Professional Baby Ear Piercers

My daughter's ears were pierced @ 7 mo. Her sister had them ____@____.com pedi used 18 kt & marked the spot & viola, done. She had shot the same day, & had no problems. I've allergies, so I preferred 18 kt posts. My daughters have never reacted to gold, but sometimes to nickel or stainless steel.
Good luck. J

I had my daughter's ears pierced when she was 11 months. I had the folks at Icing at Claire's (Valley Fair Mall, San Jose) pierce her ears because my daughter's pediatrician does not pierce ears. They were very professional. You can ask them questions about their piercing methods. I believe they cost about $30-$35. Make sure you ask for 14K gold or a higher karat of gold.

I saw the comment about having your daughter make her own choices. That is up to your best judgment. I think ear piercing is a personal and cultural choice. In my culture and the home country, girls ears are pierced at birth. We believe that it's better for girls to have their ears pierced when they do not remember rather than experience the pain when they are more grown up.

I saw a stark difference between ear piercing attitudes in San Jose versus Columbia, Maryland (near Baltimore). When I had my daughter's ears pierced in San Jose, the passers by did not really care too much about it. However, when one of my daughter's piercings closed up (at 13 months) and I had to do it again out-of-state, passers by made a spectacle of it. They stop and stared at her and said things like, "Poor baby!" The moms asked me questions about when my ears were pierced and how I came to the decision of having my daughter's ears pierced. I just told them my attitudes towards ear piercing in my culture (such as helping people distinguish between a girl and boy) and how I believe earrings make a girl look dainty. ;)

Let us know what you decided to do and best wishes to you and your daughter.

Why not wait until she is old enough to decide for herself whether she would like pierced ears and can take care of them herself?! Then you don't have to worry about issue now and someone putting holes into her precious lobes.

I would avoid any piercer who uses a piercing gun. Those cannot be autoclaved, and although the earrings they use actually pierce the skin, contaminants from the gun can transfer to the earring and thus to your baby.

I would call around to some good body mod places. The Willow Glen Resident recently featured Pierce Ink. There are a whole bunch of body mod shops clustered around San Carlos in San Jose.

http://www.community-newspapers.com/archives/rosegardenre...

I wouldn't recommend having them pierced as the earings can get caught on things, pulled on by the baby as well as her brother etc. But, that being said, I would check with your pediatrician as I believe they can and do do ear piercing. When I was a child that's where my mom took me.

I have experience piercing both my daughter's ears. My oldest I had done at 2 1/2 years. (nightmare) She was too aware of what was going on and squirmed in the chair making the girl miss her mark. Refusing to take home a "pirate" I quickly had the girl do it again. Learning from my mistake I did it at 5 months with my next daughter. This time I took her to our family jeweler who did one lobe at a time. He used all the sterile piercing earrings and it was so easy to twist and clean them on a daily basis. She barely cried, compared to immunizations. Since she was younger, there were no issues in cleaning them or twisting. I've never had a problem with infections with either of my daughters. As soon as I was able to remove the studs (6 weeks,I think) I put in small loops. These allow more air circulation. I, as an adult, can not wear any stud-type earrings. They quickly becomes irritated from soaps and dry skin collecting. I really recommend little gold hoops to keep it safe. Never once did she try to pull on them, but you will have to see with your own daughter. Good Luck.

Hi S.,

I have two girls and both had their ears pierced at 6 months. The first time I went to Clair's at the mall and other than it being hard to watch pain be inflicted up on her and her knowing I was responsible for it, it was fast and easy and a perfect alignment procedure.

The second time I had it done at the pediatricians’ office mostly for convenience and because my pediatrician herself did it. It was very expensive, about $75.00 and they did not have the earrings I wanted and the way she did the piercing was quite awkward and although I can not really tell today, they are a little crooked. I believe part of this experience being so bad was due to the request not being very frequent, so therefore not very experienced.

So, if I were to do it again…I would choose the mall. You can even find some places that do both ears at once. They are experienced, fairly priced and give you solution to help care for the ears.

Good luck and just remember…your baby’s memory of ti will not last as long as yours :)!!

I had my daughters ears pierced at about 3 years of age though I would have preferred to do it at a younger age. The quickest way is with one person per ear doing the piercing simutaneously. Her ears were piecrced at Claires or Pierceing Pagoda I don't remember which. Guns are not used anymore. There are little disposable boxes where the earring is loaded into it, then lined up on a mark you put on the earlobe. The box is squeezed and the earring punches through the lobe. There is always a pediatrician who can do it though I believe they might have age limitations. Good luck.

Wait until she's old enough to make the decision herself. I was very grateful that my mother did not pierce my ears. I appreciated having the choice.

Babies are also more sensitive to pain, so the piercing to an adult may not be a big deal, but to a baby would be extremely painful.

Ear piercings done correctly, even standards ones should be done at a clean professional piercer, NOT at Crescent or Claire's or what not. It is impossible to sterilize a gun since it can not be put into an autoclave (a special super hot oven to sterilize equipment).