Here is a trip down EarWell lane..
These show the right ear protrusion before the EarWell system:
Here are a couple of pictures showing the heavy lidding on her left ear:
Her progression from her first appt. to her last:
*Please note that the camera often flips the image. The right ear was the one protruding and the left ear was the one with the heavy lid. The left Ear Well was removed first and the right Ear Well was removed two weeks later.
I want to start this post by saying that I know this is super insignificant to so many people. This post will literally just be about cosmetic ear molds that we had put on our daughter when she was 7 days old.
I know that babies having big ear lids, protruding ears, etc. are tiny problems when it comes to the major things parents sometimes have to face with their children.
Just know that at the time, this was significant to us. So significant that I cried about it more than a few times. I think ANYTHING, when it comes to your tiny newborn baby, is significant.
This post was strictly written to tell everyone about the EarWell Stystem, so that new parents can make an informed decision when it comes time to.
Mostly because this is something you have to decide on in the first ten days of your child’s life.
EarWell System
How did this all get started?
When your baby is born you will inspect everything about them. You won’t be able to stop staring at them. You get especially close up to them while nursing them in the hospital.
During one of our nursing sessions I noticed that one of Miller’s ears was really close to her head and the other wasn’t. The other one looked normal and the one that was pressed to her head looked off to me.
Let me just say thank goodness her two ears were different. Because little did I know it, but the one that LOOKED NORMAL to me was the one that was the problem!
When I mentioned it to the hospital pediatrician, she looked at them and agreed that one of her ears stuck out a little more than normal. I was like ‘wait, what’? I thought the one that was pressed to her was the weird ear. NOPE!
She then told me I could have cosmetic ear molds put on and recommended two people to me: Children’s Hospital and Dr. Byrd.
Ya’ll- I 100% believe she would have never said anything about Miller’s ears if I hadn’t pointed it out. But if you think about, that is probably normal. Why would a pediatrician want to point out something that may be a tiny bit aesthetically off about your newborn baby? I definitely can’t imagine they would ever say, ‘Oh, and by the way your baby’s nose is a bit crooked, I recommend you having something done for it.’
I wish they would though. So many parents leave the hospital NOT REALIZING that their baby may need Ear Wells until it is too late.
Why too late? Because you have to have the Wells put on within the first ten days of their life in order for them to really work.
When we saw our own pediatrician a couple days later, we brought it up again. She probably would have never said anything either. But, she actually had this entire system from Dr Byrd that she pulled out. She had a pen that measured how far the ear stuck out from the head and it determined that Miller’s was in the red zone. She then gave us all of his information.
Little did we know that Dr. Byrd CO-INVENTED the EarWell System.
We immediately called and got in right away. We knew we didn’t even need a consult at this point since her two ears were so dramatically different. But, if you are unsure, most practices will do free consultations to determine if your baby needs Ear Wells.
What is an Ear Well?
According to Baylor Hospital research, ear deformities affect 25-35% of all newborns. Let that soak in. 25-35%!!!
The EarWell™ Infant Ear Correction System allows infants with ear birth deformities to be treated in a painless, non-surgical manner. They are plastic molds that are applied to the ears to help shape and correct muscles within the ear.
The Process
We went into our appointment knowing Miller was going to have to get an Ear well on her right ear. What we didn’t know was that she would actually need them on BOTH ears. Why? because the left ear actually had very heavy lidding that needed to be corrected.
They basically said if we were going to fix one, we may as well fix both. And we agreed.
At our first appointment they showed us what was wrong and how they were going to fix it. The right ear stuck out so much that by the age of 5 it would have stuck out 3x as much as the left ear. The left ear just had heavy lidding that needed to be fixed.
They shaved part of her head (so hard guys, the hair still hasn’t grown back) and the first Ear Wells were put on. Apparently Miller does NOT like having her ears touched. She did NOT like it when they put them on, but we could tell it wasn’t really hurting her at all.
After two weeks we went back in to get them put back on (you will go in every two weeks.) They will give you tape at your first appointment in case the Wells start coming off before the two week appt. We had to use that tape.
Miller screamed bloody murder at her second appt. They actually remove the Ear Wells with alcohol pads. The Ear Wells are actually taped down pretty well so this means they have to remove the tape with the alcohol. Ouch! I would recommend putting baby oil on the tape the night before each appt. to help them loosen up. Their little baby skin is so sensitive!
