Do You Think Ear-Piercing A Baby Is Cute Or Cruel?

i love pierced ears they r so adorable

i think its pure evil! your tiny baby relies on you (poor thing when your shoving things through its little ears) to protect them! how can you watch your baby all happy and smiling at you (i have a 6 month old baby girl, very beautiful without things in her ears) and trusting you to keep her safe then hurt her FOR NO REASON and it is NO REASON as earrings are not essential for their health!! just awful and not to mention really chavvy! (i am speaking as a young mum and i also have lots of piercings myself)

I think babies should have their ears pierced by 6-months. This is really a simpler issue than it seems; the fistula (skin surrounding the hole) will heal MUCH better if done early in life when a baby can't fuss with the earrings like someone from 5+ often does.

No emotion or craziness or self-piercing issues if it's done early. When your baby grows up, the holes will just be there, fully healed. The child will have learned they wear earrings as a normal part of being dressed. It's actually the best thing to do for your baby in the long run.

+85% of women have pierced ears. Numbers are increasing for everyone. This is good.

I did allow my older daughter to get hers done at three...I told her it would hurt a little bit and she did cry for a second but was so happy after. I am fine with parents piercing their babies ears, I was just too scared to do it. I tried when my daughter was 9 months and had to leave the store because I was almost crying! lol. So, whatever floats your boat...it only hurts for a second and now you can numb the ear so it doesn't hurt at all.

My ears have been pierced since I was a baby as family tradition . I now have pierced nose adorned on the right in the Gujarat tradition (I'm Interfaith Hindu/Buddhist/Wiccan)

its part of a little thing called culture ... which A LOT of people aren't exposed to, there for they don't understand

Why in the world would it be considered cruel or abuse to pierce a babies ears? Is it cruel to circumcise a baby boy? Piercing ears is alot less painful than circumcision!

If you pierce a baby girls ears and down the road she decide she doesn't want them she can just stop wearing earrings. What if later in life a boy decide he didnt want to be circumsized? It's not like you can just reapply his foreskin.

The reasoning for doing both as an infant are the same --- They won't remember the pain and the risk of infection is lower (assuming the parents provide proper care) since they won't be playing with it/them.

As a parent it is your right to decide whether or not to circumsize a baby boy and/or pierce a baby girls ears. It's nobody elses business what you decide.

I had my ears pierced when I was 8 weeks old and from what I am told, I slept through it. Since then I have had 2 more piercings in my ear lobes and neither were all that painful. It stings for a second, then it's fine.

I don't mind it. I wish my mom would have pierced my ears as a baby because I've wanted it done my entire life. I remember sitting in the piercer chair 6 times before I finally didn't chicken out when I turned 14. I agree with those who say it's like circumcision; if you are a man would you wish your parents would have made the decision for you, or would you rather get that skin cut off when you can really feel what's being done to you, anticipating it, and remembering it forever? I heard it feels like it's going through a pencil sharpener. :/

The bottom line is that it's not a cruel thing. If the kid decides she doesn't want them later on she can take them out, but most likely she won't want to.

They are okay. Kinda depends.

i got my ears pierced when i was wayy little. they're so cute, i've gotten more since then, but i'm glad my parents did it

In India, every parent gets their baby girl's ears pierced. It's in the culture and it's not a big deal. It stings as much as any vaccination. And I have yet to meet a single girl who is unhappy about the fact that her ears were pierced without her permission. Also, the ear cartilage is harder to pierce through as the age advances. I cannot think of getting my ears pierced now!

I know that many cultures have a practice of immediately piercing their girl babies' ears and I remember my own brother-in-law and his wife even went so far as to pierce their boy baby’s ears as well, since many men in the Latino community (the baby’s father included) had taken to getting their ears pieced.

But my opinion is that it should be the child’s decision as to whether or not they want their ears pieced, when they are old enough to decide this for themselves and I’ll tell you why I feel this way about it too.

I remember my paternal grandmother, whose mother had her ears pieced when she was a baby, showing me the elongated scars that the closed up holes made in her ears, as she would complain about how her mother maimed her for life by having her ears pieced as a baby.

Who is the parent to make a decision to put holes in their child’s body, or tattoos on their child or any other thing along those lines? A person’s body is their own and it should be up to them and “only them” to decide if they want holes put in their ears.

I’d like to add something else here:

I had my ears pierced when I was 23-years old and the only reason I did it was because my boyfriend bought me a pair of pierced earrings for my birthday. He was so goofy that he didn’t even know that my ears weren’t pierced when he bought me those earrings too, since he thought ALL girls had pierced ears. Well, we’re not born with holes in our ears – are we? So I have no idea why he thought – maybe it was because his parents had his sisters’ ears pierced when they were babies.

