Piercing baby girl’s ears

[PumpkinSpiceMuffins]

Has anyone pierced their baby’s ears? When is the best time to do it? Is it uncomfortable for the baby to be wearing earrings all the time? I’m interested in my daughter having a piercing that never closes even if she doesn’t wear earrings for years.

No, it's not "perfectly safe". Babies are not immune to infection, if anything they are much more susceptible to it. And you've been told how piercings done on a baby can go crooked as the child grows. If you let them heal, there will be scarring which will make it more difficult to get them repierced if the child wants to when she is older.

Plenty of women in the UK choose to get their ears pierced. The operative word there is "women", i.e. if they have responsible parents, they don't have the decision made for them as children and are generally left to decide for themselves once they become adults.

Child abuse. Plain and simple.

Completely unneccesary, let the child decide when they can give informed consent. Some things need to be done at that time so that doesn't work, but ear piercing isn't it.

What's the benefit to your baby of doing this?

It's painful, could result in an infection (more pain) and has no positive benefit to her whatsoever.

So how do you justify to yourself that it's worth doing / right to do?

Your responsibility as a parent is to protect your child from unnecessary pain, surely?

I appreciate its the norm where you're from but have people's reactions made you ask yourself why you would consider doing this?

Causing acute pain and ongoing discomfort, plus possible disfigurement for no good or justifiable reason whatsoever. Baby can't consent.

There's also no good reason to circumcise boys, majority of the time, but you won't believe us there, either I bet. We don't really do that either.

It’s perfectly safe for the baby.

Is it? Is it really safe to put a choking hazard through a baby's ear? I've never understood this. Earrings catch on things, piercings get infected...

Is it because they think the adornment is garish?

It is garish. Earrings on babies and small children looks horrible to me. I know it is cultural in some places but I still think it looks ugly.

Do they think it’s wrong to take the choice away from the child?

Yes.

Why don't people routinely piece the ears of baby boys?

If you want to mutilate and cause suffering to a baby for vanity then strangers on the internet won’t stop you.

but I honestly think people who think it’s ok to do this shouldn’t have children. They’re people, not accessories.

I was distressed enough when my babies were vaccinated, and that was 100% essential! I can't imagine inflicting paim on a baby for the sake of accessories.

I’m wondering why so many posters think it’s “barbaric.” It’s perfectly safe for the baby. Is it because they think the adornment is garish? Do they think it’s wrong to take the choice away from the child?

Mutilating a child because of fucked up ideas of beauty is child abuse. Would you willingly make holes in other parts of their body for beauty?

"Barbaric" possibly because of the total disregard for consent. A baby can't agree to (or, for that matter disagree with) having its ears pierced. If you don't have consent then you shouldn't do something to someone else's body.

In terms of safety, an earring could come loose and get ingested or cut another part of the body, or it could get caught on clothing.

Piercings are not uncommon in the UK but a reputable (and safe and hygienic) salon would not pierce anything on anyone without consent. Once a child is 8+ then it's a different scenario as they are more informed. Even then, some salons may refuse under 12s.

There's no need for a baby to wear jewellery, particularly any that requires making holes in them.

Awful, awful, awful. Please don’t do it.

Why would you /anyone want to cause their baby pain and to cry

Plus the risk of ripping their love is they pull them or get them caught

If they want they can choose later

I have 2 holes in both ears. Dd 7 wants hers done as many at school have them

I've said when she begs more and keeps mentioning it as I don't think she really wants them yet

I've also said summer holidays if ever does so can have 6w and learn to
Clean /turn herself

So maybe next year when 8. Maybe not

I had my ears pierced by my parents as a baby. I hate it . I have holes on my ears I don't want. I hate anything very "girlie" and see ear piercing as this.
Why not just wait until they choose to have them? Why not do this? Otherwise you are doing something to make your daughter feminine that she may not want. Such a weird desire given how fucked up US culture is to girls and women.

I would absolutely wait until a DD ( or DS I suppose too to be fair) asks to get their ears pierced but I also don't get the "waiting" until they're 14 or 16 as seemed to be common when I was young! My DD asked at 6 and I said yes straight away as I remembered longing for my ears to be pierced at that age and being told no.

