# Is ear candling safe during pregnancy?



## lwuertz (Apr 22, 2008)

I know all the typical reasons why you shouldn't ear candle (you could burn yourself, it pulls out too much wax, etc)... but I struggled with chronic ear infections for years and this is the only thing that keeps them away. I've been putting off doing it since becoming pregnant, but my ears are feeling full and popping and I know that if I wait much longer I'll have an infection and have to go on antibiotics (yuck!). I was thinking that maybe the smoke would be bad to inhale since I'm pregnant. Does anyone know if it is safe to do this while pregnant? My ears need some relief!


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## VeganCupcake (Jun 13, 2007)

I wouldn't think the smoke would be anything worse than having a candle lit in the room. I know you can get cleaner-burning ear candles made of higher-quality waxes, so you might want to choose those instead of the rock-bottom cheap-o ones. Also, you could do it outside or in another very well-ventilated area and I don't think it would be anything to worry about at all.

Just my .02.


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## nashvillemidwife (Dec 2, 2007)

It's fine.


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## dis (May 21, 2005)

It's no more or less safe during pregnancy than any other time.


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## Equuskia (Dec 16, 2006)

If you're looking to remove wax from your ears, I use this:
http://www.ototekloop.com/index.html

It's quite safe and very effective. I pull out big blobs of wax out of my ears, and the nice thing is I don't have to use water or anything. I can't stand wet ears.


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## nursingmom (Nov 24, 2001)

funny thing. My mom went to a salon to get ear candling to see if it'll help with her hearing... but it didn't. My sister has a Doctor of Audiology and I think she told me that the ear candling is doesn't work. I'm surprise that it works for you. Do you do it yourself or do you go somewhere to get it done?

Koreans removes ear wax by using a tiny ear wax spoon made of bamboo. I use it on myself all the time and it feels really good. My ear canal gets totally cleaned! One of my son loves it! He wants me to clean his ear wax all the time! And I noticed that when I use it on my baby, she calms down.

It's not recommeded to use the ear wax spoon because you can accidently poke your ear drum. So, what I'm doing is probably not a good thing. However, Koreans have been removing ear wax on themselves and children for centuries using this ear wax spoon. You just have to have a very steady hand and make sure your children don't move.

You can find the ear wax spoon in any Korean grocery store.

Looks like this: http://www.koamart.com/shop/26-2245-...emover_set.asp


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## lwuertz (Apr 22, 2008)

I buy the candles and do it myself.

Kinda gross, but I always open them up and see what they pulled out and it does get a lot of stuff.

I went ahead and did one in each ear after I got some OKs that it was safe here. Sometimes just one in each ear doesn't do the trick and I have to do two, but most of the time one is enough.

It really does help my ears to feel so much better. Most people think it's weird, but it works for me.


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