tuesday tip

your mom may have told you, your doctor most likely told you, and now i'm gonna tell you my tuesday tip:

don't use a q-tip to clean out your ears.

or your daughter's ears.

i had done this since samantha was little. after her bath i'd gently twist the q-tip in her ear to get out the "sunshine" in her ears, or earwax. :-) well last year when i took her to the doctor for her 4 year well check they said she had a big buildup of earwax and instructed me not to use a q-tip because that compacts the earwax in your ear.

so i haven't. but in one year no earwax came out.

until a couple weeks ago. one day before the kids' appointments, the light hit samantha's ear just right and i could see something in it. so i got the flashlight and started looking in her ear. it looked like her whole ear was plugged with earwax. so i got a toothpic (probably not a good idea) and tweezers (again, i should have probably left this to the experts) and tried to start moving it around. i got a few pieces out, then ben insisted that i just let the doctor look at it in the morning.

when the nurse looked at it the next day she said they'd have to flush her ears out. then dr. o, you know, the doctor who isn't our doctor that i liked better, dug around in her ear with what looked like some kind of crochet hook and pulled out a big piece. he was even a little grossed out.

dr. b decided not to flush it out, but to just have me put mineral oil drops in it every night to soften it up. hey... did you know that the ear naturally pushes out the ear wax that it doesn't need? all those little hairs move it along the ear canal to the outer ear.

anyway, i put drops in her ears every day in addition to toothpicking her ear! (man, i wish i could've seen how idiotic i looked. ben has this flashlight thingy that fits over your head with elastic. it's like a miner's light. so i'd wear the hands-free light to see into her ear while prodding around with the toothpic.) then finally one day i was able to stick the tweezers in her ear and grasp a gigantic chunk of sunshine. and then an even bigger piece after that!!! fast forward about three days and i was able to do that to the other ear. gross and facinating all at the same time!

so because three of you wanted to see the picture, and because no one objected, here it is.

CAUTION!!

close the window

if you get

grossed out

easily!

see the lighter half of the huge chunk? i got three of those out of each ear before the huge chunk came out. and the dark part? it totally plugged up her entire ear canal. in both ears.

legal disclaimer: consult your physician before starting any exercise program sticking toothpicks and tweezers in anyone's ear. (unless, of course, you have a steady hand and a still child!)