I use q tips but I don’t put them into his ear. I only clean what I can see so I roll it along the ear hole and it seems to get a good amount out without me putting it into his ear. We can see when his ears need cleaning
I have baby qtips that work well. They're too big to go into the hole but small enough to clean the crevices.
baby qtips are fine , qtips are just discouraged cause you can damage your ear , and i've done it as a kid , but the baby qtips keep you from going into the ear canal so you're just cleaning the outside and that's safe
They sell safe baby q-tips, with a bigger end to make sure it doesn't hurt the baby's ear. Available in your local pharmacy/store. This is how the shape is supposed to look like to be safe:
We have an ear picker and we only really use it if we see a big build up of wax by the opening.