Daughter got ears pierced but she is afraid to take them out

[amsafko]

My dd8 got her ears pierced for her birthday. We tried taking the piercing earrings out a little after 4 weeks (at her prompting, I wanted to wait). Well the pain was so bad we stopped. Now she is afraid to even try and it is past the 6 week mark. Should it be that painful? Any ideas of how to do it? Thanks!

 

[mjkacmom]

One of my dd's had them pierced twice, another 3 times. DON'T take them out unless you have to! Both were after the 6 week mark, for an hour for sports. Closed right up. Just keep turning.

 

[minkydog]

No, it should not be painful. The holes should be fully healed by now and the posts should turn freely. Is the backing loose? Does the earlobe seems swollen, red, or tender? It shouldn't be stuck to the skin. If it seems like it's embedded in her ear or infected, you need to see her doctor. I have seen ears close up over the metal and it's impossible to get it out without some intervention (unless you are grown up and willing to take the pain. I doubt most children would endure that.)

 

[Hannathy]

Is she turning them? cleaning them? As long as she is turning and cleaning them she will want to remove them to put something new and pretty in and will do it then. BUT she needs to be turning and cleaning them.

 

[Gigi22]

You can make turning the earrings, and ultimately removing them, easier if you carefully daub some polysporin around the hole for each earring, and then turn them. Polysporin has a nice gel-like consistency that seems to help a lot, and it has antibiotics in it.
Mine were painful to turn too, and it was mostly because the wounds still had scabs on them that had adhered to the earrings. Polysporin helped.

 

[amsafko]

She has taken very good care of them with the solution and turning them. They are not red, swollen, and turn freely. She says when she tries to take them out, apparently she has tried on her own, she says they hurt too much. I personally think it is fear more than pain. But she won't let me near them to even try now. Will it hurt for them to stay in longer?

 

[mvazul]

Please, please make sure you are turning them several times a day and cleaning them. I had my ears pierced when I was 5. I refused to allow my mother near them. I ended up with the skin grown over the backs. I had to see my doctor to have them removed and it was extremely painful.

My daughter had her ears pierced when she was 5, also (she is now 10). I was constantly turning and cleaning them. After 6 weeks, we took them out to clean them and immediately put them back in. I would not let her wear a different pair for an entire year. May have been a bit of overkill, but I didn't want her to go through what I had.

Good luck!

Michelle

 

[AKL_Megs]

DD had hers pierced at about 3 months, and we took them out at about the 8 week point, just because there was gunk stuck to the backing, and she was oblivious to taking them out, or putting them back in. There shouldn't be pain involved. If they aren't red or inflammed, she might just be scared now.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Did you take her to a piercer, someone that does it with a needle or are they piercing studs from a mall type shop with a gun? If it's the latter, they tend to take longer to heal. I have my ear pierced and cartiledge pierced, both professionally done with a needle, and they healed quick and were not painful at all.

 

[Hannathy]

As long as she can turn them easily and is cleaning them then no it won't hurt to leave them in longer.

Like I said let her alone and soon enough she will see another pair she wants to wear and out will come the earrings.

I would suggest right after a shower so anything dried that might be there is gone and they should move freely.

 

[NAB]

How did she try to take them out? Maybe she just pulled on the back and not enough on the front.

They are pretty hard to get out the first time and may hurt from the pulling but once you have the locking ones out you should be good to go. I used to have to take all the earrings out for the first while until my dd got used to pulling the front with her finger nail behind the earring .

Like others said there is really no rush to get them out. Just keep trying when she is ready.

 

[mvazul]

As long as she can turn them easily and is cleaning them then no it won't hurt to leave them in longer.

Like I said let her alone and soon enough she will see another pair she wants to wear and out will come the earrings.

I would suggest right after a shower so anything dried that might be there is gone and they should move freely.

 

[Eeyore98]

She has taken very good care of them with the solution and turning them. They are not red, swollen, and turn freely. She says when she tries to take them out, apparently she has tried on her own, she says they hurt too much. I personally think it is fear more than pain. But she won't let me near them to even try now. Will it hurt for them to stay in longer?

As long as they turn freely, she should be fine. Maybe see if she will agree to take the backs off for a minute and make sure there is no gunk built up on them?

