In some cultures, it is customary to have your newborn baby girl’s ears pierced before even leaving the hospital, or within the first few weeks of birth.
The idea behind such early piercings is traditional as well practical, it is believed to be less painful than later in life. In Spanish and Latino cultures, it’s believed young girls will want to wear earrings as a symbol of their femininity from an early age.
While in other cultures, piercing such a young child – without their consent, is sometimes labelled as child abuse in the media and usually piercing their daughters (or sons) ears waits till between the ages of 5 and 16.
When it comes to piercing there are two schools of thinking:
- Parents who do it as early as possible, and
- Parents who wait until the child is old enough to make the decision for themselves.
No matter which age ears are pierced, there is always the risk of infection. There will also be a small amount of pain and you may have to put up with some comments or unwanted advice if you have decided to pierce early.
On a positive note nobody will say “oh what a cute little boy!” incorrectly anymore and you won’t have to do it later. Oh and there’s earrings of course!
Charlie Rose is 7 years old today and her mother is taking her to get her ears pierced.
“She asked me if that’s what she could have for her birthday. I jumped at the chance to forfil her wishes, my own mother wouldn’t allow it until we were 16.” Says Kate, Charlie’s mum. “Mum had misconstrued ideals that pierced ears made you look ‘cheap’ from her own conservative, religious upbringing,” Kate explains. “When we challenged her later in life, she couldn’t even define what she even meant by ‘cheap’. But as kids, we assumed it meant something like slutty.”
Gabriella, 34 remembers from her childhood “I’m Italian and in Europe most children get their ears pierced at birth. My parents broke with tradition and didn’t get my ears pierced. I eventually decided to get them done when I was 14. I don’t think it’s a big deal either way.”
What age should you pierce your child’s ears? It’s a personal decision – the only one that you can make. You may be influenced by your own experience as a kid or your cultural background but at the end of the day; there is no right or wrong age for piercing, the best age for getting ears pierced is the one that you decide after weighing up all the risks and benefits.
�
Responses to “What Age Should You Allow Ear Piercing?”
My oldest had hers done on her 7th birthday and my other two girls will have their ears done on their 7th birthday 🙂 I don’t find it looks very nice on babies or young kids. I love that my daughter takes good care of her ears and her earrings. My younger two are excited to be able to get it done when they turn 7 too!
“forfil” .. really?
When my daughter was born (now 12) I wanted to wait until she was old enough to choose to have her ears pierced. When she turned 4 she got it done but it hurt her so bad that she wouldn’t let me touch her ears to turn the earrings or clean them so when one fell out she wouldn’t let me put it back in and her ears closed up. She got it done again when she was 10 because all her friends had their ears pierced. It still hurt her but luckily the earrings didn’t fall out that time and are still pierced. I’m pregnant now and if this baby turns out to be a girl I’m really going to think about having it done early.
I have mine pierced when I was five, but that was because my Aunt bought a set for her wedding thinking I had them pierced (I was one of her flowergirls). My Dad was dead set against me even going to get them done at the time. For the best part I’ll wait until if I have a girl, I’ll wait until she’s a bit older and let her choose if she whats pierced eyes or not. I now have two sets of piercings, but I think maybe we should of waited until I was older because when I got my second set; my first ones are uneven.
I’m in the minority here and I might change your mind 🙂 If your unsure, read on…
Like many moms, I was unsure when to pierce our dd’s ears. Admittedly, my bias was initially against having babies ears pierced at an early age. However,I did something that I never would have thought I’d be interested in: I had our daughter’s ears pierced. It’s honestly not something I expected of myself, but I found that every time I saw a baby girl with pierced ears I was blinded by cuteness and consumed with jealousy. Plus, she had this unique sort of whimper/cry that I could only interpret s “Mommy, pleeeeease, I neeeeed earrings” (A mother just knows these things). I’m aware that, much like every decision a parent makes, this was a controversial decision.
What age is best? According to our ped, she has never had a baby with a pierced ear infection, but has had quite a few older girls ages 2-5 who said they wanted it done, but failed to care for them. She gave me some ” tips for moms having their dd’s ears pierced. ” since she has had so many moms ask about having their infants and little girls ears pierced. Our dd now has pretty pierced ears at 6 months old and has had no problem with them since 2 mos old 🙂
I’d say if any moms are thinking about it, then your mommy intuition is telling earlier is better and I go ahead now as a newborn or infant.