photo credit: Joakim Wahlander
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Never put anything smaller than an elbow in your ear?” Sage advice, indeed.
My parents told me when I was 3 years old, I put a cocoa puff in my nose and it got stuck. Quite a pretty picture, eh? My dad reportedly put black pepper in my other nostril, I sneezed, and the situation was remedied.* I have no memory of the event and cannot imagine why I would do such a thing.
Apparently, incidents of young kids putting objects in their ears, noses and throats are not uncommon. According to the American Family Physician Journal, the most common ear foreign objects include beads, plastic toys, pebbles, and popcorn kernels. The majority of patients with an object in their ear are younger than 8-years-old.
A few years ago when my oldest was 6-years-old, he complained that his ear “felt weird” and that he could not hear very well out of that ear. He had no fever, and had only had one ear infection in his young life, so we waited it out for a few days. Since he swims regularly, I wondered if he had water in his ear. When it had not resolved, I took him to the pediatrician and I watched in horror as she expertly and gently flushed it out. It was one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen.
The dislodged object looked like a large piece of popcorn (popped and expanded) coated with thick wax. The object had become very porous, so in addition to being coated with wax, there were large nooks and crannies filled with wax. The doctor showed it to my son and asked him what it was. My son casually said, “Huh. Well…huh. It looks familiar to me, but I can’t identify it right now.”
Fortunately, there was no follow-up necessary – we went on our way and my son proclaimed that his ear “felt great and totally not weird”. Well done, son! It turns out that popcorn is much easier to extract than an unpopped kernel, due to density and shape. It could have been a lot worse. Read on to learn the interesting story of one young boy’s astonishing ear bean.
Have your children ever put any foreign objects in their ears, noses, or throats? If so, how did you handle it?
*Please seek medical treatment if you suspect your child has a foreign object stuck in their ear, nose, or throat.
