Piercing baby's ears??

[aidtrismommy]

It should be a decision that the person makes on their own. After all, they will be the ones who eventually will be taking care of them on their own and living with them. Yes they "are just holes, they will grow shut" that really isn't the point. The thing that disturbs most people is that babies are having a needle shot through their ears unneccesarily. One person said "my baby cried not because of the pain, but because the gun was so loud" Well, how do you know? Did she tell you that? Piercing ones ear should be a personal decision. Doing it when they are babies because they won't remember the pain or because they will have less anxiety about the procedure does not make it right. Part of the decision to get earrings invloves knowing that it will hurt and that you will have to clean them and turn them everyday. It makes a child really think if getting earrings is really something they want to do. If they really want earrings, then they will do it and feel very proud of themselves in the end. I think that is a great lesson in itself.

 

[firefox2]

I am against it for a few reasons:
Places like Claires use piercing guns, which cannot be sterilized. (I have many piercings, and also know a few professional piercers, so have researched alot). I know of someone who has hepatitis B, he went to a Claires store to get a piercing, but didn't bother telling them that he was hep. B. The only way to get it off of the gun is to throw the gun away, since it cannot be sterilized.
A professional piercer will use an individual needle for each person and piercing, one that is sterile.
Also, using a gun, the jewellry is too tight, therefore making a piercing harder to heal (why so may have infections with new piercings), the best way to get ears pierced is using captive bead rings for jewellry, they heal very quickly.
Using a gun, a piercing is usually not straight, using a needle, the piercing is usually straight.

I made my daughter wait until she was old enough to go to a piercer (I think 8 is when I took her, but they just have to have parents consent and be old enough to tell the piercer that they want their ears pierced).
One other thing, most places like Claires use surgical steel, which contains nickel. About 80% of people react to nickel products. A good piercer will pierce with surgical grade titanium to eliminate allergic reaction.

 

[kevschickee]

I am against it for a few reasons:
Places like Claires use piercing guns, which cannot be sterilized. (I have many piercings, and also know a few professional piercers, so have researched alot). I know of someone who has hepatitis B, he went to a Claires store to get a piercing, but didn't bother telling them that he was hep. B. The only way to get it off of the gun is to throw the gun away, since it cannot be sterilized.
A professional piercer will use an individual needle for each person and piercing, one that is sterile.
Also, using a gun, the jewellry is too tight, therefore making a piercing harder to heal (why so may have infections with new piercings), the best way to get ears pierced is using captive bead rings for jewellry, they heal very quickly.
Using a gun, a piercing is usually not straight, using a needle, the piercing is usually straight.

I made my daughter wait until she was old enough to go to a piercer (I think 8 is when I took her, but they just have to have parents consent and be old enough to tell the piercer that they want their ears pierced).
One other thing, most places like Claires use surgical steel, which contains nickel. About 80% of people react to nickel products. A good piercer will pierce with surgical grade titanium to eliminate allergic reaction.

My pediatrician did it with a gun but it was a one time use gun. I saw her open a brand new kit there were 2 plastic guns in it and she used each of the guns. Both of my girls were done like this and they were very straight. So not all gun piercings are crooked. I would never take my baby to a mall to do it but I totally trust my pediatrician to do it.

 

[robinb]

I made my daughter wait until she was old enough to go to a piercer (I think 8 is when I took her, but they just have to have parents consent and be old enough to tell the piercer that they want their ears pierced).

Here in Wisconsin you have to be at least 16 to even enter a piercing parlor so that option was not available to my DD. We went to Claire's and it was fine. We just made sure to follow the directions on keeping her piercings clean.

ETA: I asked my pediatrician to do it and she didn't do piercings so we ended up at Claire's instead.

 

[kevschickee]

Here in Wisconsin you have to be at least 16 to even enter a piercing parlor so that option was not available to my DD. We went to Claire's and it was fine. We just made sure to follow the directions on keeping her piercings clean.

I was going to say the same thing about going to a piercer. Here in Ma you have to be 16 with parents permission before that they legally can't do it.

