School run ear wax

You are making assumptions about family structures that may or may not exist.

If they are from a chaotic family they may have little support.

Their teacher will have noticed surely and considered next steps.

I think a discreet word with the parents, on the grounds that other children may bully their child because of it. Bullying is never acceptable of course, but prevention is a reasonable course of action.

We used to have a weekly bath when I was a kid. Strangely, I grew up ok.

It isn’t necessary to bath a child daily.

YABU. Some children just have naturally more earwax, and the general advice is to leave earwax alone, as it is the ear's self-cleansing mechanism.

Visible earwax might indicate nothing more than the fact that a child with naturally waxy ears is also one that doesn't particularly like to put his head underwater, go swimming or let the shower run into the ear. Given that earwax isn't unhygienic, it would be fine for a parent to allow this preference.

One of my four children has so much orange ear wax it is always visible. We joke about it being a marmalade factory 🤢

He has perfectly healthy ears, no pain, just makes a lot of ear wax.

He also has a few sensory issues and hates anyone touching his ears/hair. And he is rubbish at cleaning them himself because it needs repeated warm cloth wiping with some pressure to shift it.

We have compromised on my cleaning them with a warm flannel once a week. So once a week he might go to school with clean ears, but the rest of the time they’re visibly waxy.

I am not neglecting him. I have just decided that a smooth morning before school is more important than clean ears. I suspect that vanity will kick in eventually and he’ll decide to clean them daily himself.

Gosh that’s incredibly sad

It's clearly unusual and likely a medical thing if it's that visible.

You have no idea what the parents are doing about it - they could be cleaning them in the morning or told to leave it well alone to prevent risk of infection.

That sounds like some kind of medical
condition. How can anyone has that much ear wax?!

What medical advice would state to not clear wax that has accumulated externally on the ear? In the ear canal, sure.

If you have noticed in the fleetingness of the school run then both the parent noticing and not doing anything about it, or the parent not noticing is awful.

You don't know what the parents have or haven't done. They may have sought medical advice and are following it.

Unless there's a backstory here why you've assumed they're being neglectful?

its is so very sad. we were very poor but were thoroughly clean

I remember kids at school with waxy ears and it did really make me feel ill as a child seeing dirty ears. This I was always really on top of cleaning my kid’s ears (and keeping fingernails short and clean) In my experience you don’t give potential bullies any ammunition.

I suppose the childs ears could be cleaned before they go to school. This is what my nan told me to do as a foster child. Everyting was done before school. Nan would lick her thumb and start brushing my eye brows.

When my wisdom teeth were coming through I had insanely waxy ears. Whenever DS is congested he gets horribly waxy ears, I wipe it off but it comes back very quick. Some people are just waxy.

You would hope so but Im amazed at the comments on this thread.

Its well known that dodgy ears can produce a huge amount of wax

Both my kids have waxy ears. I’ve never suffered but their dad does! Both hate having their ears wiped but I do wipe them (outside of ear only) if I see if. Get fully bathed everyday and ears cleaned regularly, they just literally make a lot of wax!

Please don't feel worried on the basis of this thread. Most people are logical enough to realise they have never had to clean visible wax from their ears, and that the presence of it is therefore an indication of a medical condition, not neglect.

My daughter has waxy ears often, as do I as I have narrow ear canals. Microsuction places aren’t allowed to carry it out on under 16s. I wouldn’t use the cotton buds or a home machine myself as you can make it so much worse. Olive oil is all you really have to be honest. Ears are very delicate. My daughter is not neglected.

Some people just have waxy ears. My 2yo I have to wipe his ears daily as always has visible wax when he wakes up, some days it’s on the side of his face etc. - all normal and checked thoroughly by docs. I have the same issue and get an ear infection roughly once a month so think he’s inherited his gubby ears from me! I’d hate for people to think I’m neglectful, as per some of the above posters forgetting just one day of wiping his ears would lead some to think that way.

If you're cleaning them every day then I'm sure they're not noticeable to anyone else!

And what do you think the medical advice would be? Probably to leave alone if not causing a problem. You aren't supposed to put cotton buds in ears etc.

Whilst I would probably think a very careful wipe of the visible stuff is advisable, it's probably easier said than done.

Perhaps just leave this situation alone.

One of my kids would get really waxy ears when little and sometimes would wake up with some down the side of her face like next to her ear. We’d clean it up. it does seem bad they’ve let them go to school like that.

This is so sad especially if it's the majority of pupils. I don't understand why people can't take basic care of their children.