Study: More than 30 children a day visit ERs for cotton swab ear injuries

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It can happen to anyone.

"My daughter got the end of a cotton swab stuck in her ear and I had to take it out," said pediatrician Dr. Stephanie Richter.

A study published in the Journal of Pediatrics looked at Consumer Product Safety Commission data from the past two decades. More than 263,000 children 18 and younger went to emergency rooms for cotton swab ear injuries.

That's about 35 a day.

And that doesn't include children who got hurt but didn't go to the ER.

Channel 9 shared the statistics with a group of Charlotte mothers.

"I’m definitely surprised by the number of injuries per day," said Rebekah Rubenstein.

Most of the cases, nearly 77 percent, occurred when the children were cleaning their own ears, and the most common injuries included some of the most severe, like perforated eardrums and bleeding.

"This part of your ear canal is not very sensitive, but once you get past here, it's extremely sensitive and extremely painful," said Richter while showing Channel 9 a diagram of the inner ear.

She said to follow a simple rule: Don't put cotton swabs past the ear's opening.

Most swabs have warnings on the box that say the same thing -- warnings parents shouldn’t ignore.

Cox Media Group