Then she wore them for two more weeks. At her 4 week appt. they took the left ear mold off and just used tape to hold it back (kind of like what a retainer does for braces.) The right ear needed to stay on for another two weeks.
She finally had the right Ear Well removed after 6 weeks (right before Christmas). They removed the tape off the left ear and put retraction tape on the right ear.
They gave us something to measure with and said if the ear starts protruding again past that point then we would want to come back in and apply more tape.
PS-the actual Ear Wells NEVER BOTHERED HER. EVER! She did not even notice they were on. She never reached for them or tried to pull them off or anything. They only bothered her during the appointments (and she screamed bloody murder during those!)
They bothered us wayyy more than they bothered her. It is hard to bathe them because you have to make sure they don’t get wet. You have to apply more tape once they start coming off too soon, you have to take precautions to make sure spit up doesn’t collect in them, burping them in your lap is a little difficult because of the way you have to hold their head, etc.
BUT NOW SHE HAS TWO BEAUTIFUL EARS!!
The Cost
Insurance should cover a lot of it. We ended up paying $1300 out of pocket for both ears.
Why We Did It
When I mentioned it on Instagram Stories I got flooded with messages. I was worried I would get hate messages, but all I got was love.
So many stories were shared of personal experiences with my reader’s own ears. So many mothers wished they had known about them in time and so many adults talked about their own ear troubles. They talked about how much they were bullied or what kind of super painful surgery they went through to fix their ears later in life.
We choose to do it in her first few months of life, months she would never remember, to help her avoid all of that later on.
We 100% recommend this to every new parent out there. Go in for a consult if you think you need one! You know your baby best. If something is off about them SPEAK UP!
You will also be so glad you did it. It will be hard on you, but it honestly flies by so fast and becomes something of the past in a blink of an eye. 0 regrets.
Please leave a comment below with any questions you may have.
xox Amanda
Comments
Thanks so much for posting your experience with EarWells. Our baby boy just got them put on today at three weeks of age. Hopefully we caught it in time. I had a similar experience as other posters where our pediatrician said it would work itself out but when I pressed him to find out more information of what to do about lidding, he later sent me a list of plastic surgeons. The earliest I could get in to one of the doctors was 2 weeks out and our baby was already 2 weeks old! I took matters into my own hands and found a plastic surgeon who thankfully had a cancellation the next day so could see us. We had to scramble over the weekend to find a photographer to take newborn pictures before our baby had the caps put on. The caps went on today. I will look for the pinched skin as someone else recommended. The pieces looks uncomfortable but the baby hasn’t really complained or tried to pull at them. I’m so glad to have found other experiences and hope that we have a good result like your baby’s. Thanks again!
I noticed quickly that our son had something going on with both ears. They don’t stick out, but the shapes were a little off. My wife and I were concerned that the shapes could lead to teasing which I can relate with due to personal childhood experiences with a trifecta of material for kids to tease me for. Children can be cruel, even these days, so I decided to research ear correction methods, preferably non surgical!
I came across the Earwell system and saved the article. I then called our pediatrician not knowing exactly what kind of Dr I needed to reach out to. They suggested an ENT and I called one office and the lady said the Dr I needed to see worked in plastic surgery previously so we met him, he installed the Earwell, and we were good to go it seemed.
****One thing for people to watch out for! The portion that caps off the piece that goes around the ear can come unsnapped and IF the ear is against the edge of the outer piece, it’s possible for the ear to become pinched between the outer piece and the cap!! Watch and make sure it doesn’t come unsnapped constantly!!!
Our “cap” apparently unsnapped and my son’s upper ear lobe was pinched for a while…to the point it cut off circulation and killed tissue (black) in one very tiny spot. I immediately corrected the figment on my own at home to mitigate damage. We got squeezed into an impromptu appointment to make sure everything was ok and the Dr wasn’t overly concerned and said it would heal. Reading online the night before had me freaked out worrying about gangrene! 😨 That was a week ago. The tissue around that spot looks better and the black spot is no larger thankfully. I think it’s likely scab material now that’ll be addressed next week. ****
I was searching for results oriented feedback and came across your blog so I thought I could possibly save a child and its parents some stress by sharing our experience up to this point that is now two weeks past our Earwell fitment.
