Baby Ear Piercings: Pros and Cons, but Mostly Cons

Having just spent two days with my girlfriend’s adorable half-Morroccan, half-Chinese baby girl, I found myself mostly pondering the possibilities of dress-up with a six month-old. Dress-up is never complete without accessories, naturally, and unsurprisingly enough I became fixated with the question of whether one should pierce the baby’s ears. Le sigh!

In many cultures it is customary to pierce the ears of newborn girls. If it’s custom, so be it; do yourself a favor and skip to the last paragraph. However, if neither you nor your significant other’s culture mandates piercing, I would abstain until the child is a bit older. Firstly, piercing guns cannot be sanitized and are frequently a conveyor of Hepatitis. Secondly, babies are wriggly teapot humans that have yet to develop rational thought–how good do you think the odds are that the technician will pierce two centered holes in the same position in both ears? Tertiary, even if all the moons, planets and stars align and the piercings are even, your baby’s lobes will grow and the piercings will displace during the growth process. She will become the poor girl with wonky ear piercings. Finally, earrings are a choking hazard for babies if they fall out.

Assuming you choose to go forward with piercing your teapot human’s ears: 1) search for a reputable establishment that specializes in baby piercings or ask your pediatrician to do it; 2) make sure you get 14k gold posts to avoid irritation; 3) turn the earrings every day so that the skin doesn’t grow around them; 4) keep a close eye for redness, swelling and hot ears–all of which are signs of infection; and 5) be vigilant about checking to make sure the earrings are in place and on tightly. If all this is too high maintenance, rest assured in the fact that there are plenty of other amusing ways to play dress up.

Big Kiss and Bigger Diamonds,
JZP