If your child has had hearing aids for years, you know that you still need to be the one to clean the hearing aids and help your child put them in and take them out. Until your child has reached his or her mid-teen years, his or her inner ear canals are shorter than an adult's, placing the membranes of the ear drums much closer to the outer ear canals. Without your assistance, a lot of damage to your child's ears could occur. There are other reasons why you need to help too.

Hearing Aids Need to Be Cleaned Carefully

Some kids, especially elementary school children, have not acquired the manual dexterity necessary to clean ear wax out of hearing aids. Attempting to clean their own hearing aids could result in damage to the hearing aids and poor hearing. As unpleasant as the job may be, you will need to use the micro-tools to clean the hearing aids nightly. A very gentle approach with good dexterity will keep your child's hearing aids functional and effective for years.

Fingers Should Stay out of the Ears

Like so many other parents, you are probably reminding your child that "fingers stay out of ears." That is a little more difficult to enforce if your child wears hearing aids. If your child also wears micro- or "invisible" hearing aids, there is a chance that a finger in the ear while wearing one of these types of ITC (in the canal) hearing aids could rupture the ear drum and cause an infection. Until your child is old enough to understand and stick to the rule of "no fingers in the ears", you will have to put his or her hearing aids in and then very carefully retrieve them at night. Once you have taught your child to insert and remove his or her own hearing aids safely, then there should be little concern about fingers in the ears when the hearing aids are inside.

Ear Canals Need Regular Cleaning Too

Excess ear wax can block the the canal and make it difficult for your child to hear and difficult to insert hearing aids. You cannot instruct your child on how to clean his or her ears at home because it would be too easy for your child to make a mistake and injure his or her inner ears. Instead, use a warm soapy cloth to clean the outside ears and a wax reduction and flushing kit from a pharmacy to clean the inside of both your child's ears. Teach him or her the proper use of the cleaning and flushing kit, and when it is best to use it. Then the hearing aids will glide in without resistance and your child will hear only clear tones and sounds, instead of muffled noise or no sound at all.

For more information, contact a business like The Hearing Clinic.