How to clean a baby's ears

• Parents should not try to clean the wax from their baby's ear canals.
• Use a warm washcloth to wash the outside of your ear as part of your usual bathing routine.
• If you try to clean the canal with a cotton swab, you can push the wax deeper into the canal and injure it or damage the eardrum.
• This article was written by J ami S. Hutton , MD, FAAP and the clinical pediatrician Maven reviewed.
• You can find more stories on the Insider homepage .

While it's good to wash the outside of your ear when bathing, parents shouldn't try to clean the wax from their baby's ear canals.

Sticking Q-tips, fingers or other things in the ear can cause problems, says Dr. Anita Ahuja , who practices internal medicine and pediatrics at UnityPoint Health in Iowa.

"There's an old saying, and this goes for adults too, that you shouldn't put anything less than your elbow in your ear," she says.

You can wash your baby's ears from the outside

Ahuja recommends washing the outside of the ear as part of the regular bath. You can use a warm washcloth and possibly an odorless baby shampoo to remove dead skin or wax that has accumulated outside the ear canal.

It is also important to set a good example for children by not using cotton swabs or the like to clean their ears. "From an early age, they like to copy what parents do," she says.

The ear wax is normal, you shouldn't play with it

The ear canal contains wax that removes dirt, germs and water from the most sensitive parts of the ear that recognize sound and maintain balance. Therefore, you should not try to delete it.

In fact, your baby's ears and ears are cleaned naturally. The extra wax, usually orange or yellowish, will eventually emerge from the ear canal, Ahuja says.

If you try to clean the canal with a cotton swab, you can do the opposite of what you want. It can push the wax deeper into the canal and injure or damage the eardrum. According to Ahuja, this wax can also dry out and it is more difficult for it to come out by itself.

And if you have a habit of cleaning yourself or your baby's ears in this way, you can even start blocking the canal, leading to a condition known as earwax impaction . If your baby is affected by ear wax, ear pain, pressure, and even hearing loss may occur.

"It has become so common that people want to use Q-Tips to clean their ears," he said. "If we got away from it, we would have fewer people with earplug problems."

It is better to leave the cleaning to a doctor or nurse.

A small number of people have too much wax in their ears. If your pediatrician checks your baby's ears, you can determine if wax buildup is problematic.

"If there is so much wax that we fear it will affect your hearing, it is safer that we clean the baby's ears in the office," Ahuja says. "We can do it with safer and softer techniques than with water."

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