i have been cleaning the inner ear of my DD who is 13 months now since birth and quite a few times i have gone to deep and hurt her bad enough to make her cry :( and then the next day found blood in her ears.....as i said this has happened quite a few times and most recently last night, she cried, i felt like a terrible mom and now i am terrified i may have cause long rum permanent hearing damage....

i have wispered in her ear today and she resonds with the action i tell her to do so i do think she is hearing me but my mom said that i am tearing something everytime which will cause scar tissue to grow over her ear drum and cause hearing loss.....:(

i just read in my magazine not to enter a baby's inner ear canal cuase you can perforate the eardrum, but i dont know what that means?...
i dont plan on doing this EVER again and i am sooo scared right now, i cant get her in to see the dr till Dec 30th....

please respond.....i feel like a terrible mother and that i have permantly damaged my perfect little girl, and what is hurting me the most is everythime this happened i knew i could be causing permanent damage, but i didnt intentionally hurt her, i was just trying to clean her ears.

i am almost in tears, please help me here.

another thing i would like to mention is she is not talking yet, not even a few words, but she responds to me and the tv and music, she can follow simple orders....

If you whisper and she hears what your saying then she is probably fine.. but what I don't understand is that you said you have done this a few times and she cries but you still did it again and again. Why did you do that? If she was crying you knew she was in pain. If you clean your own ears out don't YOU know to stop and not go in all the way?
She will be fine as long as you don't see any more blood. IF you do then have them see her that day and don't take no for an answer.
Also, there are books that you can buy that have all kinds of advice from things like that to vomiting or colds ects. They are good to have handy in case you have any questions. Keep us posted and let us know how she is. Good luck.

i kept cleaning her ears on a regular basis and usually there was no problem but then occasionally i went to deep and thats when i accidentally hurt her.
and when she started crying on those occasions i instantly stopped and tried to comfort her, i didnt keep trying to clean them then.

i know now that there is no need to even enter the inner ear for cleaning.

and with my ears, i can go clear into them till i touch whatever it is in there....my ears dont seem to be sensitive like others are.

maybe i will try to see a dr. tomorrow, i cant keep feeling like this till dec 30th, i have to know things are okay....it is really breaking my heart :(

Dont' be too hard on yourself. As a mom you are going to have ALOT more things happen then an inner ear accident. One time my son was on my bed and it's pretty high up and he was six months old. I put him on the bed and went to hang up his Jimmy jump up (a bouncy swing) only a foot away and he got excited and flipped off his bed...I thought OMG I killed him! What was I thinking leaving him for a sec. He was seriously arms reach from me.
Then my kids who were 3,2,2 at the time were playing with a sugar spoon and one of the twins shoved it down my sons throat and he was choking, my husband pulled it out and blood went every where. The hardend sugar severed his tonsil!
My friend let her son go out to ride on the riding lawn mower and his daddy put him down to go inside and when he backed up his son was there (he was 2) and it pulled his foot inside the blade and took off three of his little toes..
The point is....we all do stupid things or leave things around, No mommy is perfect. Even if she did have damage you would still love her and you didn't purposly hurt her, it's ok really. I know your sick to your stomach freaking out. Many more days to come. hehehe. Go kiss her and tell her your sorry!!! : )

Take a washrag, and drape it over your index finger. Use that finger to clean her ears, you really don't need to go any deeper than that. Any wax buildup will work its way out on its own. Remember that a small amount of ear wax helps protect against infection.

A perforated eardrum means a hole in it. It can be serious, but it is also not that big of a deal. A few years ago my youngest son put a straw in his ear and perforated his. When the doc told me that I freaked out thinking he would be deaf forever, but they gave him antibiotics and some ear drops for the pain and he was fine. I would suggest not cleaning her ears with anything that can poke them, and if she does get a lot of wax buid-up you can buy a cleaner at Wal-mart that will flush out the wax. But don't feel bad!!! We all do things like that sometimes and of course it makes us feel like the worst mom in the world lol! Also if she is not still crying or tugging at her ears she is probably be fine, so if you can't get to the doc for a while I wouldn't worry. Good luck!

thank you sooooo much everyone! i feel better. *sigh*

crisma...question....even if i would have perforated her ear durm (which i doubt because she is not acting like it hurts her and seems to be hearing fine) but just in case, is it somthing that will heal???

Absolutely! My son's ear drum had a large hole in it and with the meds he was fine. Sometimes the hole can be so big that they have to have a patch sewn on it, but you would for sure know if that was the case. I recently had a cousin who's ear drum actually ruptured because of a very serious ear infection and she is fine now after her antibiotics and ear drops. She has no problem with her hearing or anything else. I forgot to tell you in the last post, but until you can get her ear checked out(which I still think is fine, or you would know it by now), be careful when you bathe her, not to let her get a lot of water in her ear. I know how hard that can be with a little one lol! Good luck to you!

Chrissi, did you take her to the doctors? Or are you gong to go ahead and wait? I was thinking if you did at least you would know if it has healed by then. I'm glad you are feeling better and your dear daughter too.

i think i am going to call the dr. and try to get in dec 15th actually....
i want to wait a little while for healing (if healing is what it needs)
she seems to be doing fine, thankfully.

It can take up to 4 months for an eardrum to heal correctly. I would take her in to see the doctor. If the eardrum is perforated, they will probably want to monitor the healing. There is a slight possibility that if it doesn't heal correctly, they will have to surgically patch the eardrum. In the meantime, if the eardrum is perforated, you should not be letting any water get in that ear. Water will collect and can cause bacteria to grow causing an infection. More than likely her eardrum is not perforated but I would take her to the doctor so you know for sure.

well the 15th is the soonest i can get in anyway. so i will have to wait till then.

I really would not worry about it! If she was to have any problems, she surely would have by now. I would still get her checked on the 15, but I am sure it is fine. Let us know

thanks again.