Stuck in DC ear

[Airymama]

I need some advice and quick. My DC has a contraceptive pill stuck in their ear. ENT dr couldn’t get it out so have booked DC in for a general anaesthetic next week. DC is only 3 so I want to avoid a GA if at all possible
any and all advice to get the thing out would be welcome. thank you!

Kindly OP, if an ENT can’t get it out then you have no hope! You’d only risk damaging the ear and aggravating DC further

I’m sure if there was some thing then ENT would have told you. I doubt she will be under for more than a couple of minutes.

This. Leave it and just hope and pray it works its way out before the op.

Do not attempt anything that has not been advised by a medical professional.

My experience is they suggest GA with younger children as wriggling can cause issues with tricky, fine procedures. If you have a very chilled biddable child can you speak to them again about attempting without GA? Personally I would just go with what is advised though.

Please don't meddle with their ears.

Also you need to lock medicines away.

A contraceptive pill???

Yup!
I of course keep all medicines out of the way of the DC.
all I can think is one had fallen out into a handbag some time ago and they’ve got hold of it and voila!

I'm 70 but distinctly remember stuffing my ears with privet leaves to attract my Mum's attention when I was 5. It worked as she had to rush me to the doctor who got them out with tweezers.

Stuff like this happens, if it wasn't a pill it could have been something else.

Just thank you lucky stars that it is in his ear and not in his mouth.
Keep medication well away from small children in future. Lesson learned the hard way.

I would follow ENT advice on this. Don't try and get it out yourself. It may work it's way out on it's own but if not, your best bet is to have it removed under GA.

Surely it would dissolve in water? Take them swimming? Disclaimer - I have no idea how far in water goes with ears.

If it was that simple the ENT doctor would have thought of it.

To be fair, I don't think much remembering would be needed on your part. At least in our family the, "Privet leaves in the ears incident" would have become the stuff of legend to be brought up any opportunity.

It's quite the mental image.

🤣

At least dc didn't swallow a €0.20 coin! Which are quite large! One of my dcs wanted to impress the younger one by doing a magic trick🙁. She's still here thankfully 26 years later!

Definitely leave it to the experts and don’t attempt removal, use of water etc. If ENT can’t get it out, it’s extremely doubtful anything else will work!

Don’t you have those ear microsuction places in the uk? Seems like they could just go in and pick it up in a jiffy.

They do but some children are too young/not capable of sitting still so they need to use drugs to keep them still. You'd think they could just dissolve it a bit of saline/enough that it comes out, but I guess there's the uncertainty about tablet coating/hormones and what that could do to an ear - bet there's not much research on that one!