What should I do if my baby gets water in his ears? This question comes up in my Twitter private messages almost every day. In the education that our people have received since childhood, children should not have water in their ears, and water will become inflamed. The new parents are bathing their newborn babies, and it is common for children to get water in their ears. Faced with a pink little ball of flesh, moms and dads are often at a loss for words. Dr. Zhao, an otologist, will talk about what to do if your baby gets water in his ears today? Can’t get water in the ears? There is no way to prove the source of the story that water in the ears can cause inflammation and that eating the meat of the monk can lead to longevity and immortality. What does it look like inside the black hole of the ear? Most ordinary people do not know. A mysterious hole so close to the head always makes people feel insecure, so what eating earwax can be dumb, pulling out ears can cause cancer, ear candles can detoxify the body, and so on, a lot of strange theories are emerging. Can’t you get water in your ears? The answer is: why not? The baby is in the amniotic fluid for 10 months. When they are born, everyone’s ears are filled with water. When they see the light of day, most of the water will flow out of the ears, and the rest will slowly dry up, and the water will go in later. Deep in the ear there is a tympanic membrane seal, a dead end, and there is no way out of the water that goes in. There is also an upgrade 2.0 version of not being able to get water in the ear, which I often encounter in the clinic, such as: Oh my God, you can still put drops in your ear? Will I become deaf if I put drops in? This shows the general public’s lack of general knowledge about otology. For people with intact eardrums, it is not only possible to get water in the ear, but even to flush it with a lot of clean water, which is a therapeutic measure in otology. What should I do after my little one gets water in his ears? Back to the topic, bathing your baby is a technical task, and it is inevitable that water will get into the ears. If you read the above, you should know that it’s okay to get some water in your baby’s ears. The water will come out after your child turns over and turns his head. For children within two months, their heads are not yet able to move freely, so if an adult holds the child on his or her side for a few minutes, the water in the ear will almost flow clean. Parents should not easily use cotton swabs to wipe into the ear canal of their children. At most, they should wipe at the mouth of the ear canal to avoid damaging the skin of the external ear canal and the eardrum. In addition, when bathing a child, you can use the shower cap pictured above, with the brim pressed down a bit to avoid the bath water rushing directly into the ear. What about older babies? A small number of children over the age of three or four have hard lumps of earwax blocking the ear canal. Water in the ears of these children will cause the earwax to swell (especially after going to swimming lessons) and may cause earache. Parents who plan to take their children to swimming lessons are reminded that it is best to see an otologist before entering the water. If your child has ear wax in his or her ears, it is not too late to clean them up and make sure the eardrum is not perforated before entering the water. What about babies with otitis media? After one year of age, otitis media often occurs after a cold, and there are two types of otitis media: purulent and non-purulent. In the purulent case, there is a possibility of tympanic membrane perforation (which is rare in areas with good medical conditions). Before the perforation heals, water in the ear may aggravate or recur the inflammation, and it is important to keep the ear canal as dry as possible during this period. If there is water ingress, in addition to the water control methods mentioned above, you can also use a hair dryer to dry the ear canal. In purulent otitis media with perforation, the child will have obvious crying and irritability, and most can clearly express ear pain, while another type of non-purulent otitis media (related to nasal inflammation and not related to water in the ear) is fluid accumulation in the inner tympanic membrane, and the child can rarely clearly express ear discomfort. In this type of otitis media, the tympanic membrane is intact, and water in the ear canal is not related to the middle ear, so no special treatment is needed. Regular ear canal cleaning is recommended in foreign ear science articles, but domestic conditions do not exist, but the public should usually learn more about the basic knowledge of the ear so that they can be free from rumors. It is important to pay attention to the strength and depth of the ear canal when cleaning it yourself to avoid unnecessary damage. If you have ear pain, itchy ears, or running water in your ears, seek medical examination in a timely manner and do not randomly put medicine into your ears.