Please help...dd's ear piercing is infected!

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

We don't take them out every night. We still clean them nightly and she picks out a new pair in the morning, but she still has her previous day earrings in. She loves to match them with what she is wearing that day! I meant that I didn't notice anything last night because she fell asleep in them before I cleaned them. She always has a pair in so the holes don't close up.

Thank you all again! I am a little embarassed that I flipped out thinking I needed to take her in to the doctor about it.

I would only let her sleep in the piercing studs. She can certainly wear cute ones during the day, but clean them well at night and put in the studs for her to sleep in, that'll help.

 

[Suzanne74]

I had the same problem with my oldest daughter (who is now 20). Had them pierced repeatedly and they always got infected. Finally a doctor told me to stop doing it. (Yeah I was a first time parent back then).

It is usually recommended that you don't get ears pierced until the child is 12 or 13 as ear lobes grow downward and the piercing becomes off center as the child ages.

 

[krcit]

My dd got her cartilage pierced over the summer and after going to an amusement park she woke up one morning with it infected. I did not take out the earring. I cleaned it with alcohol and put Bacitracin on a couple of times a day and twisted the earring as soon as I could....it was really swollen the first day or two so I tried not to touch it. I also went out and bought sealsalt because when I googled 'infected cartilage piercing' so many posts came up saying to soak it with a seasalt and water mixture. Hers cleared up so I never did it but you might want to try it.

 

[NYEmomma]

As someone who has had multiple professional piercings over the years and has had to deal with an infection here & there (I had one piercing that acted up every single time I got a cold, without fail), this is my advice, taken straight from professional piercers who are trained in this kind of stuff:

1.) Do NOT take the jewelry out. That's just going to seal the infection in the healing piercing. Leave the jewelry in. If it's crappy quality & that's what you think is bothering her, then remove it if you can & replace them with higher quality earrings, but do not take them out & leave them out.

2.) Do NOT use alcohol. It's too harsh. Clean with a gentle antibacterial soap and soak it in a warm sea salt solution (1c warm water + 1/4tsp non-iodized sea salt). Clean the piercing once a day, but you can do the sea salt soaks as frequently as you'd like. It soothes the piercing, loosens up an crusties & is a natural astringent so it draws the infection out. You can have her stick her ear in a cup of the solution or use a cotton ball to gently hold it against her ear. Leave it soak for several minutes.

3.) There is no need to spin the earring. Unless you want to make your kid cry, in which case, be my guest! Seriously though, it doesn't do any good at all & just inflicts pain

Hope it heals up quickly! These things will happen time to time with piercings, especially with kids, but definitely keeping her from wearing cheapo jewelry will help. If she does want to wear the cheap, cute stuff, that's fine, just limit it to a couple of hours.

 

[Karenj2]

My ears get infected/irritated when I wear particular earrings, but my boss clued me into using neosporin on the earring before putting them in my ears - no problem after that!

 

[yellowtink]

I recommend putting some neosporin with pain relief on the post, and on the back of the ear. The post will help the inside feel better, and get on easie. The bakc of the ear will make sure the backs of the earring aren;t making ti worse. I had a porblem where my ear got infected and I did that and it went away.

 

[erinmomof2]

When my dd ears were infected I did take her to the doctor and she did need antibiotics. The doctor told me children should never sleep in earings and that they must be taken out each night. I did not take dd when I first noticed it, but because I waited the infection got worse and I needed to let the hole close. The doctor said without antibiotics the infection could spread.

 

[*MomTo2Princesses*]

Thank you all so much! It took almost 30 minutes (bless her heart!) but I got it out. She told me she pushes the backs in during the day because she is afraid of losing them. I think she (or I!) may have pushed it to close in and it cause her ear to swell. The back was halfway in her little ear. A small "plug" came out, and it bled a tiny bit. But it looks great this morning! There was a little bit of dried blood on the back this morning. I am continuing to put Neosporin on it and have her some new sterling silver earrings in. It feels great this morning. Hopefully that will be the end of it. Thanks to all of you for helping!

 

[bdcp]

My sister and I weren't allowed to get our ears pierced until we were 13. We both went to the Dr who used 24 kt gold posts. My mom went to the mall and got traditional 14 gold. Here's the deal. 14 kt gold has nickel in it. As a result my mom has a nickel allergy now. My sister and I can wear any earrings because as our ears holes were healing, they weren't exposed to nickel. My mom now can only wear gold, anything with nickel it in is a problem. Her watch is gold as is all her jewelry now.

Our posts were thicker than regular posts and did not have to be turned. We did put rubbing alcohol on them every evening and for the first couple of months after piercing, once we were past the first couple of weeks, we would remove them and soak the earrings in rubbing alcohol while we cleaned our ears. Neither of us ever had any infection or reaction and we're now 50 and 51.

 

[princessmom29]

My sister and I weren't allowed to get our ears pierced until we were 13. We both went to the Dr who used 24 kt gold posts. My mom went to the mall and got traditional 14 gold. Here's the deal. 14 kt gold has nickel in it. As a result my mom has a nickel allergy now. My sister and I can wear any earrings because as our ears holes were healing, they weren't exposed to nickel. My mom now can only wear gold, anything with nickel it in is a problem. Her watch is gold as is all her jewelry now.

