6 Year Old Getting Her Ears Pierced

Updated on June 02, 2010
K.B. asks from Spring, TX
15 answers

Hello Moms-

My husband and I have relented and are going to take our 6 year old daughter to get her ears pierced for her kindergarten graduation present. I had my ears pierced over 25 years ago so I'm guessing things are different now (and I'm not sure my memory is all that good anyway!)

So I have a few questions for those of you who have done this recently. First of all our pediatricians office will actually do the piercing but it costs $50, which I'm assuming is significantly more expensive then Claire's or Sweet and Sassy. The idea of having a doctor's office do it is appealing, but is it really necessary? Is it just as safe/sanitary to have it done at Claire's? Secondly, how do they do it these days? I want to be able to prepare my daughter for the process but it's been so long for me that I'm not sure what to tell her.

Thanks,
K.

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S.D.

answers from Phoenix on

I would not take a child to a sweet or sassy or claires for peircing.
I think the Ped office is a great idea....... I have not heard of that before.
I have had friends take them to a jewler in the mall that is well known in the area . Does the Ped give you the earings with the $50? I would expect they should and it be 14 K earings. The Jewler places do provide the best earings. I think they do it both ears at the same time in one swipe. One girl on each side.
Good luck.

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S.C.

answers from Fort Wayne on

My oldest had hers done when she was two. I went to WalMart and had them done. They marked her ear lobes with small dots to make sure the holes would be even. There were two girls, so both lobes were done at the same time. My stepmom went with me and she had to hold my daughter so she didn't move at the last second. They counted 1, 2, 3, bam! They still use the guns to pierce them. It feels like a really intense pinch then there is some soreness. Honestly, the loud noise of the guns scared my daughter more than anything. We opted for the surgical steel posts instead of the gold. I'm horribly allergic to yellow gold and I didn't want to take the chance that my daughter was too.

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K.C.

answers from Philadelphia on

Both my girls had theirs done at Claire's. My youngest has a super high threshold for pain, so the ears were done one at a time. Kid barely blinked when they pierced the lobe. My older daughter was more scared, so they did both her lobes at the same time. I kept telling her she didn't have to do it, but she insisted she wanted pierced ears, so we went through with it. This was about 3 years ago (they were 4 and 6) and neither have had any problems. If you feel better having them done at the docs then go for it. I know some folks prefer that. I had MINE done at a flea market in Hawaii when I was 7...after THAT, Claire's seems like the epitome of sterile environments, lol! Both my girls love having pierced ears!

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D.B.

answers from Charlotte on

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D.W.

answers from Nashville on

I had my daughter's done when she was 3 months old (she's 7 months old now)

I took her to Wal-Mart-The woman cleaned the tools infront of me, I picked out her earrings. The lady told me that the sound was the scary part and it would only sting her for a few seconds. She made a mark with a pen and let me look to make sure i liked where it was and she did it. 2 seconds tops. It was easy peasy. She cried for about 30 seconds and then forgot all about it.
You may have more trouble out of a 6 year old since she can vocalized better (obviously)

We had no trouble, I cleaned them twice a day and turned them just like the woman told me and they never got infected. At 6 weeks I changed them out and they are still doing fine.

If you are more comfortable with a doctor doing it then go there, but yes other places are way cheaper and so far neither me (claire's did mine) nor my daughter's ears have fallen off =)

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S.W.

answers from Houston on

Dear K.,
I have 4 daughters and pierced each one at home with the home piercing kit from WalMart because a lot of times you go to the Dr or Claires and they don't take the time to get the hole exaclty where it needs to be so I figured if I would be upset it would be with myself. It is just as safe at claires as it is at the Drs office. Everything used now is in safe, secured sanitary packages. I used to work for claires while I was in college and it is very safe. Once the earrings come out of the package they are in their own casing which is put into the hand piercing device and then pierced into the ear with the earring. Yes, its much cheaper at claires and I would say just as safe as the Dr. I had my first hole done at the dr as a child and through the years had others done at Claires. Good Luck and let us know how it turns out.

S.

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C.G.

answers from Dallas on

My daughter (8yo) just got them pierced about two months ago. We went to Sweet and Sassy and they charged $45 since she chose a fancy pair of earrings. they used the gun and they did both ears at the same time, my daughter said it hurt for about a second and then she was fine.
I would have preferred to have it done at the peds office but our doctor doesn't do them. seems like the price is about standard.

