Ear piercing of babies, what do you think?

[mamadadawahwah]

Sometimes i think i live in a romany gypsy camp the number of babies i see with pierced ears and jewellery dangling from their little wrists. Having never adopted the courage to get my own ears pierced, i cant imagine piercing a little baby's ears. Its brutal and so common! What gives with this practice? In my opinion, its mutilation. The dangling bracelets are a health hazard to little ones, and i fear they could break their arms if they got them tangled in their sweaters.

What gives with this?

I had my ears pierced at 18 and it hurt a LOT. That's one reason I wouldn't do it to a baby. And I know they can feel pain just as intensely - my baby cried and cried when dh merely nicked her finger slightly with the nail clippers. I'm also an awful snob about it, admittedly. also, do babies sleep with their earrings in? I can't bear sleeping with earrings - I find it really uncomfortable and quite sore. I think it's quite unpleasant, personally, but I would never call it child abuse, mutilation or think that ear piercing alone was the sign of a bad parent.

Who does the piercing. How hard would you have to be to pin down and stab a hole through a baby? It is hard enough to cut their fingernails or their hair ffs! I think it shows that the parent lacks respect for the child and is treating it as a fashion accesory.

Obviously if it is for "cultural" reasons then anything goes.

hi everyone, taken me ages to read back through all this since last night!

i think the initial and strong feeling is simple...the majority of people who have posted on here, believe that they would feel like a bad parent if they were to put thier baby through such unnessary pain, purely to keep up with the jones's so to speak.

i myself think its horrible, but like i say we currently live somewhere, where it's the norm and the majority of mothers here are barely out of there school uniforms and adorn thier tiny, innocent children with earing and jewellery 'cos its the done thing', they also spend all their money on going out instead of providing a good family home for these children, and even heard one mother in supermarket just after my dd born saying she was going to buy some ready mixed formula tonight as she was going out and couldnt be arsed doing bottles!! and just yesterday, two girls, with Mr T esk jewellery walking past me, when one of the girls little boy kept asking her something she shouted.."F**K OFF YOU LITTLE RAT!!!", sorry, i know everyones not like this, but thats the impression here

i personally think the majority of the time, it reflects badley on the parent, however, i have friends who have had their little ones ears done and although would never let anyone near my dd's little lobes with a huge needle, dont think she's a bad mother for doing it..just cant understand how she can justify putting her through the unnessary pain???

thank you RTM for your explanation of the cultural thing.

Your Beckham story made me smile!I have to say though that I still think piercing babies ears is a BAD cultural practice!

I think you are getting at this too.

The whole notion of "it's a cultural thing " is IMO a very dangerous one.

There are things in my culture which I would NEVER wish upon my children. I have gone out of my way to ensure they are not replicated in the next generation.

No doubt my kids will resurrect them for their kids in twenty years or so

what is a turkey twizzler, everybody keep mentioning them, i've never heard of them, but i am only 8% chav.

Agree completely hate to see any sort of earrings on young babies why?? around here it's really common (SE London) one woman at baby clinic asked me if DD (dressed in pink) was a girl and when I was getting her ears pierced as her DD had hers done at 1 week old!! I said "when she asks for them and can look after them herself" she looked at me as if I were mad.

It bloody hurts getting your ears pierced not just at the time but for a few days afterwards your ears are bright red and throbbing I remember having to sleep on the ohter side of the pillow as the pierced ear as it hurt so much, then you get weeks of cleaning the pus and blood from the holes.

Why inflict this on a baby?

think she lives over road from me!

thanks for your post Jasper. I didn't post to get into an argument and I am glad that you "heard" (gosh how fancy of me) what I was saying. I agree that there are cultural practices that I wouldn't want or wish on my children. I also think that the danger of the cultural argument is that it becomes a convenient card for people to play that don't want to engage in serious debate or even have their beliefs challenged. It is the new (imo) race card and like you I think is very dangerous. However, because it is the culture that I come from it is an instance in which I feel I can comment without guilt. I don't dislike people piercing their babies ears, I just don't choose to do it myself and actually it wasn't about the pain issue for me. It just wasn't something that I wanted to do.

Anyway, before I ramble on anymore and miss CSI Criminal Intent (I love American Crime Dramas) just wanted to give you a big and say that we can agree to agree and differ.

'If in doubt, leave it out' - a few months' old baby couldn't possibly be thinking 'ear piercing, what a great idea, I'd look dead cool if I had that done.'

All they are going to register is that it hurts - a bit if they're lucky, rather a lot if it gets infected/ripped. I really don't see the point!

Can't wait until some of you one day take a look at a family and judge the book by it's cover, only to have the book smack you in the face.

nutty hows your dd btw you didnt answer on the other thred hope shes ok hun xxxx

p,s ive nearly finishes the BIG biology essay so ill post hem sometime in the week

{{{{{{{{}}}}}}} hugs for dd xx

Hi Nik, thanks again. Will check dd's thread now, had forgotten.

ok hun night xxxxxx

night night xx

Some might excuse piercing babies ears as a cultural thing but in the end it all boils down to vanity. I think it is horrible and parents should wait until the child is old enougth to decide.

off for early night
night girls

Yeah, but I wouldn't actually 'judge' anyone because they had pierced ears - I just wouldn't have ds's ears pierced because I'm fairly sure it would hurt him & he wouldn't appreciate it. I had my own ears pierced the second I was allowed (aged about 12) & ds is quite welcome to have his done whenever he asks!

Doesn't bother me in the slightest to see other children with pierced ears - that's THEIR parents' choice. I don't get why they think it's worth doing, & I've yet to see anyone post a fantastically convincing reason for doing it, but each to their own...ds will be attending a noisy rock festival dressed as a bat later this month, & no doubt someone somewhere will think THAT'S quite appalling, too. Sorry to offend you nutcracker - posted entirely in the spirit of honest debate!

Carrie, yeah, but the costume isnt permanent! (even if someone did put their two cents in)

RTM us "fancy" mumsnetters must stick together!

carrieG a bat? how cool!

Look, to anyone considering piercing baby's ears or anyone who knows someone about to do this to their baby, please try and convince them not to. Would Cherie Blair pierce Leo's ears? Would your doctor pierce his or her baby's ears? I think ear piercing of babies lies within a particular financial/cultural and social sector. IMO its the sort of thing that is done cause everyone else is doing it, so it happens within "certain" pockets of the community. They need to ask why they are doing it, for whose benefit and if it causes undue judgement, judgment which could be detrimental to baby, even in a roundabout way. If people judge you as silly, common, ignorant or faddish, what response do you get from them? Maybe mom and pierced baby go to an important meeting. At said meeting is a judgmental crone who decides NO, you dont need that top up loan to buy a new buggy cause you waste money on piercing your baby's ears. Will you know why your loan request was turned down? Nope.

oh behave mamadadawahwah.

how do you know a doc wouldnt pierce their kids ears.

What i am trying to get at, without being tooo obvious is that ear piercing is mainly found within a "certain" sector of society, usually not well educated, financially compromised and socially incestuous.

You really do like the sound of your own voice don't you mamadada !
Shame your voice is so offensive to people who you know bugger all about.

bollocks.

wow! Who knew that I came from a socially inept society/culture? Well that told me. PMSL