All About Baby Piercings
Piercing your babies ears can be such an exciting experience. On the other hand, it can also cause a lot of anxiety especially if there are a million questions running through your head. Let me say as a mom I’ve been there before, but I’ve also been the person piercing babies ears too!
If you are reading this, I’m sure you are interested in getting your precious baby’s ears pierced so please know this is a judgement free zone! Also, as someone who used to pierce many babies ears, I’ve created this specific blog post to answer all your questions like when should I pierce my babies ears, who can pierce my babies ears. I’ve also included my best tips for getting your baby’s ears pierced so that way you can be best prepared!
If you are new to The Piercing Outlet.. Hello, my name is Christina! I pierced ears for over 5 years at a popular jewelry kiosk. I’ve pierced many (and I mean MANY) of babies ears and know exactly what moms want to know when it comes to baby piercings. Now that you know a little about me, let’s get to what you really want to know..
WHAT AGE SHOULD BABIES EARS BE PIERCED?
The youngest babies can get their ears pierced is 2 months old. The reason for this is because at 2 months old, babies get their DTAP shots which includes the Tetanus Vaccine. I won’t go TOO much into the whole vaccine thing..but Tetanus is a bacterial infection that can cause lock jaw which is why it is recommended to wait after the first round of shots. Thanks to the Tetanus vaccine, it’s very rare to get Tetanus in the US. If you’re anti-vaccines, please be sure to mention to your piercer as they will most likely note on the paperwork. (This is for US, in some countries.. they do piercings as soon as the baby is born!)
Now as I mentioned, this is the youngest age a baby can be pierced. As far as what age should babies be pierced.. everyone will have a different answer, there’s no right or wrong answer, and it’s honestly up to you. Maybe not the answer you wanted to hear because you want a specific age but reality is you will always get a different answer.. 2 months, 6 months, 1 year… I’ve heard it all.
If you’re still unsure, I’ll tell you about experience piercing different ages and also my own experience getting my daughters ears pierced. Then you can decide what to do from there..
Now from my experience piercing many babies and children of all ages. I do think the younger the child, the easier it was to dot the ears and to do the actual piercing. The older they were, the more creative I had to get with getting them to cooperate like using toys to get their attention, using candy, or snacks. Also, with older babies, they did move a lot but mostly because they super interested in this new person (the piercer) who’s touching their ears:)
Older kids (4-8) it was a hit or miss. I could usually tell how things were gonna play out as soon as they got to the store. As the piercer, an important part of my job was to gain the child’s trust, talk with them, and make them my BFF! Parents loved me for this and children would always wave to me as they were on their way out the door.. I may be bragging but this is a huge accomplishment LOL. As good as I was with kids, sometimes there were kids who just weren’t for it. They would kick and scream before we even did the piercing and would have to stop the whole process.
Back to babies.. If you’re looking for a fair age (for babies) I would say 6 months. This is just because they have a little bit more head control, which does make it easier for dotting and piercing the ear and again this is just my opinion. Consult with your pediatrician first.
My personal decision with my daughter was getting her ears pierced as soon as she was 2 months old. in my family we were all pierced as soon as we COULD get our ears pierced. Therefore, I knew once I found out I was having a girl, I was getting it done as soon as I could. What were the results? I had less problems with touching her piercings because she was used to having them. She is now 10 and she’s only lost 4 pairs of earrings since she was 2 months old. Her piercings were done evenly and as she grew, they did not migrate. Same thing with myself, my ears were pierced when I was 2 months old and no, I’m not mad at my mom for not giving me the option to do it.
WHERE SHOULD YOU PIERCE YOU BABIES EARS?
Most piercing professionals who pierce with a needle will not pierce babies at a young age. This is because piercing professionals believe should the child should be old enough to consent to having a hole put in their body so going this route might be a little be harder. If you are looking to go through this route, call as many places as you can. A good place to start is a piercer who is part of the Association of Professional Piercers, you can find one near you at safepiercing.org.
The second option would be to have a piercing done with a piercing gun at places like Piercing Pagoda and Claires. Being someone who used to pierce at one of these places, let me just give you a few tips. Before you officially get your babies ears pierced, I would pop in the mall a few times to get familiar with who is working. The workers you see there the MOST are going to have the most experience. Store Managers and Assistant Managers typically work the most (30+ hours a week) and have the most experience (some work there for YEARS). Ask questions and see who goes out of their way to gain your trust!
WHAT SHOULD YOU PIERCE YOUR BABY WITH?
The best metals to pierce babies with are either Titanium or 14k gold. If you decide to go with gold, yellow gold is a better option due to white gold having a small amount of nickel. Nickel is the common culprit when it comes to metal allergies. Places like Piercing Pagoda and Claires both use the same vendors of Piercing Earrings and consider their earrings, “Nickel Safe” (not to be confused with Nickel FREE), the nickel content is less than 1%.
TIPS FOR BABY PIERCINGS:
Make sure baby is changed and fed prior to the piercing. To give babies (and mom lol) the best and most comfortable experience it’s best they are fed prior so they are content and more cooperative. Please note you won’t be able to feed them during the piercing as they could choke when and if they begin to cry..
Bring a toy and have someone with you. Babies are curious as to what is going on. They see this new person who is piercing their ears and are like who’s this? As the piercer moves side to side dotting their ears, babies love to follow. Bringing a toy will help them focus their direction the opposite way as the piercer dots their ears. As someone who used to pierce, this would make dotting ears easier and faster. Car keys work just as good too. Having someone with you for support is good.. this is more for my mommas out there. Just in case babies spit up and you need to grab something for the bag, someone to hold the toy, and help get babies attention.
FORGET NUMBING OINTMENT. Numbing ointment is topical, therefore it’s not going to help as the piercing goes through the body. Also, the numbing ointment will get wiped off with alcohol as the ear gets prepped before the piercing. Babies cry for maybe a minute or so, once you pick them up and give them some love, they usually stop crying.
Simultaneously Piercing for Babies? This is when two people pierce each ear at the same time. There are pros and cons to this. Yes, it’s good because it’s one and done, but there is a chance of it being uneven depending on who is piercing. This is due to the way the baby is held. It can be harder for the one person to pierce the ears.
CLEANING YOUR BABIES PIERCING You’ll have to clean them twice a day. Recommend either sterile would wash or h2ocean. It’s easy to spray on great for babies. You can find them on Amazon HERE.
THE LESS YOU SWITCH THE EARRINGS THE BETTER. A good tip is to keep the original piercing earrings in for a year (unless of course a problem arises). The more you change them, the more aware they are that something is in their ears, and might cause them to play with them more and lose earrings. They can be changed after 4-6 weeks but they don’t HAVE to.. even if you were sold a second pair of earrings. From experience, this is something that I noticed. Mom’s that changed their earrings often, had more problems with keeping earrings in.
Hope you found these tips helpful! If you have anymore questions feel free to ask! Please subscribe to The Piercing Outlet below for more videos!