Why do you want to put your child through unnecessary pain? Regardless of whether she would remember it or not, you would be causing a defenceless child to have to go through unnecessary pain….for vanity reasons.

Earrings on babies look bloody awful. All I think is the pain that baby went through just because the mum thought it looked pretty. Wait to they’re old enough to ask

I agree with all of the above.
But also the most reputable piercing place I know of won't pierce a child ear under 13 (they used to say 18.)
Their reasons are first, that the child should be old enough to consent. They should be old enough to do the after care themselves. And finally and most importantly, ears grow. So piercing the ear of a baby will often mean it's really low down on the ear lobe by the time the person is an adult. It looks stupid and there's a greater risk of their ear lobe being ripped.

I had my ears pierced at 17. (I still had to take my mum to sign the consent form.) Not long after I realised I have a nickel allergy. My ears would get hot and very painful, it's a few hours before they visible change (they start to swell then weep and bleed) I would never risk inflicting that pain on anyone I loved, but certainly not a child!

I had mine done at about 13. Wore earrings daily until about 20. Then not at all until 24. The holes were still there when I decided to wear earrings again and have worn them pretty much continually since then now.

Also my holes are very level and straight as the piercings allowed for the shape of my (nearly) fully grown ear lobes.

It’s barbaric because you are literally punching holes in your child for no reason other than vanity.

I mean… say you moved to a country where 85% of the women had the first joint of their pinky finger amputated. That would be easier to do as a baby, no memory of it hurting, etc. Do you think you’d question whether it was right to chop off a bit of your baby?

I realise it’s a cultural norm in much of the US. But just because it’s normal doesn’t mean it’s ok.

And anyway, piercings in baby ears are not particularly stable. I know women who have lopsided piercings because they were done as babies. So even assuming it’s bc an ok thing to do, there is no benefit.

I agree with others, it should be illegal to punch a whole in a babies body purely for vanity reasons.

Im ok with children deciding at an appropriate age. My oldest DDs were 9 & 11 when they decided, I made sure they really wanted it and waited a year with them both. We went the needle route for less damage however their ears closed up almost as soon as they took their earrings out. They waited another year before I let them do it again, their choice. My 7yo wants hers done but I’ve said no, I think 7 is too young to fully consent. Our local piercer won’t pierce under 11 if she thinks the child dosnt fully understand. She was happy with my 9yo doing it as we visited her several times and was happy my 9yo really knew what she wanted.

Well this is not the place to ask about baby ear piercings, You will be labelled a chav , or a child abuser!! I had mine done at two weeks old, born in the east end of London in the 1960’s very common then. I think it best to wait until your little girl asks to get it done. I know my granddaughter wanted it done at about four but she had to wait until she was at secondary school.

This! I'm not going to take my cues about normal ways to treat children from citizens of a country where baby boys have their foreskins cut off for no medical reason.

Doing anything to a small child has the potential to become distorted as they grow. I had medically-indicated ear surgery as a child and, as I grew, the neat result warped and distorted. I've now got a visibly-deformed ear, wearing glasses hurts because it put pressure on the scar tissue, and sleeping on that side hurts. When something medically-indicated can have such lifelong adverse sequelae, why would you do anything cosmetic to a child?

When your child is old enough to make her own decisions, then any piercings she wants should be carried out by a reputable piercer using needles, not a gun. A needle can be guided with precision and, being sharp, cuts its hole. A piercing gun forces a blunt stud through the ear lobe and the stud can often take an unintended path through the tissue, meaning that hoops and droppers hang wonky, another thing that I discovered by personal experience. The piercing gun itself cannot be autoclaved and alcohol wipes are inadequate for sterilising it between uses. The needles used to pierce are sterile single-use and the other equipment is autoclaved.

So it is in Spain.

it is best to do it around the 4-8 month mark as the earlobe has had time to grow a little bit and it won’t usually change in shape. That way it will stay centred when they do it.

In some hospitals they even do it with a needle before you go home with your baby.

My children had them done at 5 and 9 months respectively. They are fine.

Also causing pain and distress ! Why do it

My mum did this to me and I wish she hadn't. I don't like bling or earnings....they are so dated and 80s looking.
Think you should leave your child's wars alone and let her decide when she's alot older... like 13 or above. Babies who have pierced ears always seem to come from chavvy backgrounds so it's nor a good look.