There is no right or wrong age for ear piercing. In fact, there is no medical research available that indicates a perfect age for ear piercing. I only discourage parents if their child is approx 15 months- 4 yrs old because the child is old enough to touch their ears, but not old enough to understand why they shouldn’t touch a newly formed wound.

The most important thing parents need to understand is that they need to use a professional piercer or a medical professional who has a lot of experience specifically in children’s ear piercing. I get a lot of “re-do’s” –uneven placement, prior infections from other piercers who don’t use hypoallergenic studs or disposable equipment, etc. I advise parents to always ask what type of equipment the piercer is going to use. If they’re using a medical piercing gun as I do, it must be a Blomdahl gun, which is the only gun on the market that is considered completely safe because all of its crucial parts, including the part that squeezes the ear, are completely disposable. (I will also add that this particular gun is only sold to medical professionals.) I’ve heard many stories where parents go to the mall and are told that the earrings are sterile but what they don’t realize is that those sterile earrings are going to be loaded into a gun with permanent parts. For example, the part that squeezes the ear on a regular gun is NOT disposable, which means it touches everyone! Remember, a traditional piercing gun can’t be autoclaved because it is plastic, and plastic melts. The rule i have in my business is that “if it touches one client, it can’t touch another”. I even use sterile, one-time use marking pens. I also use earrings that do NOT need to be rotated which dramatically cuts the infection rates down. If you’re not touching your ears 3x a day, you’re far less likely to get an infection. So, in a nutshell, my advice to parents is to either see a professional body piercer at a reputable shop OR to see a medical professional who uses Blomdahl equipment and earrings. If you must have gold, it should only be 18-22k yellow gold. Remember, the lower the karat, the more likely you are to have exposure to nickel, the higher the karat (18-22k), the less likely. Avoiding exposure to nickel during the first year of a piercing can dramatically decrease the chances of developing a nickel allergy. Hope this information helps. Happy Piercing!

Like your husband (mine was from Spain). There they pierce the ears of female infants in the
hospital as a matter of course, much the way the circumcision of male infants is handled in the United
States. It is traditional for a baby girl’s godparents and relatives to give her earrings as a symbol of
how loved and adored she is. And there, a baby can be dressed up in pink butterflies, but if she’s earring-less, people will still call her a beautiful baby boy.

Dh also wanted his little girls ears pierced early too. But what I soon came to realize cultural camaraderie is important and mutual respect a sign of love. Our dd barely whimpered having them pierced early at four weeks. In addition, after having our dd’s ears pierced, I realized that piercing a baby’s ears is not at all wrong or uncommon; however, criticizing and openly casting doubt on another’s cultural norms is wrong and unfortunately not that uncommon.

Our daughter with little pearl earrings has drawn so many favorable comments from dh’s friends and family. Many of my GF’s, some who were uncertain about my decision to pierce my baby girl’s ears as a newborn have expressed their opinion how cute and adorable she looks with little pierced ears. A few have followed my lead and had their dd’s ears pierced too I’m very happy with my decision and hope others will realize that family, tradition and diversity are between two blinged-out earlobes of our daughter. For those still unsure about our decision, I hope they can keep an open mind.

Any moms on the fence whether or not to have their dd’s ears pierced, drop me an e-mail.

Angie@hotmail.com