But no, it won't hurt for them to stay in longer. Basically at this point they are earrings just like any other pair. I used to wear my piercings studs every now and then even after everything had healed up, just because they were the only ones I had in that particular style.

I would just wait until she is ready.

 

[luvsJack]

Dd had her's pierced about that age and although she took good care of them and there was no infection, it did hurt to take the piercing earrings out. The ones she had were really on tight and it took someone pulling kind of hard to get the back off.

Once we got them out, it took some convincing to get her to try other earrings.

 

[apirateslifeforme]

I also vote for leaving them in longer. When I first got my ears pierced, it took a full year for them to heal. I tried taking them out and wearing others, but it hurt a lot and they always bled, so I left the piercing studs in. A year later, no more pain, no more bleeding when I changed them.

FWIW, those were professionally done. The two piercings I did myself 3 years later - healed in 8 weeks, no infections at all

 

[flyergrad09]

As long as she continues to turn them and clean them, it's perfectly fine for her to leave them in until she feels ready to take them out. If she doesn't want to, pressuring her will only freak her out more. Obviously, if it gets to be a year and she still hasn't taken them out, then I'd say it's time to step in and talk her into it. But I would think that she'll want to put in other cute earrings before then.

I've only had my ears pierced for about 10 years, and I remember that taking the piercing earrings out the first time hurt a little bit more than regular earrings. Mine had a little dent near the end of the post that served as a "lock" to prevent the back of the earring from falling out before my piercings had healed. So it might take a little bit of extra tugging. If you can have her hold her lobes still while you take out the earrings, that should help with the pain. It's like when you pluck your eyebrows... taut skin doesn't hurt as much as skin that's being pulled with something.

 

[bas71873]

My DD just had her ears pierced too. It was 8 weeks on Easter Sunday and the guy that pierced hers told us to leave them in for 8 weeks and of course we got all the cleaning/turning instructions. I did take them out 1 or two times before the 8 weeks just to clean her ears really well and clean the posts, but they were never out for more than a few minutes.

A few days before Easter we went earring shopping and ended up at Claire's and I asked the saleslady about their "sensible solutions" brand (I have sensitive ears and cannot wear costume earrings) and she said that they contain no nickle, which is what most people have bad reactions too (myself included). Her advice was to let DD wear them for a few hours on a Saturday or Sunday to see if she has a reaction to them. She told us that if she did, we'd know if a few hours (red, itchy ears). DD was fine with them and has since wore them to school. The lady also said to NOT send DD to school in a pair of earrings she's never worn because if she goes to the school nurse complaining, they will take them out and the holes could close by the time she gets home from school. Her advice was to ALWAYS wear earrings for the first year to prevent the holes from closing.

Hope that helps some and good luck. BTW, I will say the earrings she got pierced with are WAY harder to get off than the ones we've bought. I'm guessing they do that for a reason

 

[NJMomma]

Please, please make sure you are turning them several times a day and cleaning them. I had my ears pierced when I was 5. I refused to allow my mother near them. I ended up with the skin grown over the backs. I had to see my doctor to have them removed and it was extremely painful.

This JUST happened to my daughter! I had to take her to the ER on Monday to get the back removed from her earlobe. It was so lodged in there you couldn't even see it at all She had been wearing the same earrings for about a month, which didn't seem like an issue to me. Her ears were pierced 4 yrs ago; I never imagined this could happen. She had to get 2 stitches in her earlobe.

So I would say keep an eye on the earrings to make sure they are still spinning freely and look good front and back.

 

[NAB]

I had this happened to my dd too , with the back going right into the ear. We but we could still see it and took it out.

My dd had her ears pierced three times. First time she was one, one ear got infected because she would let me touch or turn them. Then we got them done again at 4 ( her wanting too) this time it was the back thing. So I thought was done with it and she wouldn't want to get them done again. Well when she turned 8 she wanted it done for her First Communion. This time everything worked ok. She changes them all the time now but like I said it was hard to get the first ones out and then I did it for a while after even though it was easy after that.

 

[marmalade]

My DD got her ears pierced on her 5th bday, and just took them out to put in a new pair a few weeks ago, She is now 7. As long as she cleaned her ears and turned them I didn't care if she ever took them out.

She waited so long because she thought when you put new earings in it was like piercing them all over again. Now that she knows it doesn't hurt she changes them all the time.