HELP! I’ve messed with my daughters ear piercing and can’t get the earring back in!

[GoldyGoldie]

DD is 8 and got her ears pierced after begging for literally years. They were pierced 2 months ago but she caught one on something a couple of days ago and it bled. Over the next couple of days, we ensured we used the cleaning spray but DD was complaining of discomfort. We decided to remove the earring to clean the area more thoroughly, but unfortunately couldn’t get it back in the hole. DD became really upset and in too much pain to try any more so has gone to bed with the earring out.

Will the ear close up overnight? What’s best to do. Do we let it heal up and have it re-pierced if DD wants to? She has taken such great care of them, I’m really upset with myself for suggesting to remove it. 😢

Why do people have children’s ears pierced full stop? I’ve seen some bloody horrendous ear infections because of earrings / dirty hands / caught in hairbrushes…

Also, a lot of that build up you see are white blood cells in plasma, helping to heal the area.

Clearly you didn't, all guidance since I was a child has been to leave them in for a minimum of 4 months before even thinking about removing them or changing them.

In all fairness to OP, there are lots of places that say you can change them earlier than four months @Mommasgotabrandnewbag

The advice when I got mine done was that earrings could be removed/changed at eight weeks, and lots of people still get their DC's ears pierced at the start of the six week summer holidays - precisely so they can take jewellery out for PE in September.

OP admits she made a mistake, no need to keep berating her. It's easily sorted.

I don't know. Apparently according to the op, because they beg.

Thank you @cinnamonfrenchtoast

I've re-pierced my ears with a sterilised needle when I couldn't quite get an earring through. In my case the ears have been pierced for years and fell out of the habit of wearing earrings and they've partially healed.

Let the swelling cool and calm a bit before trying anything.

I'd try a slimmer post if the original earring was thicker.

My Dd was made to take hers out for swimming when they had only been done a few weeks. We were told to have her lie in a nice warm bath with her ears under the water obvs and then try. It worked for us

What kind of jewellery was she pierced with?

Also where are you, just in case anyone can recommend somewhere?

Try searching the ukapp website or the app website to find a reputable piercer nearby. Both organisations have international members.

Lobe piercings take between 3 and 6 months to heal. They may look healed at 6 weeks or so but they most definitely aren't.

Any reputable piercer should be able to help reinsert the jewellery.

For the people recommending OP just uses a needle to repierce that's just completely irresponsible.

You're creating an open wound that's then being forced to stay open. A piercing should be done with a sterile set up by a professional piercing. Boiling a needle does nothing except make it wet!

Sometimes if you kind of relax and let the earring sort of find its way through the hole, rather than try to push it through, it’s easier. It might actually be easier for your daughter to try by feel. If she just sits holding the stud and you help her find the hole, then just let her tease it through. Sometimes if you look at it in the mirror, you make it more difficult.

Hello.

I had a dreadful experience with my DD, who got her ears pierced in the summer hols prior to starting seniors. Pierced in mid-July, with a needle not a gun, in highly reputable city centre ear piercing and tattoo place. All went well until end of October, she was still only wearing the earrings (titanium) that she’d been pierced with, although she had by this stage removed them momentarily to clean and put back in. Fine.

One evening she comes down to supper saying one of them hurts and she can’t unscrew it. I looked at it and it didn’t look great, I couldn’t quite unscrew it myself either, but no big deal (I thought). I said ‘have your supper and if we need to we can go to the emergency walk in tomorrow, do not worry’.

Before she’d finished her supper, it had swollen so much I was like ‘wait, the stud has almost disappeared. Get in the car, this is an A&E job’ (it was a weekend evening).

They ended up having to extract it at A&E. It was traumatic for her, she had followed all advice, it was a fairly long time after the piercing. These things happen, do not beat yourself up.

We called the piercing place for advice, they said leave three months and then come back. We left it a good three months, went back, and they (to their credit) said it’s not ready to be re-pierced. Four months later again, we went back and they re-pierced it. This was a good year ago. The ear is still weeping! It’s ok, but never for more than a few weeks. Other one aok from the start, and hygiene the same with both ears of course!

