably already have something that will do the trick in your medicine cabinet--hydrogen peroxide. Mix equal amounts of hydrogen peroxide with warm water. Have your child lay down on her side with one ear up. Put a couple of drops of the mixture into her ear and have her stay in this position for a few minutes. Then have her change to her other side and repeat the process.

An easy way to get the drops into your child's ear is to soak a cotton ball or a small piece of sponge in the solution, hold the cotton ball or sponge over your child's ear, and squeeze.

Never use a cotton-tipped applicator (Q-Tip) to clean inside your child's ear canal. It only pushes the wax in deeper and may cause damage to the canal and possibly to her ear drum.