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M.W.

answers from Chicago on

I highly recommend you go to your pediatricians office. It is not that much more expensive and it will be so much more sanitary. A gun is quicker but there are parts in it that can never fully get clean. Everyone in my family (my mom and 2 sisters) has gotten an infection from a piercing at claires and places like that. There are disease (think Hep-C) that cannot be easily gotten rid of and can live in a piercing gun for a long time. The peds office will use clean tools and so will a professional piercer. If you go to a professional piercing place they might even have two people that could pierce this a needle at the same time then she could get it over with at once.
More that preparing your daughter for the piercing event, I would be preparing her for the self care she'll need to do after and the fact that her ears will be sore for awhile.

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S.W.

answers from Minneapolis on

My daughter asked for her ears pierced at the start of Kindergarten and we did it at Claire's (no problems) and she is now 8 and she still likes them and she's had no problems. My daughter has always dealt with anything at all painful very well (never has cried or even uttered a peep while getting shots, for instance). If this isn't true of your daughter, you might want to prepare her that it does hurt.

At Claire's the piercings they have her sit in a special chair, they make a mark on the ear lobes where the piercing will go, and they do it quickly with a tool. They also let her pick out a stuffed animal to squeeze while the piercing was done. The piercing is free with the purchase of earrings. The earring choices are on Claire's website.

H.K.

answers from Gainesville on

I haven't gotten my girls ears done, but I was in claires the other day and a little girl was getting hers done. I guess the one ear either hurt so bad or the little girl was just too upset and scared, but it looked like the second ear never got done. I think the whole mall could hear the poor girl screaming.....
I also say that both ears done at once might be best, considering what happened to the girl I saw.

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L.M.

answers from New York on

Not a lot has changed. It's fine to get it done at Claire's. Actually, the piercing is free, it's the earings that cost $$. Make sure you get the good ones.

The process is they draw a dot on the earlobe. Then they take the gun and shoot the earing in. Yes, it hurts!! They will give you a solution to clean the ears daily. This is extremely important, as it will prevent infection.

Good luck!!

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K.M.

answers from Houston on

When my eldest was 6 she decided she wanted pierced ears. I asked our pediatrician if her office did that (like my pedia did). At that time they did not, but she highly recommended the Merle Norman store at our local mall; she did not recommend Claire's.
She like MN because of the professional level of employee and overall sterile environment, she did not like Claire's because of the high turnover of teenage employees and questionable environment.
The woman at MN eyeballed my daughter's piercings and they were painless and perfect. I thought they were well worth the $25 (at the time).
I have always thought it was ironic that people who pierce ears make such a fuss over sterile instruments, sterile gloves, etc. but they start the process with marking your ears with the same felt tip pen that they've marked the 200 people before you.
I've known plenty of people who've used Claire's or some place like it and have had no problems. Check out the one you're considering before you decide. It's worth it.

T.S.

answers from Houston on

i had my ears pierced when i was six years old too! that was 20 years ago but i still remember how cool i felt when i got it done. since then i've gotten my ears pieced a couple more times. all my other piercings i've done at a claires or something like that and they just use a gun (it looks like a hot glue gun kinda) and pop the earring thru then manually put the back on. if you are nervous about a store like that you could also take her to a tattoo shop to a profesional piercer. they are VERY sanitary and the piercings ive done at shops (my nose twice and my monroe) didn't hurt nearly as bad or get as infected as my ears did. they also can give you a better quality product to clean the piercing with. the shops may seem intimidating so maybe check it out on your own first- but overall i think it may be a cleaner environment.

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A.C.

answers from Houston on

I had my daughter's ear's pierced at Wal-Mart when she was 4. They used the "gun" thing so it is VERY quick. The ladies were forward thinking and got 2 of them and did her ears at the same time. She screamed initially and cried for a few minutes. Once she saw her pretty ears she quit crying and was very excited! Hope this helps!

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E.M.

answers from Denver on

Yes, make sure you get them both done at the same time. :) When I got mine done in the doc's office like 28 years ago, they did them one at a time. The first one was done and then it was about 45 mins until they could convince to submit my other poor little earlobe to the same fate. :) But I was glad I did it and never looked back.

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