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Children are very curious, and they want to touch and grasp everything. They are so explorers that they get to introduce small objects in the nose, mouth and ears, this being one of the first causes of visits to the emergency. These most common objects are foods such as seeds or grains, cotton, paper, marbles, popcorn, insects, buttons, among others. The first place that children always keep these objects is in the nose, and second in the ear. ¿What do we do if my child put an object in his ears?
Due to my experience as a pediatrician, I have received many days in consultation visits for this topic, so in this article I would like to explain what can be done at home to extract an object from the ear.
As I have explained above, children do it mainly out of exploration, boredom, curiosity, as an imitation of other children or as a game, where one child is the one who introduces the object into the ear of another child (insects could enter by themselves) .
It may happen that many parents do not realize what happened, since the child does not tell it, but it can be detected that something has happened from two parameters:
- We should always explore the ears of our children, especially when they are over one year old.
- We can sometimes find symptoms such as: hearing loss, bleeding, earache or discomfort, dizziness, nausea or vomiting, bad smell, a lot of crying, pulling on the ears
It is important that they know that an object in the ear can be harmful to a child if it is not treated or removed in time, This foreign body can cause pain, irritability, swelling, and even hearing loss. So if at home you cannot extract the object, go immediately to an emergency.
When an object enters the ear, it falls into what we call the external auditory canal, which has a narrow area where most objects end up getting stuck there. This helps that they cannot go deeper, but it also makes them unable to get out.
What to do at home if my child put an object in his ear?
1. First of all, stay calm, and do not scold the child, we could distress him more than he already is.
2. Check with a flashlight, the depth of the foreign body and what type of foreign body it is. If you see it very deeply, consult your pediatrician to see if he can assist you.
3. If your child is big, stand him in front of you, if he is small you can ask to help and lay him down holding his head.
4. If the object is clearly visible, remove the object with your finger; If you cannot do it with your finger, carefully remove it with tweezers.
5. Remember to place your child's head pointing to the side of the ear with the object.
6. Avoid using cotton swabs, clips, hair clips, if the object is not clearly visible, as we could push it further to the bottom and it could be worse.
7. In case the foreign body is an insect, you can put a little oil or glycerin in the ear and tilt the head towards the side of the affected ear so that by gravity it falls; Or you can use a suction bulb to try to extract the object, never use a tweezers to remove the insect, because it could break it and leave a part inside the ear.
7. If the object is not visible, or it is not extracted with any of the aforementioned maneuvers, or you could only extract a portion of the object, go to the emergency room as soon as possible.
And here comes the great question of many parents, what can I do to prevent these types of circumstances?
- Preventing children from playing or handling small objects.
- Teaching them that objects are not to be placed in the ears, mouth or nose.
- Do not clean the ears with cotton swabs or swabs, wipe them with a cloth and your finger, and as far as your finger goes.
- If you are going to give him a fruit that has seeds, remove them, to prevent them from wanting to place them in their ears.
You can read more articles similar to What do I do if my child put an object in his ears, in the category of child accidents on site.
