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Original poster

Child ear piercing.

155 replies

MrsPreston11 · 31/05/2018 16:47

7 and 5. It's out of the questions this year as DH is NOT on board.

Much to the chagrin of the older one, and therefore the younger one too......

What's the standard age now? Not many in either of mine's classes with them pierced.

What ages have worked for your kids? And where did you get them done?

OP posts:
LadyOdd · 03/06/2018 00:22

I live in Spain and nearly every girl baby has their ears pierced I couldn’t believe it, even newborns! It’s so normal here that people think my DD is a boy even when she’s dressed in pink (not saying that is always an indication but today’s society still makes assumptions generally that a baby in a pink dress,vest and leggings is a girl)

Amatullah · 03/06/2018 00:29

Got my bubbas done when she was 6 months..i got mine done when i was a baby too. Shes 2 now and she gets really excited to put her earrings on. She tells me when she wants them on and will ask for them to be taken off when she goes to sleep. I dont like big earrings or dangly hoopy ones on children, shes only ever had really tiny studs.

eggncress · 03/06/2018 00:31

My dad was 10 first time round. She was so excited but got squeamish and refused to have the second ear done and had to go back next day!
Then she refused to allow proper cleaning of the ears and rotation of the earring so it all became a bit of a mess.
Eventually the earrings somehow got taken out and never put back in. She is now 17 and wants them pierced again but I think she’ll be more sensible now!
It depends on your dd. Some kids are more mature than others.

eggncress · 03/06/2018 00:31

Dd ... not dad !Grin

RainbowGlitterFairy · 03/06/2018 00:40

DD had hers done at 9. She had been asking for about a year.

I had mine done at 3 and again at 6 and 12. first set got infected because I refused to have them cleaned. 2nd set I got one caught on something in the park age 8, which ripped it and split my earlobe in half. So i would say that was too young.

SimplySteve · 03/06/2018 00:53

Another voice to go to a piercing establishment and NOT Claire's - unless you like a piece of blunt metal being forced through tissue, a fine spray of blood being released, and coating an unsterilised plastic gun.

Needle makes a hole and is totally sterile. Hurts less as well.

SandyY2K · 03/06/2018 01:05

What ages have worked for your kids? And where did you get them done?

They were done at 4/5 weeks old.

VelvetSpoon · 03/06/2018 02:03

Mine were done at 7 by our GP. No one ever believes that but it's true. I was very late having mine done as the norm in my family is between 6 weeks and a year. All of us had very fine gold sleepers that you could easily rotate in your ear, and if pulled they would just come apart rather than ripping the earlier. I had far more issues with an extra hole I had done at 18 than I ever did with my childhood ones.

VelvetSpoon · 03/06/2018 02:04

Earlobe, not earlier.

JacquesHammer · 03/06/2018 08:37

someone who needs to be pretty
someone who needs to 'look their best' as a priority
someone who's main value to society is their attractiveness

See that’s really funny because on other threads people with piercings and tattoos are labelled as “unattractive”, “ruining career prospects”, “look sloppy and untidy”.

So basically there isn’t a label you can ascribe to someone who has a piercing as we’re not a hive mind.

Your comment about peer pressure is interesting as DD is the only girl in her small school with ears pierced. Although a number more have had them since.

Piercings are not permanent in the same way tattoos are. It is perfectly possible to remove a piercing and it to close up fully.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 03/06/2018 08:39

Mine will get there's done after the age of 12, if they want to.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 03/06/2018 08:39

*theirs

user7469322 · 03/06/2018 08:50

My niece had hers done a couple of months before she was 5. She got a terrible infection to the point she ended up in a&e having them cut from both ears as they’d swollen so much. Not sure if my sister had neglected the after care. My own daughter is 4 soon and I will ask her if she wants them doing when she’s a bit older.

thegreylady · 03/06/2018 08:54

No girls in dgs primary school have pierced ears. One boy arrived in Reception with one stud but I see it has gone now. I think 11 is about right though my own dd has never had hers done. She and a friend tried once aged 12ish to do each other’s with a needle and a cork. I went so mad about the dangers of infection etc that she never asked again though I would have taken her once the damage healed up. I don’t have pierced ears myself though all my dgds have. One has a Turkish mum and her (dgd) ears were pierced at 6 so she would be the same as the others starting school. Most of her friends had them done as babies.