Point being, even if the ear needs to be re-pierced, it’s not good, but it will be ok. Very sorry you’re going through this!

Oh god this happened to me when I was 8. We got it back in but then I refused to twist it. Meaning the skin grew over each of them and I had to go to A&E to have them removed. I've still got scar tissue to this day.
Managed to re-pierce the other day (30 years later) with an ear-piercing kit from Amazon! So excited to finally have earrings in again.

Unsurprisingly I'm twisting them every 5 mins 😬😆

Twisting the piercing breaks the newly forming flesh! Think of this as ripping off a scab on a healing wound. How will it ever heal if you are constantly removing the necessary healing materials?
Furthermore, any time you touch your piercing you will deposit nasty bacteria from your fingers on the piercing.

Twisting piercings has never been necessary. They most likely imbedded because they were done with inappropriate gun jewellery.

When will people realise that piercings should be performed by a professional and beleive it or not we do know best. And no I don't mean anyone who uses a gun.

Before anyone says well mine healed fine, well you could go for a drive without a seat belt and not die but I bet you don't because its not best practice.

@Justapiercer I was given a huge lecture about not having twisted it and how I'd caused it! I've also searched online and found lots of advice to keep twisting it with just washed hands, alongside aftercare spray

Dd is far better if she does it herself rather than me trying to do it. Also using a cheaper pair of earrings first as they will likely be slimmer/more sharp.

Yes, it’s old fashioned advice to twist them. Skin won’t grow over a piece of metal, it heals around it. If you twist you aggravate the nice healing that the skin is doing to create a nice smooth tunnel that the earring will sit in.
I have 8 piercings so I am pretty experienced with them.

That may have been the advice 30 years back but it definitely isn't now. Not with any reputable piercer who cares about their clients (& they don't use guns). Keep it clean with saline but apart from that leave it be.

Hopefully it will heal but often the jewellery is problematic and guns cause unnecessary trauma.

Dds were done recently and we were advised not to twist them. It’s been 3 months and hers are still discharging. She’s desperate to change them but I keep saying no they aren’t ready.
I have absolutely no idea when they will be ready

3 to 6 months is the average.

Don't twist them! Clean with saline and apart from that leave them completely alone, no touching and no twisting.

Definitely no twisting! You shouldn't even be touching your earrings except for when you're cleaning them.

I don’t know anyone who didn’t have some complications from ear piercing. I had mine done by a beauty therapist when I was 18 and the aftercare leaflet suggested surgical spirit 😱 (well it was the late 80s). Unsurprisingly my skin didn’t react well to this regime and I ended up with antibiotics. (My ears are fine now).

Against my better judgement I took DD to have her ears pierced at Claire’s after constant pestering. She was only 8 at the time and if I’d known the hassle that piercings would cause for PE lessons etc I’d have held my ground for a good few years. She needed a bit of help with prescription antibiotic cream but her friend (from whom she’d taken her cue) had to have her piercings removed. Many years later DD now has several more ear piercings and a nose one but she had these done as an 18 year old having thoroughly researched the subject.

She tells me the key things are: piercings should be done with a needle not a gun (and cartilage piercings should NEVER be done with a gun); you do not move or fiddle with the piercing while it’s healing, just wash it very very gently with their sterile saline if scabbing gets in the way of clothes/hair etc.; and proper reputable piercing studios will organise follow up appointments 8 weeks later to check for swelling or whether a change of fastening or post might be necessary (this is quite common apparently).

My thoughts are that piercing should be treated on the same lines as minor surgery and regulated as such. It wouldn’t upset me if it was banned for under-12s and restricted for under-18s (I know this won’t happen) and places like Claire’s should be banned from the procedure entirely - it’s like having the staff of the Estee Lauder counter at John Lewis do your Botox.

There is not one sentence in this comment that isn't alarming.

Who lectured you about twisting the jewellery?

Twisting has never been necessary and not twisting jewellery certainly won't result in skin growing over the jewellery 🙄

@pinkyredrose The doctor who removed them in 1992!

@StarchySturgess1 There's no need to be nasty is there? I was 8 ffs!!!