Earrings on a toddler

[Nennie]

My DD is 1 year old, and I had her ears pierced when she was 6 months old with CZ studs. I always assumed I'd do it when she was older (6 or 7) and asked for it, but she barely had any hair, and I wanted to help her look more girly! LOL!! She looks adorable, and people compliment her earrings all the time.

I'm white by the way. Just mentioning that it wasn't a cultural thing for me!

 

[mnrose]

These sorts of comments about 'non-professional' piercers annoy me a bit. I am in Australia so under totally different regulations, but we were fully trained and licensed and the premises was accredited with regular spot checks done. We had strict rules about having a separate room for piercing, the way it was cleaned, the way our materials were stored, etc. These are the same rules that apply to tattoo parlours here. My workplace received a 100% score and 5 star rating every year I was there. We even pierced the head of our local council's health department's daughter (which we awkwardly found out just before the piercing when she looked up at our certificate of accreditation and proclaimed 'that's daddy's name!'). Admittedly though, I have seen a couple of YouTube videos of girls having their ears pierced at mall places in the US that definitely wouldn't have passed our accreditation and with piercers whose technique left a lot to be desired, so it could absolutely be different over there!

We also used a new type of gun that is totally sanitary - the piercing is done with an earring pre-loaded in a sterilised cartridge. The cartridge just clicks into the top of the gun and when you squeeze the gun the cartridge pushes the front of the earring onto the back. The gun never touches the ear or the earring (theoretically you could pierce with just the cartridge, the gun just makes your hand steadier) and the piercer doesn't touch the earring through the whole process, unlike the old guns where you had to remove the earring from the packaging and load them into the gun then put the back on by hand. These guns also don't make the awful loud bang that the old ones do! Even with the needles the piercer still has to remove the earring from the packaging, put the back on, etc. These new guns mean the item doing the penetration and the earring (here, they are the same thing) have absolutely minimal exposure to outside elements - mere seconds of being in the air. Plus, they are still cleaned before and after each piercing. They are as close to 100% sanitary as you're going to get with piercing.

You said it yourself. We are under COMPLETELY different regulations here, and the mall places have people with very little training or experience. The place that I had my DD's done REQUIRES the state mandated training PLUS a full year as an apprentice, working under another professional, before they will let you actual be an unsupervised piercer at their establishment. According to them, the "guns" have several problems, not the least of which the actual gun CANNOT be properly sanitized in an auto-clave. And, using the earring to create the piercing drives a larger hole which tears more than necessary. The more tearing, the more likelihood of infection. They use a very fine needle to do their piercings. All needles are single use only, and even then, they are autoclaved before using. Needles are then disposed of and never used again. Indeed, they used TWO needles on my D....a fresh one for each ear. More sanitary, with the risk of infection reduced as much as possible. NOTHING they use is ever used on another client, unlike the guns, which are used on all manner of people.

And, as I said, I think a big advantage of their business model is it encourages people to give thought to what they are doing. You can't just "show up" and get pierced. It takes two appointments, spaced at least 24 hours apart...and because of availability, my DD waited a week between appointments. The first appointment, where they cover (in detail) the procedures, risks and aftercare, takes as long as the second.

 

[dazedx3]

I don't really have an opinion about the best age to pierce ears, however, if you are piercing the ears of a small one in daycare, please get the locking backs. I work at a daycare and a number of times a child will lose their earring and we have been unable to find it. We then worry that another child may have picked it up and swallowed it.

 

[littleblackegg]

Funny you should mention this. I popped into Claire's (a costume jewelry shop in the mall) yesterday, and there was a screaming baby having her ears pierced. My husband was HORRIFIED. I explained that some cultures have girl's ears pierced as babies. He was pretty rattled.

 

[DiannaVM]

I was born in Mexico and grew up there and as someone mentioned, it was pretty standard to have baby girl's ears pierced. My sister and I both had ours done as babies just a few weeks old (I want to say at the hospital it was even an option to get it done by the doctor/nurse but I am not totally sure). Our earrings were real gold from the beginning and seldom were changed out except for when my mom would clean our ears and stuff. We were allergic to nickel and some silver, so gold is all she used. All my friends had theirs pierced too.

As matter of fact, when I moved to the Bahamas, I found it baffling that one of my friends didn't have her ears pierced and other had waited until she was 10 to get them pierced. And obviously they weren't the only ones, but I came from a place where that was so common it was always a given. I personally would rather have my child's ears pierced when they are young enough not to remember the traumatic experience lol.

However, someone brought this up so I just want to point out. One of my piercings did stretch. I am not sure when it happened since I remember it being that way since early childhood, but it never gave me issues. Sometimes I just have to be careful with heavy earrings so it doesn't get any more stretched.

 

[Adelle Dazeem]

I waited til DD was 8 to get her ears pierced and did them in a proper piercing studio. The piercing guns are just horrid for so many reasons - unsanitary guns, the lack of control of the piercing directions, etc. No way in a million years would I let anyone use a piercing gun on my kid...or myself!

 

[Domo]

I waited til DD was 8 to get her ears pierced and did them in a proper piercing studio. The piercing guns are just horrid for so many reasons - unsanitary guns, the lack of control of the piercing directions, etc. No way in a million years would I let anyone use a piercing gun on my kid...or myself!

My ex went into a piercing shop to get second holes punched professionally... sadly it went wrong and she got an infection. I guess it's down to luck and perhaps skill?

 

[jrmasm]

I don't like it.

 

[Tasha228]

My mom had mine done at 9 months old. I've never minded. I love earrings. I had additional ear piercings done as a teen and still have 2 in each ear now. My mom and I are both white btw. It wasn't a cultural thing when my mom did mine. She just did. I honestly don't know why. It never bothered me enough to even think to ask lol.

My daughter asked to have hers done when she was around 3 yrs old. I let her. She is 10 now and not really into earrings at the moment so she rarely wears any. That doesn't bother me either. Maybe she will as she gets older. Maybe she won't. It doesn't really matter to me what she decides.

 

[Lyricallie]

In our family we all get them coming up to our First Communion as people always seem to buy studs as communion presents.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

My Dad pierced mine when I was 7 with ice and a needle. I remember sitting at the table and I was chewing gum and he told me to stop chewing gum because my ears were moving up and down. I pierced my 2nd and 3rd hole myself when I was about 16 using ice and a needle. I didn't even know about these guns back then (80's).
.

I got my first piercing back around 1979, when it still considered somewhat risqué for a guy to have an earring. We were going to a punk rock club in New York, and I let a college girlfriend pierce my ear lobe with a big safety pin sterilized with vodka. Ice from a fountain Coke was the anesthetic. Oh, yeah, it was on the bus ride to the city. Some nearby passengers were horrified. I thought I was quite chic wandering around the club wearing a safety pin covered with dried caked blood.

I kept it in for a few days, then removed it. The hole healed and closed up. No problems.

At one time I had three holes in one ear and two in the other. All have since closed up, but you can still see the remains of one hole in my left earlobe.