3-month-old baby with offensive odour coming from ears

[womanofthesun]

Since yesterday I've noticed quite a sharp, offensive, waxy odour coming from both ears of my 3-month-old baby. The smell isn't terrible, but strong enough for me to smell it when kissing his cheek (perhaps others wouldn't notice it, but as I'm his mum I definitely do). I suspect that a little water might've gotten into his ears when washing his hair the other day, forming a little pool inside maybe? He doesn't appear to have a fever or be unwell, so I don't think infection is involved... nor does there appear to be a visible build up of wax in the ear - the ears are not leaking wax or fluid.

Anyone know how I might be able to get rid of this odour?

Thanks!

I think that merits a GP appointment- HPC needs to look down those ears, just to check what's going on.

That’s worthy of a GP check.

Try looking in behind his ears, when mine were little the milk seemed to gather there, and vomit too, and the smell, oh dear Lord!! Otherwise I'm not sure, kids do stink but generally not that young

Make sure you clean behind the ear and inside the bend at the top of the lobe (NOT inside the earhole itself). I had a sicky baby and milky sick did tend to run down and get caught up in the ear area. If that isn't it, probably worth seeing a GP or HV.

Thanks, everyone. I went to call the GP to make an appointment, only to realise that it's Sunday! 😅 Will do so tomorrow. I realised that the smell is actually only coming from one ear - not both. It's definitely coming from inside the ear and not behind it because I clean that fold behind the ear (and generally every fold) quite religiously - the amount of gunk that builds up in those folds is quite absurd! ☺️ and, yes, I also clean the fold inside the lobe because I've found pieces of wax think in there, too - ew!!!

I definitely think this is trapped water as the smell is also quite dampy. Would need to somehow dry inside the ear, if that's something the GP could do!

Hey, everyone! Shortly after posting this thread I realised that the smell wasn't coming from his ears at all. I have him a bath later that day and could no longer smell it, but the smell still lingered on our bedding. Just now, I noticed that his hair was wet and that the smell was coming from the wetness on his hair. I also saw a wet patch on my bedding, near where his head was. Smelt the wet patch and it smelt exactly the same. Suddenly had an 'ah ha!' moment - it's baby sick! Hadn't really noticed the smell before!

... it has a very sour, quite acidic smell!