Can you see your child's eardrum with just a flashlight?

[hentob]

All of these years, I thought that the pearly, whitish/greyish ball I saw in the depths of my childrens' ears were eardrums. If the room is pitch black and they are in the mood to hold still while I yank and pull and I shine the light just so, I have a perfect view.

My son is complaining of ear pain and lo and behold, one "eardrum" is red. Very red. A doctor just asked me (over the phone) if I was using a scope to see. He laughed when I said I was using a small, but powerful flashlight. "Uh, I'd like to see that flashlight, Mom." Yes, he called me mom about 10 times

So, I feel a bit emabarrassed. What am I seeing then? Or was it a Doctor-don't-think-you-know-what-you-are-doing-lowly-mommy Ego thing?

 

[CEDmom]

I honestly don't know although I never needed to look in DD's ear to tell that she had an infection I just knew by her mood. I can't tell you the number of times I've taken her to the dr. and told him I think she has an ear infection, strep, bronchitis or whatever and 99.9% of the time I was right. Our dr is cool though and would always say he never tried to 2nd guess a mom. So I'd go with your gut and yes I think your dr was being a bit condescending .

Hope your DS feels better soon .

 

[sha_lyn]

I doubt you are seeing the ear drum. The ear canal curves so it is very unlikely.

It is a very thin membrane that "spans" the ear canal. I don't think it would turn red, at least in all the infections my kids have had it has never turned red. You can tell when fluid/infection is behind it.

DD's ear drum recently busted during an infection. It's been interesting to watch it grown back. About 1/2 of it has regrown since the infection about 3 weeks ago.

You can buy a cheap ear scope at the drugstore for about $12-$15.

 

[jrydberg]

Honestly, I don't know if you can see it or not. But it marks the end of the "outer" ear and the beginning of the "middle" ear. In short, it'd be the first thing you'd come to in the ear canal. I wouldn't think it'd be out of the question to see it, but I'm no expert.

 

[hentob]

OK--So I didn't see it. I feel like a dufus.........

 

[sha_lyn]

LOL... not a dufus by any means. I certainly wouldn't know what I do if it hadn't been for asking the ENT a lot of questions when DS had reoccurring ear infections. I bought a cheap scope when DS had tubes put in his ears. I wanted to see what the tubes looked like, and I was paranoid they would fall into the ear (heard one horror story and that's all it took).

 

[hentob]

So what is that small, whitish (no red) bulb that I am seeing?

Anyone?

 

[Dan Murphy]

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/anatomy/ear/

 

[Mskanga]

I do not think it's the eardrum, I asked my doctor one time to let me see my dd's eardrum because she had a very bad infection and even with his scope it was hard to see.

 

[hentob]

Don't think I am crazy, but according to that diagram, I AM seeing the eardrum!!!!!

 

[battricia]

I believe what you're seeing is just part of the inner ear wall where it turns. Like someone else said, it's pretty curvey in there, so I'm not sure you're seeing the ear drum.

tricia.

 

[sha_lyn]

That diagram shows an adult ear. A childs ear canal curves up and back from the opening. It really seems you are seeing the wall of the ear canal and the bulb shape is a part of a curve.

The ear drum would seem very flat, semi tranparent and you wouldn't be able to see any around it. It completely covers the opening of the canal.