When and where to pierce ears

jesslovesreg

For those of you with baby girls have you gotten their ears pierced or are you waiting until they are older? If you are waiting, do you have any reasons/advice why it's better to wait?
I'm thinking of piercing our dd's ears soon mine were done as a baby but I don't know where I should take her or what age is best....
Any advice?

wheelsonthebus

It never even crossed my mind to pierce DD's ears. It's not something we do in our family. I will take her to have them pierced when she expresses an interest and can take care of them herself.

I used to run a home daycare and I have seen many injuries with babies and pierced ears. Ouch ouch ouch!

CrawltheWarriorKing

It's very common in my family/culture so we had DD's ears pierced at her 2 month appointment with the pediatrician.  Besides the crying at the appointment, we haven't had an issue at all.

[Deleted User]

wheelsonthebus:

It never even crossed my mind to pierce DD's ears. It's not something we do in our family. I will take her to have them pierced when she expresses an interest and can take care of them herself.

This.  I was nine... DD will follow suit. 

baloneydisc

We are waiting until DD is older and asks.  Part of the reason is tht I had a horrible time with mine when they were pierced (I was 11).  They never healed, I had to take the earrings out for a few hours and we couldn't get the earrings back in.  I let them close and had them repierced at 21.  I still can't take them out for more than a couple of days or they're healing shut.

laurenmae1228

I have a DS, but my sister had her DD 3 days before DS was born, so she's 10 months old now too. Sis has said that she'll wait until her DD is old enough to express an interest.

As a sidenote, that's what our mother did with us. I REALLY wanted mine pierced at 3 1/2 years old, since my 4 yr old cousin was getting hers done, and Mom allowed it. I never caused any trouble with them. (In fact, I was so proud of them, I insisted on "reminding" Mom of our nightly routine of cleaning my ears, etc, and then pointed out my "pretty earrings" to ANYONE who would look for like a solid year), but I did have an allergy to metals, and could only wear 24k gold at first. (I grew out of it in a few years, and now, I can wear anything). My sister had recurrent ear infections/tubes/surgeries, etc and was deaf until the age of 3 1/2, so obviously, my parents didn't allow hers to be pierced early. Her ear problems were controlled/fixed by 6 though, and she wanted them pierced at 8 years old, so they allowed it. She also had a metal allergy for a while, but is fine now.

mexicolombiana

We did our first DD at 3 months.  We took her to Claires in the mall.  

We did our 2nd DD at around 5 months same place and same store manager pierced her ears.  I requested an experienced manager to do it.

It's a very personal family decision.  If you choose to pierce your daughter's ears at a young age you (as a parent) have to clean them out every night and care for them and check them every single day to make sure they don't get infected.  Once they heal you may not have any more issues with them in the future as long as you choose hypoallergenic earrings through their lives. 

If you wait until your daughter is old enough this could be a nice bonding experience for you and your daughters and you could teach her to be responsible and clean her own ears out every night, etc.

It's completely up to you.  It's a very "latino" thing to pierce your daughter's ears at a young age.  I'm not saying this makes it automatically ok but we had no problem piercing our daughter's ears and my husband and I made the decision together. While many of my American friends look at ear piercing as a bodily alteration that should not be done on young children and should only be done when the child requests it.

Very different view points.  You need to decide what's best for you because you're going to get completely opposing advice.  

jjt616

theresat858:

I plan to let DD get her ears pierced when she is old enough to ask for it and want them pierced.

This. I want it to be her choice since its her body and I want to have a special day with her if/when she wants to.

mrsshawnavanb

DD is 10 months old and I would LOVE to get her ears pierced but DH insists that we wait until she asks for it to be done. boooo

KDR1979

I'll also wait until DD can ask to have them pierced. That's what my mom did with me and I had them pierced at 4!

My first job was actually at Afterthoughts (like a Claire's) and they let me pierce ears at 16yo with very little experience. It's not a difficult skill to learn (the gun does it all), but I'd love to do it with the pediatrician if that's an option!

 

kmc1109

I am also waiting until DD can ask.  JMO, but I think it's unnecessary to pierce a baby's ears.  When they have to get pricked and poked every time they go to the doctor, why cause some pain for no reason?

thehillsarealive0000

We are waiting until she is 12 or so and can decide if she wants to do it.

salt78

We are waiting until she is old enough to ask for it herself and will be responsible enough to take care of them. For me personally, that was 8 years old. My mom made a whole day out of it with shopping and lunch. It was so much fun. I remember feeling so proud and grown up with my new earrings. I want to do that with my daughter too.

ktpaladino

I don't have a little girl but if I did I would wait until she was old enough to be involved in the decision. Ultimately I think it should be her choice. Plus I think it is a really nice rite of passage/ mother daughter bonding experience to share between the two of you once she is old enough to know the difference. The trip to the mall, letting her pick out her first pair of earrings...make it a special day.

tjkdlhb

Ditto PPs who said that they are planning to wait until LO asks to have them pierced.  I think I was around 7 when I had mine done, but I was allergic to the earrings and it was horribly uncomfortable until it healed.  I still can't wear cheap jewelry... but it wasn't a good way to find that out!

Right now, it's one more thing to worry about to make sure that they are cleaned and taken care of.  I wouldn't want to risk an infection in a baby so young.

I like the idea of having a 'mom and me' date, so that it's a rite of passage.

Or, she may decide that she never wants it done, which is fine too...

sunnyday016

I had DD's done when she was about 6m old. I wanted them done while she was still a baby so that's what we did. No regrets and if I have another girl someday I will do it again.

ETA: We got it done at Claire's at the mall. 

hopefulmom81

theresat858:

I plan to let DD get her ears pierced when she is old enough to ask for it and want them pierced.

This.  They are her ears, so I believe it should be her choice to pierce them or not.  Granted, most little girls want their ears pierced, but I think it is important to allow her to make the choice for herself.

I had my ears pierced when I was 8 or 9 and they got horribly infected.  No way I am dealing with that with a little baby.

Sparks in training!

i took my DD in when she was like 5 months or so. I skipped a feeding and didnt let her take her nap. We video taped it. She was all smiles...until the pinch. She cried for both. BUT as soon as she got her bottle ...instant stop to crying. She never pulled on them or anything. Literally she cried only during the piercing-total of like 40 seconds.

I am so glad we did it that way. She has and still loves playing with her jewlery. btw she is 11 years old now. lol

skibunny59

My ears were done as a baby and I am Cuban so in my culture all baby girls have their ears pierced.  We did DD's when she was 6 months old at her pedi's office.  I finally took the earrings out when she was around 9 months old.  We just kept having problems with her right earlobe.  It never really healed well and kept getting infected even though I cleaned it and followed all of the aftercare instructions.  We will get DD's repierced when she shows an interest in wearing earrings.

If you haven't done it already, I would definitely wait.  As babies get older they tend to tug on their ears and they notice that they are there.  I can tell you right now it is NOT easy to clean the earrings on a baby especially an older baby who is already crawling, pulling to a stand, etc.

I would definitely recommend NOT doing it at your pedi's office.  The pedi's office uses guns just like they do at the mall.  I thought it would be better and cleaner but honestly, unless you live in an area where it is the norm to have a baby's ears pierced, the pedis just don't do it very often.  I'm convinced that the reason we had so many problems with DD's was because the nurse at the pedis office didn't know what she was doing.  In fact, I think when we redo DD's ears we will try to find a professional piercer who will do it with a needle.  I hear that this way is better and the ears heal much faster.