Recently, a mom found a dandelion growing out of her toddler's ear. And let's get real: That's crazy. But since the dawn of time, parents have been finding weird crap stuck inside their small children's ears, because, well, kids are idiots. Just kidding.
I conducted a little poll of my own to find out the strange objects moms and dads have pulled from their children's ears, and while the dandelion growth is hard to top, let's just say this: A live, fluttering moth is a close second.
Here are 9 crazy things parents have found in their children's ears.
Image via keith roper/Flickr
Crayons
Two moms found crayons in their sons' ears. One melted, another … not so melted. As she tells it:
"My son stuck a crayon in his ear when he was 6 and the tip broke off and got lodged in his ear canal. He was at school when it happened and said he was doing a magic trick to have the crayon go in one ear and out the other. He ended up having to go to the hospital to have it removed under sedation!"
Play-Doh
"When my daughter had her annual checkup at 3, the doctor asked me when she had tubes put in her ears. I was like, 'Um, never.' She said, 'Well, there are tubes in her ear.' As I started to completely freak out trying to figure out who kidnapped my kid and put tubes in her ear, the doctor did some more looking and flushing, and out popped a bunch of green Play-Doh — which was apparently the same shade they use to make the tubes that go in kids ears!"
Pencil
"When we were little, my dad would clean his ears with whatever was handy. He didn't go find a Q-Tip; he'd grab keys, a pen cap … whatever. So one day my mom gets a call from the school. My brother — in kindergarten at the time — had been shoving a pencil in his ear, and he'd told them he was just trying to clean them. She gave my dad a piece of her mind, let me tell you!"
A Moth
"I have a friend who had a moth fly into her kid's ear. They had to go to the ER and she was screaming because it kept fluttering around in there. OMG. I'm sweating just thinking about that story again!"
A Bead
"I stuck a bead in my ear when I was maybe 5 … I really don't know why. I think we were at some craft store, and I was bored and thought, 'Hmm what would happen if I just put this heeere …' And it started to hurt and led to this big fiasco in the store with me crying and my mom trying to get it out of my ear. Ugh."
A Beetle
"When I was in fifth grade, a friend came to school and said she woke up in the middle of the night with awful ear pain … she went into the bathroom with her mom — and a beetle crawled out into the sink! They caught it and brought it with them to the doctor, but … YIKES! I still move my hair over my ear when I go to sleep, because I remember that story!"
A Giant Tick
"I found a tick the size of a small grape. No joke. Inside the tragus, that little ear flap part. It must have been there for days before I found myself brushing my daughter's hair in the morning to get her ready for day care, and … WTF is that?!"
Legos
"I just had to deal with my 5-year-old jamming a Lego in his ear. Had to sedate him to remove it. Kids stick stuff in all orifices. My little brother got a FISH stuck up his nose at about 4 years old (he was trying to kiss it goodnight was his story), so honestly it doesn't surprise me!"
Barbie Shoe
"Friends of mine had a preschooler who had a tumor in his ear near his brain — they were told it might be a dangerous form of fast-growing cancer that could have spread to his brain. Surgeons discovered that it was actually a pink Barbie shoe! He had stuck it in his ear much earlier and tissue had grown around it over time. Thankfully, he was fine! It wasn't brain cancer, just a Barbie shoe!"
