If your DC had their ears pierced under the age of 2...

[doodlydooo]

How was it?

DC is 18 months and for about 9 months now she loves earrings etc. I feel like she is too young to have her ears pierced and won't understand and might tug on them. I wasn't planning on getting her ears pierced until she was about 5 really. But my mum said my sister and I had our ears pierced around the age of 2. SIL also had her ears pierced as a baby.

Clearly some do. How lucky we're not all exactly the same.

They really don’t.

anyone who thinks any 18 month old has the reasoning skills to ask for pieced ears and understand fully what that means is delusional.

Yea that poster did not ask for their ears to be pierced.

At most, they might have pointed at the shiny thing in someone's ears and said "want that". How strange for a parent to interpret that as "really wanting them done".

I didn't get my ears pierced until I was 19 and they don't close up so that's a bit of a fallacy.

Piercing babies ears a bit naff really and not really the culture in most of the UK. Personally I'd leave it until the child can make their own decision.

I also had my daughter’s ears done as a baby , she was fine didn’t cry and took good care afterwards

No, they're not. You're entitled to your opinion, which is clearly shaped by a different life experience; that doesn't mean the experience of others is untrue or worth insulting just because you cannot imagine something outside your personal sphere of reference.

When mine were 18 months old they asked for things like cake for their dinner. I said no, because it wasn’t in their best interests. Just like ear piercing wouldn’t be.

Sorry you are wrong. There is no 18 month old with such reasoning skills.

Why mark your baby’s beautiful pure skin for life? I haven’t worn earrings in my pierced ears for over 25 years but I can still see the marks. Just because everyone else is having it ‘done’ is not an excuse to mark her for life.

Don’t do it! It doesn’t hurt less because they are pre-verbal! I remember feeling riddled with guilt when my firstborn went for his first immunisations. His cry from the pain broke my heart! The difference being that was potentially life saving rather than vanity.

Personally I think it's cruel to pierce a baby's ears. It will be painful and like you say what if she rugs at them and causes an injury and more pain to herself?

You wouldn't let ANYONE hurt your baby but then allow someone to stick a needle in their ears then have sore, crusty ears until they heal. It makes no sense.

In Spain all girls have their ears pierced at birth. It’s a cultural thing. Let’s not pretend the virulent objections of many of those posting on this thread are similarly based on cultural norms rather than child protection concerns.

FGM is 'cultural' too causing pain and using the cultural world doesn't make it is any less appalling

Most babies love twirly shiny things at 9 months

I honestly despair at your maturity OP that thou think this then means she should get her ears pierced

I think it’s too young, and I say that as someone who had one of their kids ears pierced at 4yo.

In our case they spent a FULL 12mths telling us they wanted earrings. Started when they opened their eyes in the morning and was the last thing they said before bed, and went on all throughout the day, every. single. day. For a year. Every day. Told them it would hurt, they didn’t care. Honestly couldn’t put up with it a day longer so it was their 4yo birthday present.

Ear piercings are not hard to look after. We just told them not to touch them for for 6 weeks, circled the date on the calendar. They didn’t, and we just used the spray antiseptic twice a day ourselves giving them a turn with clean hands. No issue at all. I swear they then went around for the next year holding their hair back everywhere they went so people could see their ears 🤣. One happy kid.

Piercing babies should be illegal

DT’s school was no piercing so if you’d had their ears pierced they would have to take them out for the school day. Wait until they have left school years.

Any decent piercing studio and not Claire's won't pierce a child's lobes until they are 8 years plus, one so they can fully consent to having it done and two so they can properly take care of them whilst healing.
OP let her play with plastic clip ons for now and leave her decide when she's old enough her body her choosing.

They don’t ‘all’. My niece is Spanish, hers weren’t pierced at birth because her mum said no.
Cultural norms should be challenged when they have the potential to cause harm and have no benefit.

Agreed!

It's cruel and looks awful. Cheap and tacky.

I meant comparing it to abuse. Something like circumcision is common even in Western societies. Even that causes the baby pain, for no benefit, and is worse since it's non-reversible.

I agree that circumcision is also a potentially harmful cultural norm that needs challenging.

I wonder why it's just accepted as 'what happens' though

I can't imaging being handed my precious newborn and allowing someone to make a hole in their ears.

It's batshit that no one considers the child at all and blindly follow along because 'culture'

If people stuck a needle in any other body part of a child, just enough to pierce the skin, what would you call it?

and if you pierce the ears of a baby and then they decide they don’t want at 16 and take them out, the piercing isn’t guaranteed to close up.

I agree circumcision of children shouldn’t happen either. I also think it’s abuse.