when did you or will you allow ear piercing - Page 3

[mama_y_sol]

DD started asking when she was about 5 1/2. After her consistently asking for a good six months, we decided to make it a 6th birthday present. She was aware of the pain and that she needed to take care of them, and she was willing to go though with it. She is a very mature 6 year old, and I think by allowing her to decide for herself, we made the right decision.

[bdoody11]

Originally Posted by mama_y_sol

DD started asking when she was about 5 1/2. After her consistently asking for a good six months, we decided to make it a 6th birthday present. She was aware of the pain and that she needed to take care of them, and she was willing to go though with it. She is a very mature 6 year old, and I think by allowing her to decide for herself, we made the right decision.

We have set 6 as the age when she can get her ears pierced. She has been asking since before she was 3. I just don't trust that she understands what is involved with piercing, plus she is very skittish about pain. I don't think she would let me put alcohol on them if it stings and don't even get me started about the actual piercing. She screams and twists when she has to get a shot.

I would rather wait until she absolutely understands what is involved. Until then, we will play with stick on earrings.

[angelachristin]

Originally Posted by velochic

To me, permanently altering the body is something that women do. When dd gets her period, we'll celebrate with ear piercing... if she remembers.

When she was about 4 and 5, she asked about it a lot, then it totally dropped off of her radar. She hasn't even mentioned it for a couple of years now.

I agree, I had always planned on waiting til she was older (LOL, she's only 11 months right now) and that's a lovely idea, I'll let her do it as a celebration of her first moon time, if she would like to have it done. I hate seeing it on babies, but that's just MHO. It's pretty common with the people I know, though, I get a lot of shocked questions about why I haven't had my DD's done yet (again, she's only 11 months!)

[Marimami]

I had always decided to do it when she had really wanted and asked for it. For DD, that was last year about this time when she turned 5.

We had it done in a doctor's office, and it went great. Her ears healed well. She was good about having me help her with them. However, we had complications.

Her ears reacted very poorly to anything except for gold. So, we didn't have that many pairs of earrings once they were healed enough to remove. We lost a couple and when we got some to replace it, she was extremely concerned about losing them again. Unbeknownst to us, she started tightening the backs on her own.

I checked her ears about every other day, and I discovered that she had tightened the back so much it was stuck in her ear lobe. It was an extremely tragic visit to Urgent Care to have it removed. We feared she would have permanent damage. Luckily she hasn't--her ear healed perfectly fine but the holes did close. As it turns out, she broke her arm the very next day and that pretty much overshadowed the earring trauma!

Just the other day she said she would like to have them done again. I think we might way another year mostly so I'm sure her ears are fully healed, and I think we'll stick with gold hoops next time.

She was so proud of her earrings, and I'm sad for her that she's had the difficulties.

Holli

[BMG580]

DD was four. She had asked for awhile and unlike my own mother (I had to be 11) I didn't see a need to wait. I explained that it would feel like a shot and she still wanted to go for it. After she kept the original studs in for 5 months and they were well and truly healed we bought her two very small, appropriate for her age pairs of earrings that are 24k gold and she has been wearing one of those pairs for a few months now happily with no desire to switch them out.

We've had zero problems so far!

[BMG580]

I keep seeing the reason to delay of the need to "take care of them". What precisely is there to take care of after the initial healing period? Maybe this has to do with letting children choose and change the jewelry themselves? We're not doing that so we haven't had any issues.

Just curious!?

[Starflower]

Originally Posted by MusicianDad

When they can take care of them on their own and they ask for them.

[Drummer's Wife]

Originally Posted by Charbeau

I keep seeing the reason to delay of the need to "take care of them". What precisely is there to take care of after the initial healing period? Maybe this has to do with letting children choose and change the jewelry themselves? We're not doing that so we haven't had any issues.

Just curious!?