 

[crysplefty]

Go ahead and pierce them. Your pediatrician can do it and now they are able to apply something on their ears to numb them. When we had our daughter's ears pierced at 6 months they were out of the stuff to numb her ears but we said go ahead and do it anyway it will only hurt for a minute. She cried and screamed more for her vaccines then she did for the piercing. If you get it done with the right earings she will not be able to pull them out. It is hard for an adult to take them off much less an infant. Plus it will be easier to care for them when she is an infant than when she gets older. If you decide not to do it and then change your mind when she is say 2 you will have to deal with infection. At six months they aren't very aware of their body parts so she won't be aware of them and won't be pulling on them. I have two friends with daughters the same age as mine who decided not to get them pierced when they were six months. Now that they are two they are regretting it. Now they would like to have them pierced, but know that their girls will be pulling on them and will injure them selves and cause infection.

 

[SheenaXena21]

My sister was a manager at a place that pierced ears. You should have seen what my sister had to go through for children over 5.

It was usually awful!!! She was pregnant last year and I was so worried that one of them might kick her in the stomach. Thankfully none did. It was bad sometimes. Parents would pay $50 for the earrings and the kid end up screaming their lungs out and the parents trying to hold them down. It would take an hour to do one ear on some kids, and some of them left with only one ear done.

Once you open the earrings, you had to buy them. And parents would leave mad.

My sister pierced her daughters ears when she was, I think, 8 or 9 weeks old. I think as long as you've had the child's first set of shots. She didn't even flinch for the first ear. Then she got mad the second ear around, because I had to hold her head down and she was annoyed at that.

I say pierce them early. This coming from someone who has witnessed first hand what older children do and don't do when they get their ear's pierced for the first time.

 

[firefox2]

For those that do think mall piercers are totally safe, please read this carefully. I would hate to see a child, not even old enough to speak for itself end up with Hep B, Hep C, HIV, etc. because the parents had the kids ears pierced just because they wanted to? That child will grow up soon enough. And yes, speak one on one with the piercer at a piercing parlor, most, although not advertised, can legally accept children old enough to decide for themselves to pierce ears, and only ears. Body piercing cannot legally be done to someone under age.
http://www.namaii.com/suck/
http://www.outthere-studio.com/content/view/21/26/
http://jewelry.about.com/od/bodyjewelry/a/piercing_guns.htm

It is after all, the parents decision, but isn't it the parents that need to make an EDUCATED decision?

 

[justhat]

My daughter had her ears pierced right after her 5th birthday. She had been asking for a few months and I said if she still wanted it done at 5yo she could get it done. She did so we made the appt to get it done at her 5yo physical at the ped's. They did one ear at a time and yes, of course, she cried, but she was fine as soon as the 2nd one was done and she got to look in a mirror. She is the ONLY kid in her class with pierced ears so it is definitely not done routinely to babies in Washington, DC.

As far as cleaning them, I had absolutely no issues. Before we got them pierced I explained to her that her ears would need to be cleaned twice each day, how we'd clean them, when, etc. I told her without that there would be no pierced ears and she agreed and was fine for it the entire 6 weeks. At the end of the 6 weeks I couldn't get them out cause the backing they used was locked onto the earring, but she liked them (they were tiny pearls, with a surgical grade post) so it wasn't a big issue. We actually just took them out for the first time yesterday when we went back to the peds for flu vaccines (and she had them done in March!) and the nurse there unlocked them for us. We put in new earrings this morning with no issues.

So I wouldn't worry about proper cleaning on an older kid. I simply told my daughter that's how it would be and we did not have any issues.


And regarding circ's, my son was circ'd at 7 months old for a medical reason (we didn't have any choice in the matter), but until we found that out when he was born, I was very much on the fence about doing it. For health reasons I really wanted to (my cousin's son was circ'd at 3 for chronic UTIs and it was a bad experience for him), but at the same time I was very torn about it cause once it's done it's done.

And really, I think earrings are the same in that I haven't worn earrings in my 2nd holes in years, but when I put them in a couple of months ago just to see if the hole was still there, the earrings went right in. I had those done at 12yo and had to take them out for sports a lot so I wouldn't even say they healed well, but the hole is still there 17 years later.