Piercing your baby's ears?

Question

What is the consensus on piercing the ears of a baby girl?


I was just curious cause I think it is tantamount to child abuse.
You've just poked holes in the ears of a person who is either unwilling or can not give permission to do so. If you did the same to any other person you would be charged with assault and battery.

I would like to add that I don't like girls (boys too) getting their ears pierced. That my daughter(s) will have to be very old before I allow it.

And Redpeach_mi, it does cause physical damage, why else would they cry and the holes bleed?

P.S. circumcision is also awful, but it is up to the parents religion.

Answer 1

i 100% agree i would never get my little girls ears pierced

Answer 2

You are very passionate about your belief.
I really cant believe you are equating ear piercing to assault and battery or even child abuse.
Should an Attorney be called if 2 kids on the play ground decide to fight? Or if one calls the other a bad name should we file for slander?
Abuse is much more than this and shouldn't even be compared.
As for jewelry - In some countries the wearing of jewelry is a status and very much excepted at birth. Some ancient cultures even use it as a way to cross over into manhood or becoming a woman.
Keonli has the right frame of mind. We are not talking about mutilation or disfigurement.
Also, The holes in ears are not always permanent so one can change their mind and let them close.

I was 8 when I asked to get my ears pierced and it hurt like nobodys biz.
In those days the only one who did your ears was the Dr. or a relative. I changed my mind after one was done because it hurt but mom went ahead and finished the process.
Either way I am not harmed in any way by the whole thing.
No aversions to anything. It's a parents choice how to handle this but Please don't compare it to abuse or assault and battery.

Answer 3

I have 3 daughters....my oldest had her ears pierced at 2 1/2 because she asked for it. My second daughter was 6 months at the time and had hers done as well(and yep she is 4 1/2 now and LOVES her earrings) My youngest daughter is 2 1/2 now and never had her ears pierced as she has had several medical problems so we are holding off.

Seriously though.....do you really think that it is a form of child abuse...how ridiculous some people can really be. I think that is the most absurd thing that I have heard in a very long time. If you want to fight for child abuse then actually fight for a better cause then someone piercing their daughters ears...ridiculous just ridiculous.

Oh and by the way....my mom had my ears pierced at 2 as well and although I wear no earrings in those wholes now I don't feel my mom did anything wrong...if I want to wear earrings the holes are there if not then nobody even notices I have my ears pierced.

Answer 4

This is funny this question was asked today. I am currently battling an infected earing.
It is EXTREMELY painful, the only thing more painful that I've experienced was childbirth. The infection wasn't that bad at first, just a little swollen and oozing. But then it developed into cellulitis. My entire ear is swollen up, hot, and throbbing. This skin is stretched thin and shiny looking. I didn't sleep for 2 nights in a row because it was too painful to even lie down.
I have been in the doctor for it every day for the past 4 days. I am on 2 different antibiotics and 2 different painkillers for it. The doctor even mentioned having surgery to clean the abcess out if it doesn't get better.
There was really no reason for the infection. It just came on suddenly. I may have touched something that someone else with staph touched, and then scratched my ear or tucked my hair behind my ear and infected it.
A baby is at high risk for infection, because they don't know to keep their hands away from their ear during the healing time. They also could pull on it and cause trauma that way.
I can't imagine a baby having to go through what I am going through now, because some mom wants to treat her baby like a little doll and make her "look cute".
The ears are acutally a very dirty place to get pierced (because of the hair, and also ear secretions). I have many body piercings, and this is the first time I have gotten an infection. Of all the piercings I have, my earlobe earring is the one that gets infected!
I just don't think that it is ethical to take a sharp object and puncture a wound in an unconsenting infant(for no medical reason). Just because YOU like earrings and you think it would make them look cute. I like nose piercings, but am I going to go out and get my baby's nose pierced? Heck no! And even if they don't like it and let them grow shut, they can still have problems with them. I let one of my ear holes grow shut, and it now has a hard, ugly lump there. One of my friends had trouble with her earrings getting infected and let them grow shut. That was over a year ago, and she STILL gets crust and puss where the hole is.
The AAP says no earrings before 4 years old, because they create a choking hazard (even the "safety" ones can come out).

