Piggybacking on ThisisLarry's post on ear wax, I love my ear pick. They have them at every Japanese sundry shop right by the cash register. I've even seen a Hello Kitty version.
When we were kids my mom would hold our heads and scoop out wads of ear wax with the bamboo pick. It was like getting your back scratched. When I got old enough, I figured out every nook and cranny of my ear hole and went to town. I still do it every day, much to the chagrin of Otolaryngologists, my wife who has to deal with the remnants on the bathroom sink, and friends unfamiliar with Asian ear canal hygiene who happen to catch me in my boxers, head askew, concentrating, sticking what looks like a torture device in my ear and scraping with impunity.
Now, being a father, I get a little freaked out just inserting a Q-Tip into my son's ear though I remember clearly how good it felt as a kid to have my ears cleaned. What if he moves his head? What if an earthquake hits and something knocks my arm? What if I have a muscle spasm and ram the thing into his eardrum?
How do you clean your kids ears? And do they like it?
SD
14 comments:
Oh I looooooooove cleaning my ears with an ear pick. It feels so good! I clean my son and daughter's ears with a Q-tip, but I don't have to do it but about once a week, as they don't have much ear wax.
i LOVE my ear pick - and there's something friendly/comforting about the fuzzy white end . . .
anyhow i choose to use a combination of both Q tips and the ear pick on the children. on the boy child i definitely start with the ear pick - he's got ear wax to to max!
LoL.. dry ear wax rules!!
and ear picking rules too! I can't stand not picking my ear for more than 2 days.
I don't have a kid yet, but I remember loving my ear picked by my mom and grandma as a kid. It just feels soooo goooooood.
totally -heart- the ear pick. I actually groom Mrs Thisislarry's ears as well (sorry to set the bar higher for all you other ricedaddies).
Amazingly, I havent gone after the kids' ears yet -basically those same fears: what if I screw it up?
And of course, imagining the horror in the pediatrician's eyes -I wonder if it would be something like admitting you do your own circumcisions...
I love your blog. Keep up the good work.
Ear Picker Gloria said:
"and ear picking rules too! I can't stand not picking my ear for more than 2 days."
i TOTALLY understand this. If I forget to pack the pick for a trip, it'll bug me incessantly, to the point I'll use my car keys. Quite a visual, I know.
I once met an EN&T doctor who was absolutely floored when I told him about the apparatus. He said, throw it away; not only is it dangerous, but ear wax is a natural cleansing agent and protects your canal from harboring disease.
Maybe Dr. Lo Siento can weigh in?
SD
Holy $#!+ I have never heard of such a thing before. Honest. That's f-ing gross, and I wanna try it. Now, where can I get one of those wonderful ear scrapers?
... and what does one do with the wax? Could I make a candle or something useful?
haha! yeah i love cleaning my ears and i loved having my parents do it when i was little too. the doctor would always tell us it was dangerous and unnecessary--and they were japanese and chinese american doctors too! i think we had one doctor who did it for us when we were real young though.
don't you think the dry ear wax is part of why ear cleaning is seen as less gross in asia? i mean, i know ear picks are seen as ridiculous by most americans. but ear picking is almost like... i mean, you can almost do it in public don't you think? (or maybe i am just gross.)
I clean my imps ears by letting wife.imp do their showers a couple times a week.
She also does their nails too!
This post cracked me up.
We have several of these in the house and they get used all too frequently. We have a red one with a fat red penguin-like bird on the end.
I think some people get an inordinate amt of pleasure in cleaning out other people's ears, even if you could potentially really hurt that other person with a minor hand flinch...
-beast mom
Two posts in a row on ear picking... Oy! :)
I keep trying to get my wife the doctor to comment about the time she dug a q-tip tip out of a dude's ear.
But yeah, my first reaction to these posts was, uh, how do I clean my kid's ears? Wait, I'm supposed to clean her ears? Yeah, it's enough of a battle to clip her nails, I'm not sticking anything in her ear.
DISL--
I too have found difficulty in clipping nails but learned that calling the act "giving the nails a haircut" is a bit easier for him to understand.
SD
ironnically (sp?)
the inventor of this instrument
is probably broke! (poor guy!)
i betcha millions of these are sold year round!
i never leave home without
this ear pick!
Ha, the BIG quake hitting is my biggest fear when doing the chore - glad to see I'm not the only one that has had that concern! Love the blogs!
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