Warm olive oil in a spoon over a candle and soak cotton wool in it. Put the cotton wool inside the ear. When this is not enough because it is an ear infection we do the drastic one, the one every kid is scared of. My mum used to do it; to me, to my brothers my cousins and even to my kids - I couldn't do it to my kids, I was too scared. She used to take a page of newspaper (broadsheet) and roll it into a cone, put it in the ear and set it on fire. Just before the flames got to the ear she took it out and dropped it in a basin of water. She had it under control the whole time - I could never do that!