Q. I wiped my baby's ears with a cotton swab and he started wailing. Could I have hurt him, or damaged his hearing?

A. {You probably just scratched the inside of his ear canal, which can hurt but isn't dangerous. If you got the swab in deep, though, there's a chance you punctured your baby's eardrum. That could affect his hearing  -- but usually only temporarily, since most eardrum injuries heal just fine. Have a doctor check him out if he stays fussy or becomes feverish, or if you see fluid or pus coming out of his ear.

You really don't need to clean inside your baby's ears, though. Earwax is not dirt; it actually protects ears from dirt. And it usually doesn't build up too much anyway, since tiny hairs inside the ears push the wax out on a regular basis. Using a cotton swab  -- even the "child-safe" kind, which just has a bigger cotton end  -- often pushes the wax back inside, clogging up the canal. All you need to do to keep a baby's ears clean is wipe the outside of the ears with a washcloth every now and then. (Same goes for adults.

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