Should parents of babies with sticky-out ears really pin their hopes on this?
THEY haven’t hindered the careers of Gary Lineker, Martin Clunes or Will Smith, but parents worried about their children’s protruding ears are being offered a controversial product to help pin them back.
About 2,500 packets of Baby Otostick, a Spanish product that sticks the back of the ear to the head, are being sold in Britain each month, according to its UK distributor.
But experts last night urged caution amid concern the firm is using parental anxiety about bullying to help market the baby ear correctors, which sell for about £20.
An advert for Baby Otostick on Amazon says: ‘Don’t you wish that your parents could have done something when you were a child to save you from the teasing and nasty names at school?’ Neil Bulstrode, consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital, said: ‘There is not normally a demand for corrective treatment to babies with protruding ears.
‘Prominent ears can become an issue later as children approach school age or if they start becoming teased. There is always the chance of allergy to adhesive and developing dermatological issues in the area with long-term use.’
Nick Thompson, owner of Zurego Ltd, which distributes the Otostick ear correctors in the UK, defended the product, which its makers say can be used on babies as young as three months old. ‘This was many years in the making and three million packs have now been sold worldwide,’ he said.
‘It is completely safe and noninvasive. You just need to allow eight hours between applications to let the covered skin breathe and recover. We believe it’s a good substitute for surgery, which in any case is not generally recommended until children are eight or nine years old. By then, they may be very self-conscious about their ears.’
It can be difficult to get otoplasty – surgery to pin back ears – on the NHS and it costs about £3,000 if done privately.
Online opinion about the sticky silicone pads has been mixed. One customer review on Amazon reads: ‘It’s a clever product. My baby is no longer sleeping on folded ears.’ But another parent wrote: ‘Lasted a few hours only before getting unstuck. Tried four times with the four sets. Same result each time. Waste of money. He now wears a beanie hat.’
Between one and two per cent of the population have prominent ears but not all are unhappy with them.
Clunes, who stars in ITV’s new drama Vanity Fair, recently said the actor Jeremy Brett, his mother’s cousin, offered to pay for his ears to be pinned back when he was a youngster. ‘But surgery seemed a step too far. I’d probably have starved without them,’ he said.