All Ears: What You Need to Prepare for Before Getting Your Childs Ears Pierced

Some parents have their daughters’ ears pierced when they’re babies. Others wait until their daughters are bigger and more responsible so they can clean and change their earrings themselves. Which is the right way to go? Much depends on what you personally feel is right, however pediatricians advise waiting until your daughter is at least 6 months of age before piercing her ears largely because infants are still developing their immunity and piercings can get infected.

Before you go on from there though, you’ll want to consider a few other factors, like these:

Pain management
Beauty sure is painful! Piercings hurt and you’ll need to prepare your daughter for that. If she’s older, say 10 years old, it’s easy to talk to her about it. You can also help numb her earlobes in advance to help with the pain.

Proper piercing location
Finding a reputable place to do the piercing is important too. Ask around to your friends with kids and see where they took their daughters. When you find a place to get the piercing, check out the person who will be piercing her ears. You’ll want to be sure this person has experience in ear piercing, meaning this is not the first time, and that the place is sterile and practices proper protocols in regards to sanitation and safety.

Post piercing care
If your daughter is old enough, you’ll have to be sure she understands how to keep infections away by keeping her earrings clean. When caring for the earrings, you (or your daughter) will need to wash hands and then clean both sides of the earrings (front and back) twice daily. Rubbing alcohol on a cotton pad will do the trick. You’ll also need to turn the earrings in circles and slide them back and forth to help keep the shape of the pierced holes. Your daughter might want to try out a new pair of earrings but make sure that she keeps from doing for at least 6 weeks. After that, she can change earrings as long as she constantly keeps some kind of earrings in her ears to keep the holes from closing up.

Watch for infection
If your child’s ears become red, swollen, ooze pus, itch, are painful or tender, you’ll need to contact your child’s doctor to find out if it’s an infection or quite possibly, an allergy. Allergies to the metal aren’t uncommon and a simple switch of posts will take care of things. For an infection, your daughter will likely need antibiotics.

If you teach your daughter to care for her earrings properly, you shouldn’t have any issues. As a bonus, if she’s old enough, you can reward any of her good behavior with a trip to the mall to pick out more earrings.

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