Conference moira::parenting

    Hi,
    
    Just went through this with my middle daughter.  She was 9 in
    september, and had been begging to get them pierced for over a year. 
    So Christmas eve morning her older sister and I schlepped her off to
    the mall and found an ear piercing salon.  The technician did her ears
    one at a time and gave her a couple of minutes to recover between ears. 
    It was a lot less traumatic than I was afraid it would be, but Lolita
    and I prepped her about it as best we could before hand.  The piercing
    guns are quick and much less painful than the old needle in the potato
    method we used when i got mine pierced.  Two squeals and a couple of
    tears and she had her new holes in her head.  
    
    couple of things to make sure of.  Is the technician used to piercing
    ears on children, and more imprtantly, is your daughter mature enough
    to take on the maintainence of her healing ears?
    
    meg  

One note on getting them done one at a time versus at the same time:

If for some reason the hole gets off where they planned to put it (like if
your daughter or the technician move slightly) then if it's done one at a 
time they can adjust the second hole to match.

     Carol

    A friend and I had our daughters' ears pierced when the girls were
    about 2 1/2.  We called around until we found a place that had 2
    technicians so they could do both ears simultaneously.  It worked out fine.
    They marked the ears and simply set off the guns at the same time.  
    We had it done at the hair salon at JC Penny's in the Pheasant Lane 
    Mall in Nashua.

My daughter aged Five has just had her ears pierced.  I spent about a month 
and a half telling her it would be very painful and trying to put her off.  She 
wouldn't be put off, so eight weeks ago I took her to the salon to get them done.  
They marked the position of the holes first with a blue marker so that you could see 
if they were in the right place. The first one was done and we had tears, I thought 
this is it she won't have the other one done now, to my surprise she let the other 
one get done although her body went very stiff when the gun went near her ear. When 
she was done we immediately let her choose some pretty earings ready for when the 
studs came out and an hour later she was fine.  She said the crying and tears were 
only pretend and that it didn't hurt really.

Jean

    My 5 year old daughter begged this summer for pierced ears.  After a
    few weeks of telling her it would hurt and being very plain about the
    process off we went.  She was great.  One ear at a time and no problem. 
    We kept the earrings in for 6 weeks and cleaned them twice a day. 
    After 7 weeks we were ready to take them out and try a new pair of
    earrings.  One ear was still bleeding and not healed.  So back in went
    the posts.  We continued to clean each ear once a day for about 10
    days.  We were successful in changing the earrings after 2 more months. 
    However, when we switched earrings to another pair they must have been
    gold plated and not all 14K gold.  These earrings were left in for
    about 2 months with no cleaning.  When we went to change them, both
    ears were severely infected.  It was awful.  No way could I reinsert
    the original gold posts.  So we agreed that we would let these close up
    and try again when she is older.  

    Keep a close eye for reactions to the gold.  It's unusual, but some
    people are allergic to gold (I'm one of them).  I can tolerate a gold
    post or a surgical steel for about 12 hours, then the reaction begins.  
    The only metal I can tolerate indefintely is sterling silver.
    Just an FYI, a red, swollen ear lobe may not neceessarily be an
    infection, and no amount of cleaning is going to help a sensitivity to
    the gold.
    Sarah

    I can only wear gold earrings !  Any other type of earrings and my ears
    become red and painful.  Getting back to piercing I had my ears 
    pierced when I was 12 and I remember numbing the lobe with ice before
    hand. I'm a wimp to pain!  It worked great! My niece had her ears pierced
    when she was a baby! 

    

    Both of my kids have had their ears pierced at Claire's.  They have
    stores in the Nashua Mall and the Pheasant Lane Mall.  
    
    Both of the kids had the technician mark their lobes with marker to
    make sure they were centered and then two technician's did the piercing
    at the same time.  I was glad seeing as in a split second it's done. 
    It's done and over with before they actually begin to cry.  (One of my
    kids cried for 30 seconds, the other one cried for 10 seconds!)
    
    As written in note 893.7, I had my first holes done with ice cubes to
    numb the area and then a needle was inserted through my ear and into a
    bar of soap.  My aunt did this for me.  The second holes were done the
    same way and the third holes were done with the gun at Claire's.
    
    My 7 year old wants to have hers done twice, but I think I'm going to
    wait until she's older.
    
    

    I had my first set of holes done when I was 12 by a friend of the
    families.  I did the second set, myself, when I was 14 and the third
    set, myself, when I was 16.  All three times, no ice or soap was used. 
    Just a needle and some alcohol.  I've also pierced the ears of several
    friends and their children.  As long as good surgical steel or 14k gold
    posts are used, and you take care of the holes until they're healed,
    you shouldn't get any infections.  On all the children that I've done,
    most of them were at least 7 years old and I've never had one of them
    cry.
    
    Lori B.

