After months of contemplating: to pierce or not to pierce… we went for it and could not be happier! If we are ever blessed with another daughter, we would do it again in a heartbeat!

First of all, I come from a family with many ear-piercing related issues. As a kid, my cousins an I got our ears pierced around 7ish years old (give or take). Like most young girls we played with our new accessories…and played and played AND PLAYED. They were infected or lost ALL the time. My sister even ended up at the doctor’s office because one of her ear piercings was infected, and she would not let my mom near them, so someone had to help…in this case, it was a doctor.

Why did we finally bite the bullet? There are a lot of reasons, but here are our top 7

1. It’s NOT CHEAP. So, I would rather do it once, and never again. If they get infected, or loose the earnings because they are playing with them, you’re going to pay that same not-so-cheap price again and again.
2. I have never had a women tell me “I wish I never had my ears pierced”
3. Clip-on eating are hard to find (just ask my sister)! She was scarred from her experiences at 8 years old and never got them re-pierced.
4. It literally takes one second to pierce and it’s over. Make sure they pierce both ears at once.
5. If you’re looking for that mother-daughter ear-piercing experience, you can still have it! Go for the double pierce…or maybe even a nose or eye-brow or something. KIDDING!!
6. Yes, they are going to cry. My daughter cried for about 15 seconds. That is much shorter than when she cried because I asked her to not jump on the couch…perspective.
7. I did not choose to do this in the name of fashion or because I want to accessorize my baby. I did it to prevent a potentially on-going stressful, and possibly expensive experience in our future (which i have seen one too many times). The fact that she loves them already, is an added fun bonus!

Tips:
1) Yes, some doctor’s do pierce, but beware, they may only pierce one ear at a time-NOT ideal. Prestigious tattoo/piercing salons are a good option too. When deciding where to go (my doctor doesn’t pierce, but I wanted both ears done at once anyways), I called my friend who is well-known in the tattoo/piercing industry (and has a baby with pierced ears) for advice. To my surprise, she said, “Take her Clair’s! Just do it!”. Claire’s was also the recommendation by the hospital in our area as well, so that’s what we did! I loved the ear-piercing specialist that was there and trusted her completely. Because I felt 100% confident in the specialist’s ability and amount of experience, we went with it. And We’re SO happy that we did!

2) Bring suckers! We are not big on junk food or candy in our house, but suckers are perfect for this particular adventure. Kids really concentrate on suckers when they have them. Since it takes a while to eat a sucker, they pay more attention to that project than getting worried about why strangers are messing with their ears.

3) If you are able, take another person with you. My daughter sat in my lap while getting her ears pierced, so she could not really see me. It was extremely helpful to have that extra moral support for my daughter…any myself. Also, my hubby was there for sucker hand-offs and supportive smiles! My daughter also had him in eye-sight, which is more comforting than the strangers who gathered for the “show”.

4) Take your little one before they are old enough to really realize that they have ears. We went at about 14 months old (because I took way too long contemplating it). 14 months was a great age! She always let me clean her ears and twist the earnings. She only became curious about them once or twice, but was easily distracted by other toys. If we were to ever blessed with another daughter, I would do it even younger. However, 14 months went perfectly smooth for us as well!

5) Afterwards, keep them clean and keep an eye on them. If you see an infection starting, just take them out, clean the ears and the earnings, put them back in, and make sure they are not too tight. This happened to us once or twice and it is an easy fix. I’ll take this over a constant struggle later in life!

Happy Piercing! XO