Ear piercing on my DD

[MaiaRindell]

My 10 yo DD got her ears pierced for Christmas. We had it done at Claire's on Boxing day so almost three weeks ago. They are still very uncomfortable/sore for her. The bottom of one of her earlobes is very red...A sort of streak of itchy, stinging skin and one earring feels tight she says. I have loosened it as much as I can.

I think it might be the chemicals in the over-priced 'rapid' solution they gave us so I swapped to plain saline solution and E45 to soothe it yesterday. Hopefully that will help. I have very sensitive skin so I think she may too.

The girl who carried out the piercing said the earrings could be changed after three weeks ONLY if we used their rapid solution. Surely that can't be correct?! Why would cleaning solution speed up the process? The reason I'm asking is that I can only wear gold earrings and I would like to swap hers to see if this helps.

I'd ring up a proper piercing studio and ask their advice about changing the earrings. In the meantime I'd bathe in a salt solution at least a couple of times a day. A quarter of a teaspoon of sea salt in a cup of boiling water cooled down to a bearable temperature should improve things.

Sorry meant to add, if it's not obvious, soak a cotton pad in the solution and kind of wrap it around the piercing for a minute or so to soak it.

Thanks @lamentations
Wish I'd heeded others' advice and gone there in the first place.

You can change earrings at any point as long as you put one in straight after taking the first one out. It may sting a bit getting it in though

Some ears can be finicky to heal. My daughter's left ear took nearly a year to heal. It was never infected just still open. Took her to see various piercers tried different jewellery and solutions. In the end they recommended just taking it out and letting it heal. Had decided to do that when a friend said to try rubber cone shaped backs instead of the butterfly backs. It healed within three days!!

Agree with pp - but if you are switching I would switch to titanium or stainless steel for now as in theory gold or silver can flare allergies. Proper piercing studio advice may also be worth it, although not sure what they can do now it’s done?

If you switch to normal earrings with slimmer shafts then her ears will heal with a smaller hole, if you want to avoid that then order some sterile ‘piercing’ earrings online to swap in.

If it might be infected/inflamed then as well as salt water soaking (as mentioned above) I would slap sudocreme on it / but to be honest I may be in a minority there, I use sudocreme to cure everything

Are they sterling silver earring? If not switch and see how that works. Dd hadn't hers done some years ago and when she had anything except sterling silver her ears would go all crusty. She let the close and got them done again in Claire's and has worn sterling silver since with no problems.

Dd 'had' hers done some years ago

You shouldn't put sterling silver or 9ct gold in a new piercing as it can discolour the flesh, titanium will be the best bet and a sea salt soak a few times a day.

Her current earrings are stainless steel.

I bought saline solution and E45 on my way to work. I only had calamine lotion last night which seemed to help. I'll see how they are after a few days of using them then maybe try a rubber backing on the earring. If that doesn't work, I'll try a titanium stud.

3 weeks is not very long at all. I had my ears re-pierced after around 15 years of not wearing any at Easter and kept them in for a good 6-8 weeks before even attempting to put new ones in. I regularly bathed my lobes in hot salty water for a good few weeks (as hot as I could bare in an egg-cup held up to my ear). I'd leave the E45 cream too for now as the ears need to heal and dry skin ointment won't treat a possible infection.

Those mentioning titanium studs could you point me to anywhere that sells them. I have had to stop wearing earrings due to irritation. Thanks.

Quite often when you buy gold or silver earrings that only describes what the earring itself is made of - the butterfly back is still made of whatever alloy cheap earrings are made of. It's definitely worth buying separate backs that are actually silver or the cone rubber ones. We struggled for ages with DD's ears until we discovered this.

I would go to a proper piercing studio and have the studs changed for titanium. Good piercings require no lotions or solutions, just clean running warm water from the shower every day and zero touching of ears. Claire's uses guns which cannot be sterilized, are notoriously bad for crooked piercing and infections. Their "quick healing solution" contains the same ingredients as laundry bleach and nothing can make trauma heal quicker than normal (otherwise hospitals would be using it on wounds).

I would seek advice from a professional piercer and am sure it will be healed well soon.

Stop putting creams and things on them for a start, you don't want anything that could clog dirt up and lead to an infection and anything chemical will irritate it more. Stick to cooled boiled water and as PPs have said, go to a reputable piercing studio and seek advice. They might change the jewellery for you.

I have no idea why Claire's are still allowed to pierce ears, I've never heard anything good about a piercing from there.

Another vote for warm saline soaks, then rinse off with cooled boiled water and no touching at all!

Okay. I will use only saline and rubber backings and see how that goes. Thank you all for the advice. If DD1 ever wants hers pierced, we'll go to a specialist.

They started with stainless steel? Okay, well it was a looooooooooooong time ago that I had mine done but it was:

(1) Gold earrings only
(2) Do not remove for six weeks
(3) Clean daily with good old TCP

Interesting to see how things have changed.

I had my ears pierced in November. Had them done at a piercing/tattoo parlour. The woman who did them advised to use tea tree essential oil on them as it is a natural antiseptic. 2 drops in half a cup of cooled boiled water bathe ears twice a day. Do not remove earrings for 6 weeks. Worked brilliantly no pain at all and no swelling/drainage. May be worth a try?

That is great. I'll try tea tree.
I am sure DD2 is allergic to the solution Claire's gave me. Her ears are better even in two days since I stopped using it. I am going to take it back. They charge £15 for it!

I’d use salt water, or if you want something more then something definitely suitable for wound healing Eg tcp / savlon spray etc. Tea tree is probably ok too. Salt water is surprisingly effective.

I had my ears pierced at Claire’s, after having body piercings done at ‘proper’ piercing salons, and I definitely noticed the difference.

Three weeks is very early anyway, but don’t use their awful liquids, I’m pretty sure they will either be a fancy rip off or actually a slight risk of negatives.

I'd recommend tea tree oil or tcp too. Tea tree smells alot nicer!

It's definitely 6 weeks at least before you can take them out. I've always left my original piercings in for 2-3 months, but, my ears are slow to heal also. In fact, I've a cartilage piercing I had done last January that still has the original hoop in.

Would it be worth maybe, going to a proper piercing place and having the studs removed and replaced with hoops? Ones that are close to her lobes and don't dangle obviously. Unless the school has a flat ban on hoops.

Fingers crossed they continue to improve for her! Manky piercings is a real pain

I have never used anything but clean running warm water on new ear piercings, my dd the same. And never touch or rotate piercings - you need them to heal and rotating just prevents that by dislodging any "scab" that has built up.