Truth be told – I rarely wear earrings any more. I always forget to put them in my ears, so I have holes in my ears, but rarely ever wear earrings.

I also have a 17-year old daughter who does NOT have holes in her ears. If she wants holes put in her ears, she can certainly have that done, but I did not have them pieced when she was a baby, since I feel it should be her decision to make if she wants them pierced. Plus the fact that I didn’t want her complaining about my maiming her for life for putting holes in her ears, as my own grandmother did about her mother.

I agree with you, the child should be able to say "No" to permanent body art of any kind. My parents told me that I was free to get my ears pierced after I turned 18. A couple of my aunts ended up with bad infections from piercings as kids, so neither of my parents believed in piercings for children. My ears are pierced now due to owning so many pairs of gift earrings, and while I like them better than clip ons, I wouldn't have wanted them as a baby or young child. They really can be a piece of work!

no it is not it dont even hurt

I had mine pierced when I was a baby and I never had any problems. When I was like 2 or something I even liked them, cuz they were sparkly. :) And I liked sparkly things...

I wouldn't do it but I guess it's kind of a choice as long as a pediatrician says it's okay and the parents take care of the piercings. My mom let me pierce my ears when I was 5 but it was what I wanted and she of course made sure the piercings were taken care of.

i think its should be the childs choice and they cant make it when they are that small so your just gonna have to wati it should be the childs choice

Pierce a baby's ears? Why not? They pierce ours....

People worry about the stupidest crap on here,for real.. Worry about ear piercing on a baby,its better then than wait till she gets older. When a friend of mine went and had a baby at local hospital here the nurse was going to take his 13 yr old son back to Africa so he can be circumsized, now that cruel and inhuman.

i thought it was cute but im thinkin mabey it is a little cruel

It should be a decision made by the child when he/she is old enough to make it.

I honestly think it is stupid, but the child is not going to remember the piercing being done. As long as the parents keep them clean from infection, I don't think it is cruel.

I think EVERYONE should have the choice whether or not to have body modifications do and a baby, obviously, cannot make that decision yet...

If she wants to have pierced ears, she will reach 18 before you know it.

A baby will not remember the pain of the piercing, where a child who can make the decision whether or not to get the piercing WILL remember the pain.

I'm not one way or the other on this. I think it's the parents' decision, it doesn't harm the child, and it's an relatively 'fixable' thing - if the child grows up and feels they don't want the earrings, they can take them out and let the hole close up. They'll be left with a small dot of a scar at most.

the poor baby doesnt get to choose if she wants it or not!

my first nieces ears were pierced when she was a year or so old. Her mom took pretty good care of her ears, taking the earrings out whenever she went to sleep.

I think it's mean and pointless. WTF?

i think it should be done at a certain age, not like when the kid is 7months old. but like when they turn 6 or 7, because then they will be mature enough to know what it is theyre wearing and how to not pull it out

I know that sleeping with an earring is painful to me, so it must be painful to a baby.

no i would never do that i dont think its right. When their older they can get their ears pierced not as a baby.

imo kids have the right to choose whether they want their ears pierced or not. if they choose yes, fine, if not, ok too. i think parents shouldn't force this to babies who aren't mature enough to know why the hell they have a metal thing in their earlobes.

I don't think it's wrong unless someone is just doing it because they think it looks cute.I also think it's ok if you do it just to get it over and done with. At such a young age they're still not good with their hand co-ordination, so they can't tug or pull on their ears unless they somehow are fascinated by their ears or something, so the piercings will have a better chance of healing faster, and less of a chance of getting infected.

I do,however, think the child shouldn't get them done until they reach an older age and can decide for themselves if they want it. I know girls who don't have their ears pierced and they don't want them.

That's horrible... ok it's better to pierce children's ears when they are very young but not when they are babies...

its better to do it when they are babies they don't mess with them. How is it cruel? Like I said before cicumcisons are not required but still many people do it and that hurts way more than ear piecings don't you think thats more cruel than an ear pierce

i didn't say that circumcision is more cruel than an ear pierce... i didn't even mention circumcision... and because circumcision is more cruel than ear piercing doesn't mean that ear piercing isn't cruel at all...

I am just saying that compaired to that ear piecings aren't cruel.

i totally agree with u but i thought we were talking about ear piercing and not for other cruel things... anyway that's my opinion...ur opinion is also correct.. :)