I wonder about that, too. As I said upthread, my DD got her's pierced at age 3, and there was really not much to taking care of them. I swabbed them with the solution they gave us, and turned them a couple times a day for a few weeks. Not any kind of big deal or hassle. I used to have multiple piercings in my own ears, and have had my labret pierced - never had an issue with healing or infections, or anything. It certainly isn't any more complicated than say, tooth brushing.

[bri276]

As soon as DD wants to, we're off! If I didn't think it was wrong ethically, I would have done it soon after birth. But I've been asking DD since she was about 3 and she almost always says "No." When she says yes, rarely, I explain that it would give her a little "booboo", and then she changes her mind. I really don't think she'd like them right now, she tends to put jewelry on and then take it off very quicky and I think she'd be upset that she couldn't take them out for a long time. So we'll just wait, she might be quite a bit older by the time she's ready (due to special needs as well).

[Oubliette8]

There's a genetic type of scarring disorder that runs in my family so when we were kids the rule was we could get our ears pierced when we were adults. My understanding is my mother actually had to get surgery to fix the scarring on her ears after having them pierced as a child.

Anyway, I did ask about it a few times, but never consistently, that I remember (I'm not very girly) My sisters were a bit more persistent, but the rule was firm. When we were very young, we used stick on earrings- you know, those cheap puffy sticker ones? When we got older, my mother found clip on ear rings for us. These worked fine. When I grew up and went to college, I wore a different kind of fake cartilage ring for a year while I made up my mind if I really wanted it done. Honestly, if my roommate hadn't offered a piercing as a gift, I might have just kept wearing fakes.

As adults, I think 2 of my sisters pierced their ears. I have one cartilage piercing, but not my lobes, and one sister I think has none. In any case I'm glad my parents didn't give in to requests to get my lobes pierced as a kid. As an adult, its not something I wanted, and I'm quite happy that we had to wait.

[crowcaw]

I've been telling dds (now almost 5) when they're 13 if they still want to. But then I had mine done by a friend with an ice cube and a needle at 7 without ever discussing with my mom; I'm hoping they don't take that route.

[Attached2Elijah]

Originally Posted by Charbeau

I keep seeing the reason to delay of the need to "take care of them". What precisely is there to take care of after the initial healing period? Maybe this has to do with letting children choose and change the jewelry themselves? We're not doing that so we haven't had any issues.

Just curious!?

There is the initial healing period, which I want DD to be able to take care of herself. No, not a big deal to do ourselves... but to me, that's part of the "responsibility" of having earrings... and also if/when they get infected, I want DD to be able to put the medicine on and clean that too. It's not that it's a hassle, it's just that I think if she's old enough to have earrings, she should be old enough to take care of them as well... It's the same with a pet for us. If they're old enough to take care of the responsibility that comes with it, they are old enough to have them then. Kind of like a right of passage, I guess.

[happysmileylady]

Originally Posted by Attached2Elijah

There is the initial healing period, which I want DD to be able to take care of herself. No, not a big deal to do ourselves... but to me, that's part of the "responsibility" of having earrings... and also if/when they get infected, I want DD to be able to put the medicine on and clean that too. It's not that it's a hassle, it's just that I think if she's old enough to have earrings, she should be old enough to take care of them as well... It's the same with a pet for us. If they're old enough to take care of the responsibility that comes with it, they are old enough to have them then. Kind of like a right of passage, I guess.

Yep, this. Also, DD and I both have the same type of hair-long, curly, prone to breakage. And when I had mine done (first hole in the lobe at 13 and then another at 14) both times in the twisting of them, I would catch a bit of hair and it would get wrapped around the post. So for us, in addition to swabbing twice a day, there's also checking it to be sure there's no hair wrapped around the post, so it didn't get infected. Which happened anyway, so then there's taking care of the infection as well.

[mamazee]

For me the "taking care of" thing was just keeping them clean the first few weeks while the holes healed. Which she did with no apparent trouble.

[umsami]

I got mine done when I was 13 so that I could have pierced ears for my first concert, the GoGos (opening band INXS).

DH's culture typically pierces as infants--but we've both agreed to wait until DD is 12 or 13. I think it's a nice coming of age ritual.