    My daughter first had her ears pierced when she was 7 years old.  I was
    adamant about cleaning them regularily, even after the initial studs
    had been removed, and I let her wear my 14K gold earings.  She still
    had some crud building up after about 5 months.  Then, she got an
    infection in one of her earlobes that was so bad, we let them grow in.
    Last summer before we moved, we let her get them pierced again and I
    was even more fanatic about keeping them clean, making sure she only
    wore good quality earings.  Just last week, she once again got an
    infection in the same ear as last time.  She couldn't stand to have an
    earing in here ear, so we removed them, and are letting them grow in
    once more.  In both cases, she had no problems initially, but after
    about 5 or so months, infections.  Yikes.

    did she go to the 14K earrings again?  she may have a sensitivity to
    the nickle in these earrings.  Try sticking with surgical steel or
    sterling silver and see if that helps.  
    
    meg

    
    re. 10
    
    All the women in my family are allergic to a lot of things. My sister
    had repeated infections, caused by 14K gold earrings. The only things
    she can wear are sterling silver, surgical steel, platinum and 24k
    gold. I had my ears pierced 2 years ago just to see what it was like 
    and had the same problem with 14K gold. I decided to let the holes 
    grow in, it was not worth the hassle for me, even if my sister is going 
    to inherit all my mother's earrings ;-)
    
    If your daughter is interested in nice gold earrings, see if she can
    find some with surgical steel or silver posts. Sometimes, you can find
    plain 24K gold loops in chinatown. Chinese use 24k gold loops on their
    babies traditionally. 
    
    
    Eva                  

Also try "Whispers" earrings.  I developed an allergy to metal
(not sure what) when I pierced my ears (at 21!).  I cannot wear
many brands of "hypo-allergenic" earrings if the metal touches
my ear lobe, but I can wear Whispers.  They can be found at
Balsam's in the Nashua and Pheasant Lane malls.  I may be
able to dig up an address or 800 number if anyone bugs me :-)

I can wear 14K gold (as long as every part that touches
my skin is 14K gold).  Whispers gives me a source of
cheap earrings...

- Deb B.

    Hmmm, maybe that's why?  I recently discovered that one of the *boys*
    in my son's 1st grade class had begged his mom for a pierced ear!??
    While I could understand a little girl wanting to feel more feminine
    and grown up, I still don't have a really good handle on why this
    active six year old male wants an earring!  Maybe he's just noticed a
    lot of the girls doing it.
    
    At least my little guy has no interest at this time.  If he wants to
    get an earring when he's in his teens (like I did), no problem!  Of
    course, I had been asking for about 2 years when I finally got them, 
    (I was 13), but Mother had refused consistently unless I would agree to
    cut my hair.  My hair is very thick and curly, and until I was 13, 
    it was past my buttocks!  This mane of hair was so heavy and difficult
    that I couldn't "do" it myself - my arms were too short and too weak.
    Mother maintained that pierced ears would be a waste on me, since no 
    one would see the earrings behind my hair.  Clever of her, huh?  She
    gave me what I wanted, but not until it killed two birds with one
    stone.  When I wanted the earrings badly enough, I cut my hair short, 
    and saved her about 30 minutes of hair-arranging every morning!  I must
    also add that I've kept that hair short for the entire 23 years
    since...
    
    M.
    

    One or sometimes two earrings are a fashion statement for men (and
    young men) in this part of the country.  Now I have three girls and no
    boys, but my neighbor's two kids (one each) both want ears done.
    
    meg

    Whatever you do, do not allow your child to get her cartilage pierced
    unless she/he can handle a lot of pain.  I had mine done on Saturday
    and, YOWCH!!!  Actually, it wasn't that bad, but the stinging/burning
    lasted for about 20 minutes - 1/2 hour.  It still a bit painful to the
    touch (I was told that would last about 2 weeks) and I can't sleep on
    that side or hold the phone to that ear.  Oh well, the things we go
    through 'cause we want something so bad. :-)
    
    Lori B.

Hi Lori,

I had my cartilage pierced 10 years ago. I had such pain, but ignored 
it. During a routine physical, my Dr noticed my ear all red and nasty looking.
He sent me right over to the hospital to be admitted and they gave me IV 
antibiodics for a week! He told me I'd be lucky if it didn't go 
cauliflower on me because it go so infected. I guess it's dangerous to 
pierce up there because it does something to the blood supply.

The hole closed right up, and my ear is OK now; and even though I had 
all that pain and suffering, I still wish it was pierced. 8^}
Oh well. The other 4 holes in my ears are fine though.

If my baby is a girl, I plan on piercing her ears while she's still an 
infant (but I'm sure I'll get a big fight from my husband).

Donna

    I know several people with cartilage piercings, as long as I take very
    good care of it, there shouldn't be a problem.  I've wanted it so bad
    for so long, I'll be d*mned if I don't take care of it.  I clean it at
    least three times a day and put bacitracin on it at night before I go
    to bed.  I also have to turn the earing quite frequently during the day
    and can't take it out for 8 - 12 weeks.
    
    Lori B.

I agree. I know several people that have it too. What happened to me was 
that when she pierced it, the whole stud did not go thru the cartilage, 
so my ear was being pinched between the back of the earring and the fat 
part of the piercing stud. Only the point made it thru the cartilage, 
and I didn't realize it at the time. The hairdresser that did it, never 
pierced thru cartilage before and wasn't prepared. I tried taking care 
of it, but it just wasn't meant to be.

Good luck!

    I had it done at a place that does piercing on a regular basis.  The
    guy who did it had three cartilage pierces and three more earings in
    each ear besides (yup, he was kinda cute! :-}).
    
    Lori B.