What are your feelings about piercing your newborn baby girl's ears?

[faye83]

Where I come from its almost a tradition to get your baby girl ears' pierced shortly after she is born. As a matter of fact, most hospitals in Latin America do it before they release the baby (of course they ask you first but no one says no).
So what do you girls think? Also, I don't think they do that here in the US, right??
Btw, ITS A GIRL! 10000% sure this time! yaaaayy!

[JoyRenee]

Faye- then 2 months is a great age. As I said my second daughter got them done at 2 months old and she never touches them or plays with them at all (she's 2 1/2 yrs old now).

[faye83]

But if the girl end up not wanting it, she can always take it out and the hole will disappear after some time ! (I used to have 6 piercings and now only 4 :-( )
The only reason of why I'd prefer to get this done when she's little is that around 2 months I don't think the baby is going to be able to reach for her ears and play with them, you know? So almost no probability of infection. While if the girl is older then there's more chances for it to get infected...

[rebekah385]

My oldest is a boy, but his dad has an earring, so he wanted to get one at 4 1/2 too, and I let him he did great with the cleaning and has never had any problems with it. My daughter was 2 1/2 when her brother had it done and watched him get it done and wanted to get it done too. I talked with her about it since she was still pretty young, but she had seen the process and was sure. i let her get her ears pierced for her 3rd birthday and she loves it. I have nothad any problems with infections with either one of them. I do agree that babies look cute with earring, but I perfer to wait untl they are old enough to know what is going on and choose. i also do not think they get less infections in my experience my sister-in-law got two of her daughter done at 4 or 5 months and they were constinantly playing with them and getting infections, and one endedhaving to take them out and letting the holes grow out. she did th other 3 at about 3 1/2 to 4 and they did fine. i think it is each moms person choice and none are wrong or bad. congrats on the girl!

[LosingMyMindInGA]

My personal opinion is to wait until they are old enough to decide on their own.  Both of my girls didn't get their ears pierced until they were right around their 5th birthdays.  Starting around age 4 I would periodically ask them if they wanted their ears pierced and explain the process to them.  I wanted to make SURE it was something THEY wanted.  

[motherofan18month]

here in Kentucky the babies have to be 2 months old and have a statement signed by notary public.....my best friend is a notary public though so DH & i were thinking about getting hers done at Christmas since she will be 4 months old. our wal-mart does the piercing so it's not hard to find a place to do them.

[JoyRenee]

Megs2girls7- well they said modification, not mutilation. ;-p

I like Ashelen's idea to wait until puberty to get it done and celebrate their womanhood. So that's a really neat idea!

But I also think little girls with earrings are incredibly adorable. My oldest wanted her ears pierced but of course her baby sister didn't have a choice or preference. Now that Abigail is old enough to have opinions she loves having earrings and picking out new ones. I just bought them some earrings for their stockings for Christmas.

If you do end up getting it done, you can see if your Ped's office will do them. Or you can get them done at a place that specializes in infant ear piercings (such as Claire's). Make sure you have someone who is actually certified to pierce infant ears.

Gold or titanium will be the best to pierce with as they should not cause allergic reactions.  

I've been debating about Zoë's ears. I might get hers done as her Christmas present since she'll be 2 months at Christmas and doesn't really need gifts to unwrap at this age.