What is the cause of excessive earwax?

Many parents believe that earwax is harmful to babies, and they often force the earwax out of their ears. In fact, most of the earwax is caused by too much internal secretions in the ears. In addition, children's ears are not fully developed, so earwax is not easy to clean out and often hurts the ears.

The baby's external auditory canal is far from mature, and since it is mostly flat and slit-shaped, it is not easy to operate. In addition, the skin inside the ear is very delicate, and frequent earwax removal can easily cause some adverse consequences: in mild cases, it may injure the skin inside the ear and cause inflammation, boils and sores; in severe cases, it may rupture the eardrum and cause hearing damage to the baby.

Clinicians have also found that frequent earwax removal can cause the skin of the external auditory canal to be irritated frequently and lead to the formation of external auditory canal papilloma. Although it is benign and can be removed surgically, it is prone to recurrence after removal, and after multiple recurrences it may turn into cancer, posing a threat to life.

From this, you can understand why you should be “kind” to your baby’s earwax. Generally speaking, earwax will fall off by itself and be discharged from the ear canal with the help of the movement of joints such as the jaw as the baby chews, opens his mouth or yawns, so you don't need to worry.

The role of earwax

You may find this surprising because earwax is generally considered to be useless waste, but it is not. Earwax plays a very important role in protecting human ears:

Earwax guards the gate of the external auditory canal like a sentinel, preventing foreign objects from invading the ear and protecting the ear canal and eardrum. When dust in the air invades the baby's ear canal, earwax can stick to it and keep the external auditory canal clean; if small flying insects fly into the baby's ear canal, 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 various sounds is that various different sound waves from the outside world are transmitted into the ears, causing the eardrum to vibrate. However, if the sound waves are too strong, such as thunder or explosions, the eardrum will be violently vibrated and easily damaged, and hearing will deteriorate over time. Earwax can reduce the impact of sound waves like a muffler to protect the eardrum and thus protect hearing. Since the baby's hearing is still in the development stage, the protective role of earwax is particularly important.

In addition, earwax is somewhat greasy. If water accidentally flows into the baby's ears while taking a bath, the earwax can play the role of "covering water with soil" and prevent the invasion of dirty water, thereby preventing possible infectious diseases such as otitis externa and otitis media.