Our posts were thicker than regular posts and did not have to be turned. We did put rubbing alcohol on them every evening and for the first couple of months after piercing, once we were past the first couple of weeks, we would remove them and soak the earrings in rubbing alcohol while we cleaned our ears. Neither of us ever had any infection or reaction and we're now 50 and 51.

very few people will have the reaction your mom did to nickel. Everyone's body reacts to things differently. My Mother reacts to pure gold that way becuase that is what SHE was pierced with. She cannot wear anything that is more than 10kt gold. She wears surgical steel post earrings only.

 

[shanab99]

I'm going to second the sea salt soak recommendation, especially if it starts getting red again. It's gentle and doesn't sting. I've had a few infected piercings, and it worked like a charm. Also, I've heard that sterling silver is not a good idea for new piercings as it can react (oxidize) with bodily fluids and cause problems. Surgical stainless steel is a good choice, or 14K (or above) gold.

 

[LlamaMamaof2]

My kiddo has problems with some earrings, seems to vary with which one causes problems. We were at urgent care for strep and her ear was a little red so we talked to the MD about it. She too recommended the neosporin trick!! My kiddo now puts neosporin on every earring stem before she changes a set and can now were any kind of earrings. Good luck.

 

[Sandi12404]

i have a question that's related. My DD7 got her ears pierced in April. We kept the original earings in for 2 months and now she changes them about every other day. Never had a problem with infection, thank goodness, but I noticed the other day that the earing in her right ear looked lower on the lobe then the other. Upon closer inspection it looks like the hole has stretched a little. We were warned this could happen if she wore dangle earings before 6 months had passed and she hasn't.
Not sure what to do. The only thing I can think of is to take the earing out, let it heal and have it pierced again which I really don't want to do. Anyone ever have this happen? It's not hurting her but it looks kind of strange and I'm worried (probably unwarrented) that the hole will keep getting bigger.

 

[Bibbidi]

They are from Claire's, so I doubt it. They say "sensitive solutions". I'm not if that even means anything. She has worn ones from this pack before, so could she still have a sensitivity to them? I went against my gut in getting her some from Claire's.

I may have been a little overzealous with the back. She has had a problem with her backs falling off at school, so I have been making sure they are on really tight. I may have put it on too tight, and now it is infected. It's probably my fault.

My oldest (10) has periodic trouble with her earrings--even the Sensitive Solutions type. I ended up buying her some surgical steel posted earrings from Simply Whispers (a webiste). Also, she can successfully wear the "Steel by Design" brand from QVC.

 

[squirrel]

Thank you all so much! It took almost 30 minutes (bless her heart!) but I got it out. She told me she pushes the backs in during the day because she is afraid of losing them. I think she (or I!) may have pushed it to close in and it cause her ear to swell. The back was halfway in her little ear. A small "plug" came out, and it bled a tiny bit. But it looks great this morning! There was a little bit of dried blood on the back this morning. I am continuing to put Neosporin on it and have her some new sterling silver earrings in. It feels great this morning. Hopefully that will be the end of it. Thanks to all of you for helping!

I'm glad her ear is better.

My sister puts little hoops in my niece's ear. She likes them better as there isn't a backing. She does end up buying a new pair every year or so as the hoop eventually doesn't lock in place (gets bent).

I've had my hoops in for years. I don't take them out. I had gold ones but then my mom and dad gave me a silver bracelet so I went and got some silver hoops to go with the bracelet.


For the poster that said her daughter has one hole that has elongated. I have both of my holes elongated and I have never worn dangley earings. I did take the earings out for quite a few months to try and get them to close up but it didn't work for me. They closed a bit in the back but the front was still the same. I only wore the original studs my ears were pierced with at the time. I now wear small sleeper hoops.

 

[NYEmomma]

i have a question that's related. My DD7 got her ears pierced in April. We kept the original earings in for 2 months and now she changes them about every other day. Never had a problem with infection, thank goodness, but I noticed the other day that the earing in her right ear looked lower on the lobe then the other. Upon closer inspection it looks like the hole has stretched a little. We were warned this could happen if she wore dangle earings before 6 months had passed and she hasn't.
Not sure what to do. The only thing I can think of is to take the earing out, let it heal and have it pierced again which I really don't want to do. Anyone ever have this happen? It's not hurting her but it looks kind of strange and I'm worried (probably unwarrented) that the hole will keep getting bigger.

Unless she wore HEAVY dangle earrings, I'd say that more than likely, the holes were just pierced at slightly different spots or angles. It takes consistent wearing of heavy earrings to change the size of the holes. I routinely wear a pair of earrings a gauge bigger than my normal gauge & within a day of taking them out, my holes are back to their normal size.

The short answer is that there's nothing you can do & likely no one except for you DD will even notice it. I've got a pair of holes that were pierced unevenly (another reason I hate piercers in the mall, lol) and it drives me nuts. But I know I'm a perfectionist & no one else notices and IMO, it's not worth the hassle of having them re-pierced.