Oh, and about piercing guns: I will never let one of those near my daughter when she gets old enough to have them done. Those guns are extremely unsanitary. I have training in sterile procedure, and once, I worked at Claires for a few months and couldn't believe how they used such a device to pierce people. Most professional piercing places I know of refuse to use them. Yes, they (hopefully) clean the gun between each person, but would you let a nurse give you a shot with a needle someone else got, even if she "cleaned it off good" first?
The only safe way to do it is to go to a facililty (that it licensed and health inspected) that uses sterile procedure with actual needles (that they throw away after one use) and sterile, bagged jewelry.

Answer 5

I had my ears pierces when I was 3 days old, I am really happy for that as now I would be afraid of pain and wouldn't do that {but still would want to wear earings!} Babies are too young to remember that, plus it doesn't hurt them as much as it hurts adults. You probably think it is normal to circumcise a baby boy, but it is not normal to pierce little girls ears? Well, if I were a boy, I wouldn't want to have anybody cutting off skin from my penis and supposingly nobody would ask me for permission....

tinkerbell24: I am not american and in my country it is done in the hospital where the baby is born. ALL girls have their ears pierced.

Answer 6

you sound like you wont be convinced by anything that we say here, but i'd still like to respectfully disagree.

firstly, piercing ears isnt a very big deal at all. i've had papercuts that were far worse.

secondly, as an infant, the child wont even remember having it done. no child ever does!

thirdy, guys have a trimming to go through. i'd think that would be a whole lot worse than having a little prick in each ear.

and finally, at an age of 1 or 2, a child has a much different concept of pain than we do. their nerves are still developing, so it wouldnt necessarily affect them as it would you or i.

however, piercing your child's ears is really just a thing you do if you want to. and if you dont want to, you dont have to! nobody will frown down upon you no matter which route you take!

Answer 7

I think that it is disgusting. My husband and I saw a baby getting its ear pierced when we were in the mall, and at first we had no idea what was going on...the mom was holding her little one (I'd say no more than 4 months old) and the baby was bright red and screaming. At first I thought that maybe she had accidentally dropped the kid on a display case or something and the little one's head got bumped, but no, they were doing this willingly by piercing her ears! Sooooo gross. It is not about being traumatized, it is about causing senseless pain to a baby for esthetics (as if babies aren't cute enough without piercing their ears). Wait till your daughters are old enough to decide for themselves, and old enough to care for the piercings (if they don't they can get nasty infections). In sum --- YUK!

P.S. - every little girl doesn't like having earrings. My ear piercings were constantly infected, even with gold earrings, hypoallergenic, etc. Circumcision is tantmount to genital mutilation, I hardly think that ear piercing is comparable.

Answer 8

My 5 1/2 month old daughter got her ears pierced on Valentines Day. Interesting that you compare it to child abuse...

And as for the holes and bleeding...it doesn't bleed a bit, and if the earrings are taken out they leave a tiny dot, it's not like they have a gaping hole in their head for God's sake.

Answer 9

I had my ears pierced when I was about 2-3 months old. I honestly don't remember anything about it, and I haven't been traumatized by the ordeal either. I don't have a phobia concerning needles or pointy things, nor have have I grown up with a penchant for pain. It's a personal choice, much like circumcision and anything else you do regarding your baby. Most people nowadays choose to circumcise their sons because of aesthetic reasons, not because of health reasons, and to be honest, I think it'd be worse to lose some foreskin than to have a little hole in your earlobes.

Answer 10

I don't think its bad because it hurts the child or might be bad physically for the child because it probally isnt so bad. And its a baby, it wont remember being hurt when it grows old.(assuming somone dumb enough to peirce their infants ear is intelligent enough to care for it)
BUT, why not let your child grow up and decide if they want a hole in their ear that you put metal in to make yourself look cooler than you would otherwise. Thats a personal choice, it shouldn't be something that is made for you.

Answer 11

We decided to get both of our girls ears pierced at 4 mos. and yes they cried. On the other hand, when my niece was 7 she had her ears pierced-and ended up in the ER because she ran like a scalded dog at the sound of the gun and ripped her earlobe. Literally she was running down the mall with the gun attached to her lobe. It is a socially accepted tradition and like circumcision and less traumatizing at an early age.