Why Does My Baby Have a Lot of Earwax?

Earwax (medical term: cerumen) is a natural substance produced by sweat and sebaceous glands located inside your child’s outer ear canal that protects their ears from infection and disease. As it hardens over time, earwax will eventually dry, harden, and fall out over time.

No amount of earwax should be considered normal and children often produce lighter colored and softer wax than adults. As per guidelines, children should allow it to build up naturally without trying to remove it themselves with cotton swabs or any other means.

Causes

Parents often worry that when babies produce too much earwax, something might be amiss. But the body produces just the right amount to protect and promote self-cleaning in the ear canal; sometimes too much earwax accumulates and builds up until it either becomes visible or falls out naturally.

Earwax typically comes in yellow, brown or orange and is soft like your baby’s skin. Earwax is a sticky substance with many beneficial properties for your child’s ears: trapping dirt while repelling moisture. Furthermore, its antibacterial properties help prevent infections of their ear canal.

Earwax normally moves out of the ear canal through an opening where you can see it or into the outer ear, where it then sheds off. Sometimes this process is interrupted when children wear headphones or plug their ears with plugs, forcing it back in and creating blockages in their ear canal.

Excessive earwax production can also lead to build-up, so it is crucial that you listen and allow their ears to do their work without interfering with them.

If your child has hearing issues or an ear infection, their earwax may become harder and harder to remove from their ears. A pediatrician can recommend softening drops that make removing it easier and in more serious cases they may use a device known as a curette or microsuction to extract it out of your child’s ears.

Do not attempt to remove earwax on your own as this could potentially harm the ears and hearing of your baby, potentially leading to pain and hearing loss. Instead, contact a pediatrician or an ear, nose, and throat specialist as soon as you notice excessive build-ups of earwax in their baby’s ears and seek safe solutions from them to loosening it and preventing future build-ups; avoid home remedies like candles as these could prove dangerous; your pediatrician will know what’s normal and how best to care for their ears based on what normal means in their child’s ears and hearing health needs.

Symptoms

Earwax is an essential part of the natural self-cleaning process for ears. Produced from secretions from two glands – ceruminous and sebaceous glands – it serves both protection and self-cleaning functions in the ear canal, while simultaneously moisturising delicate skin cells. When children produce more earwax than needed by their bodies, excess wax can build up in the canal causing impaction resulting in blocked ears or hearing difficulties until it’s removed from its home in its proper home place.

Earwax build-up in children may result in symptoms including pain in the ear, tugging at ears and hearing loss. If a child shows any indications of having blocked or impacted ears, it’s essential that they see a pediatrician immediately.

Doctors may advise prescribing ear drops to soften and remove excess earwax, and schedule regular ear cleaning appointments in order to help prevent future issues with excessive build-up of wax in your ears.

Earwax removal can also be accomplished using a syringe administered by a health care professional, but it is vitally important not to insert cotton swabs or other objects directly into your ear canal in an attempt to clear out your earwax – this could cause permanent ear canal damage, infection and an impaction of earwax deposits.

Keep ears as dry as possible to help prevent the buildup of earwax, by wiping away moisture with a cloth or towel or using over-the-counter eardrops available over-the-counter for this purpose. A doctor may also advise using an over-the-counter product such as this to assist in its removal, while using earplugs while sleeping, swimming or in water can protect ears from moisture or odors while at the same time keeping noise down significantly. Speak to your pediatrician regarding setting up a healthy sleep routine for infants.

Treatment

Earwax (cerumen) is an essential part of our bodies’ defense mechanism, helping keep ears clear, protected and germ-free. If there is a buildup of cerumen that blocks an ear canal, health care providers can safely remove it in their offices for maximum comfort and efficiency.

Most healthy individuals produce just enough earwax to allow for its natural and slow drainage process. Earwax consists of dead skin cells mixed with secretions from sebaceous glands and modified sweat glands in the outer ear canal, along with secretions produced from sebaceous glands that secrete sebum and sweat. Chewing and talking helps push these secretions toward the opening where they dry off naturally and flakes away over time.

However, some individuals’ ear canals produce too much earwax or its composition changes significantly causing more to accumulate and slow its drainage. Certain medications may cause it to harden into solid masses that clump together or harden altogether; those with family histories of earwax problems or conditions like eczema are likely to have dryer earwax that clumps together or hardens in places.

Avoid trying to remove earwax at home with over-the-counter remedies or any other means, even at your own risk. Sticking anything in the ear canal could damage its delicate environment and pack in more wax, leading to infections or hearing loss. For children with blockages in their ears that need professional removal of their wax a health care provider should remove it in their office to prevent hearing loss or an obstruction in their hearing pathway.

Teaching kids not to rub their ears is also recommended, as this may stimulate more earwax production that becomes trapped within their ear canal. Instead, tilt their head sideways and wait for gravity to help release any trapped wax; if that fails, health care professionals may use an otoscope – an instrument designed specifically to inspect eardrums for signs of infection – for safe removal and quick examination of your earwax removal needs.

Prevention

Earwax (medically called cerumen) is a protective waxy substance produced by glands located within the skin of the ear canal. It helps clear away debris while protecting the eardrum against infection, with small amounts migrating from within to outside as new wax replaces old. While this process should occur naturally, sometimes too much earwax accumulates and blocks hearing altogether.

Most people develop an effective earwax management process over time. Ears naturally clean themselves as the wax moves slowly from eardrum to opening where it can be removed via water washing or wipe off cloth – providing natural moisturization as it moves along its journey to wash away or be removed by cloth wiping. Earwax also serves as a natural moisturizer, keeping ears soft and moist.

However, various things can interfere with this natural cycle and disrupt it: infections can lead to overproduction of earwax production; those with narrow canals are especially prone to blockages of earwax buildup; while people wearing plugs or jewelry often can also suffer from buildup of earwax buildup.

Most health care providers do not advise using suction devices such as Wax-Vac(r) at home to remove earwax; such devices can lead to impaction and potentially cause permanent damage to the eardrum. A doctor may use an instrument called a curet or suction or syringe flushes the canal flush out any build-up of wax.

Instead of trying to remove earwax yourself, try placing some mineral oil, baby oil or glycerin drops in your ears daily to loosen it up or purchasing an over-the-counter earwax removal product with oil or 3 percent hydrogen peroxide as part of its ingredients. Before using such products be sure to tilt your head back slightly and hold open both ears for at least a minute or two after placing any droplets inside them; also avoid using syringes that squirt liquid into them as this could further push earwax deeper inside and cause impaction of its removal.