School run ear wax

Gosh I must lead a sheltered life but I think this would break my heart 😢

Well this thread is a depressing read. My DS gets crusty, waxy looking ears during an eczema flare up. He's very self conscious about it and now I'm worried people think I am neglecting him when they see his ears 😥

Aw bless. That is very heartbreaking that there are so many kids like that in your school.

i’d assume it’s a medical thing with the wax. Are they clean and fairly well presented otherwise OP?

It is advised NOT to spray water into your ear as it can make you prone to ear infections i.e. swimmers ear.
Instead, olive oil drops can be used to soften the wax and then any excess can gently be wiped away with a clean cloth.

My husband has problems with ear wax and I'm sure the leaflet he was given from the ear clinic said waxy ears are usually perfectly healthy but it can be a problem when the wax is impacted from using cotton buds etc.

When my son was waiting for tonsillectomy his ears produced an alarming amount of wax. I'd be cleaning tons out every single afternoon and definitely worried about him best the gross earwax kid. But it literally poured out of them. Saw Dr who advised it was all his tubes blocked up but not clean other than taking off what came out of the canal. No cotton buds or syringing or whatever. He has a bath 6/7 evenings ( often Friday nights he's exhausted so goes to bed and showers in the morning) and it's gone and by evening again crusted up. Since his tonsils came out he rarely has visible wax, we still wipe round his ear canal to take any visible wax off but it maybe has a small beige wipe every week where pre tonsillectomy I can't even describe the spoonfuls of wax daily. Just saying. May not be negkect

We have kids in our school like this. The Dad is blind. The Mum is very odd, I dont know how else to describe her 🙈 I haven't addressed it with the school. Its all outside their ears, its absolutely gross

I used to hate it when children came to school in uniform covered in yesterday's dinner, or the week before's! There'd be children who had dreadfully runny noses and the snot would have dried and caked onto their face.
I used to have soap, nail brushes, flannels etc to clean them up and the school kitchen would sometimes run a wash of sweatshirts through for us.
OP, I'd mention it to the DSL at school - just say that you're sure they've picked it up but several other parents have noticed it and children are commenting on it. It's up to them then what to do next.

how Do you know they don’t have a medical condition?
It’s none of your business. I’d be more concerned if they were dirty.

https://amzn.eu/d/0ekLF0GX

This was it.

I genuinely can't remember ever seeing ear wax on anyone, young or old. Never had to actively clean it off myself or my child, that I can remember.

So to be honest if I saw this I would assume that there was a reasonable explanation I wasn't aware of. For example that the kids had some kind of health condition that was leading to a constant secretion, perhaps to the extent that repeatedly cleaning it off was causing skin irritation? Or maybe there is some co-morbidity going on, and removing it causes sensory issues for the kids? I dunno, these explanations possibly sound stupid.....

And maybe I am just being naive. But I wouldn't leap to neglect - I'd probably assume there was an underlying cause I didn't understand.

(Though to be fair, if that was the case someone would probably have heard of it and have mentioned it on the thread by now).

Hope it's not neglect, obviously. Though hoping it's down to some health issues doesn't sound great either.....:(

Ear wax isn’t dirty.

Some dps happily leave hair infested with nits and don't give a shit...
I've seen myself. Bloody grim.
FYI nit lotion is free at Asda if they can see actual nits..
Ime.

I bought nail brushes for school as I can’t abide filthy finger nails. What’s up with parents.

It does indicate a neglectful approach. Obviously we all know cotton buds are frowned upon, but to leave visible wax around the ear opening implies the children are not being thoroughly cleaned.

What’s the device called?

My kids have very waxy ears especially the younger one but it’s never been visible to others!! Honestly what do we accept as parenting standards now?
I check their ears regularly (after teeth brushing for example) and if I see a build up I clean it out or use the oil ear drops and it comes out after a day or two.

Poor kids, they will get bullied at school.

I have a child with super waxy ears. I have managed to control it after buying an ear cleaning device that shoots water into the ear, but prior to that I needed to clean them almost every day. Some children are more prone than others, but I do think it’s off putting to others and so always kept on top of it, wiping around the ear so nothing can be seen.

You could do something. Next time you’re at the school pop in the office and ask to speak confidentially about a concern. It may be it’s all in hand, but if nothing else you’re highlighting that other kids are being mean.

DD2 has bouts of this not a constant issue - she also dislikes her ears and neck being touched and my other kids and DH found it weird when I wanted to check so she started hating it - so it has depended on me remember to subtly check.

It's not blocked ears it's just lots of earwax and no HCP ever been interested other than to say don't use ear buds.

I think it may well be neglect.
I remember when I was at primary school there were a family of scruffy, smelly children. The boy in my class had lots of visible ear-wax. I remember noticing it even though I was only about 6 at the time. I didn't understand and didn't want to sit next to him, nor did other children.
I asked my mum about the family a few years ago. She told me that the dad had died and everyone knew that the mum was an alcoholic and really struggling. School safeguarding wasn't really a thing then. It still makes me sad to think about (that I was one of the cruel kids, who didn't want to sit next to him - I just didn't know). I wonder what happened to them.

As a teacher I see this quite a lot however I work in a school where many small children have rotten teeth, smell of wee, poo, weed, fags, general unwashedness, are under or over fed and have had little sleep. So on its own ear wax wouldn’t concern me too much unless the child couldn’t hear.

We use cotton buds and never had an issue. I ‘soak’ the ears in a bit of Vaseline very lightly and after a hot bath it all comes right off in a few swipes. And it’s thoroughly cleaned weekly, so really not much build up each week

How do you clean their ears? Because as a PP said using cotton buds is definitely not advised and you shouldn't put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow 😆

I'm surprised these kids can hear sit that much wax, mine have been fully blocked with was a couple of times and it was painful but also I struggled.to hear