We can’t wait for the results!
Hey! What did you do with her hair after the EarWells came off? Our 6 week old girl just got hers off – love the ears! So glad we did it! But now not sure what to do with her hairdo !? Shave it all off and let it all grow back evenly or trim it into a serious Mohawk or just let it all be and grow back naturally?
Let it grow back naturally!! It’ll catch up! Xox A
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. This was such a hard decision to make but you definitely made it easier by sharing!
My son just got EarWells for protruding ears. No one said anything to us about EarWells so we are late to the game— he got them on at 11 weeks old. But he was premature so we’re hoping the cartilage is still soft enough.
Question about the baby oil the night before. How much did you apply and how? He has a bandaid looking tape around the EarWell. Did you apply the baby oil to that or to the actual EarWell stuck to your daughters head?
Thanks!
We applied the baby oil to the tape alone and never inside the ear wells. xox A
Thank you so much for writing this. My newborn son is getting his EarWell tomorrow and we had no idea what to expect until we read your post. Thank you so much for sharing your experience. It’s helped me more than you know.
I am so glad Lauren! Please excuse my late response back! At this point the Ear Wells are probably already behind you! Doesn’t it go so quickly? xox Amanda
Hi I just had the Earwell put on my baby’s ears.. I have a question how long did it take for the hair to grow back in??
I just did too and I wish we can get an answer based on her experience . Did your baby’s hair grow back?
Yes her hair grew back! It took a little while but now I hardly remember it. xox Amanda
Hi! My baby has had his ear wells for 3 weeks now, and should get them off soon. About how long would you say it took for the hair to grow back ?
It took awhile :/ I don’t remember the exact amount of time but that flies by fast too! xox A
Hi, my baby also need Eyewell. Appreciate if you could sharing some tips how to bath your daughter to keep the device dry. And is that OK to put my baby to sleep on her side which Ear well device applied? Or she only can sleep on her back? Thanks
Thank you for your post! I wasn’t sure if we should do this or not for my son but reading your post really helped. We were a little later then I would have liked to be -by the time I learned about ear molding and found a doctor and did the research he was 3 weeks when we got them put on. He’s only 2 days into wearing them and we’ve had the same experience, they don’t bother him but I’m constantly worried of how I’m holding him so that I don’t mess something up! We’re trying his first bath with the ear wells on tonight so we’ll see how that goes. I hope our results are as good as your little ones 🙂 thanks again for the post there really needs to be more information out there for parents!
Awh I am so glad to hear that! It will go by soooo fast and you will hardly remember it when you look back! xox A
Do you have any recommendations for a baby that is now 15 weeks? My gut told me to do something and I sadly ignored it. It’s not even just cosmetic – they poke out and get caught folded forward in her car seat or in our arms. I so so wish I had known about this. Thank you for sharing.
Ear buddies! Started them on my son at 6 months and they are working great!! (You can use them even up to a year or two old.) The website is in UK but shipping was no problem.
Thank you SO much for sharing your story. Because you were so transparent about your experience through Instagram stories (while I was pregnant) as soon as my daughter was born I assessed her ears. She, too, needed Ear Wells and we can not thank you enough for recommending Dr. Byrd! We got in just in time and she will have them off in about 3 weeks. Thank you for being open!
OMG these comments are going to have me in tears all day today! I am so happy I was able to help!!! xox Amanda
Thank you so much for this Amanda! Honestly I had no idea what ear wells were before you and thanks to you, my 7 week old has perfect ears now. My pediatrician actually told me her ears would be fine when we asked but she had such bad lidding on both ears we still wanted to see a specialist and the specialist said she definitely needs the wells. Because of your journey and Miller’s journey with the ear wells, we were able to get them on before she was 21 days (which was the cut off) and now she will not have to worry about her ears when she is older or bullying. Her lidding was so bad they covered half of her ear and the other ear had the same lidding and was super pointy like an elf. We are so happy and so is Chloe. We can’t thank you enough!!!
OMG CHILLS! This means everything to me thank you! And yes I should probably mention you have a little longer if it is a lidding issue and not a protrusion issue. I am so happy you heard about it in time and that you were happy with the process! Now you can spread your knowledge to even more mamas out there! xox a