Morphene · 04/06/2018 18:05

jaques piercings are permanent. The fact it can look closed up from a distance doesn't mean it has been eradicated completely and in many cases they don't close up at all.

At the end of the day, you said you child wanted to be like you...other kids will now want to be like your kid. None of these kids are making a rational decision based on their own likes and dislikes, because they are all being influenced heavily by others aesthetics and values.

This is why I think the age limit on body modification should be adulthood. Obviously adults are still massively influenced by what is perceived as attractive by society, but at least once you're an adult you have responsibility for your own actions.

kaytee87 · 04/06/2018 18:18

I think the younger the better because then they grow up with it and it's all they know.

Are earrings a necessity now? Honestly people that pierce their baby's ears are cruel.

JacquesHammer · 04/06/2018 18:22

The fact it can look closed up from a distance doesn't mean it has been eradicated completely and in many cases they don't close up at all

Two of mine are completely closed. You couldn’t tell at 2 inches there’s ever been a hole 😂

Get a piercing, get bored? Take it out.
Get a tattoo, get bored? Bigger effort to sort.

Fairly big difference in terms of short term longevity and indeed long term permanence

m0therofdragons · 04/06/2018 20:06

For those parents posting that their young dc "begged" them. You do realise it's okay to say "no" sometimes don't you?!

Teateaandmoretea · 04/06/2018 20:09

For those parents posting that their young dc "begged" them. You do realise it's okay to say "no" sometimes don't you?!

ODFOD Hmm

You do realise that there's nothing actually wrong with pierced ears don't you? It isn't a short cut to depravity.

Aragog · 04/06/2018 20:13

I said summer between primary and secondary and that's when dd has hers done. She was 11. Worked well for us as she was then totally responsible for looking after them, keeping them clean, etc. DD's primary school had a no earrings rule throughout so it was pointless getting them done earlier. In reality, at a different school, I'd have been happy for her to do them the summer before as she was really sensible and would have been capable of looking after them herself. I wouldn't have let her before then as I don't think she would have been able to deal with them on her own, which is kind of where I feel makes sense.

Aragog · 04/06/2018 20:14

I would recommend going to somewhere who have a tad more training than Claire's and ideally uses a needle.

Macarena1990 · 04/06/2018 20:14

Dd1 was 2 and dd2 will be getting hers done in the next few weeks. She is 3.

In their dads culture (and pretty much every other aside from British culture) ear piercing is done as early as possible and really is no big deal.

RightOnTheEdge · 04/06/2018 20:28

It is my dp's culture to get girl's ears pierced when they are tiny. He kept on about it and his Mum kept commenting and asking when we would get them done everytime they spoke.

But we don't live in that country so I refused until she was big enough to ask for herself. She had them done earlier this year she is 7 and was definite about wanting them and asked a lot.

Obviously I know I could have said no but I don't see a problem with it and lots of girls in her primary school have their ears pierced.

She loves them and doesn't regret it at all.

ThistleAmore · 04/06/2018 20:50

I had mine done at 12, and my mother went MENTAL - I had never seen her so angry before. My best friend at the time sneaked off to get it done at a local hairdresser's, and I think it was the deceit that bothered her, more than the actual act.

I went on to have a few more piercings - had about four in one ear at point, including a high cartilage, and my belly button - but it turns out I am one of the 0.00001% of people whose bodies unanimously reject any and all foreign bodies, and they all grew out. Nobody told me about that. Also, I had a copper coil at one point. That was an interesting experience, I should have done my research more carefully.

So, yeah, I don't have any now at all, and quite frankly I don't even know why I had them done in the first place: IMO, piercing is a bit odd for adults - but, hey you know, if you want to modify your own body, crack on - but it's downright weird for children, especially very young children, and especially very young girls. I'm not a fan.

Oh, and as for the idea that piercings 'aren't permanent' and 'will heal'? Nonsense. The holes will close over, but you'll be left with permanent scar tissue, the severity of which will differ depending on how your body heals. For some people who are keloid scarrers, that might be quite significant.

ThistleAmore · 04/06/2018 20:51

'My best friend and I', apologies. Big fingers.

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