Here where I'm from people are used to piercing their baby girls ears when they are a few days old claiming that it doesn't hurt them. I feel that they are so small and tender to get this done to them and they should leave it as their choice for when they grow up. I decided not to pierce my baby girls ears and I was critizised by many, they feel that I would confuse people of my babies gender. They don't think there are other ways to show my baby is a girl for example hair ties. Besides I didn't want her to go through that pain and now she has the choice to whether or not she will have them pierced later.
In our culture, ear and nose piercing is common in babies.While male babies only have to go through ear piercing, female babies have to go through nose and ear piercing. This must be really painful for the babies as this is done when there are 3-6 months old. I do believe you have no rights to hurt baby in the name of culture.
The nose?! Wow. I've heard that's very painful due to the amount of cartilage the needle must go through. I agree with @kamai Babies shouldn't be forced to wear piercings and why do other people care what gender he/she is? Why is it their concern? Let the child choose if they want a piercing or not. A piercing can also be dangerous due to infection. The best choice is to simply not force a piercing.
The tradition here for baby girls is to pierce the ear at around 8 days old. Yeah, old folks say that babies cry for many reasons and when the baby cries when the ear is pierced doesn’t mean it hurts. When my daughter’s ears were pierced, I was glad that she didn’t cry so loud, just a whimper and nothing more. The nurse who did the piercing seemed an expert and she even assured us that it is not painful. But having a daughter is much better than a son when it comes to that age because a baby boy has to undergo circumcision. That’s the tradition in our culture.
Contrary to general belief there is no pain in any piercing whether it is nose, ears, belly button or any other private part of the body. Actually they have developed scientific ways of doing it so either they use local anesthesia or heat up the wire before doing it and then it is matter of seconds and the job is done.
These days they use guns to pierce and I personally prefer that way as it takes just a second ot two and the job is done perfectly. The earlier the piercing is done the better and faster the recovery. For nose piercing I would wait even for 6 years because the nose continously grows but for ear piercing it doesn't matter as long as babies aren't made to wear heavy earrings which causes ear sagging.
The new technology has made piercing less painful, however, this does not mean babies should undergo body piercing. Whether she wants to pierce eyes, nose or naval, for that matter, should entirely be the decision of the person. If you do piercing in the early age, the child cannot give opinion whether she wants or do not want.
I had never heard of babies having to get their nose pireced, that has got to be painful. Why must there be such traditions in which poor defenseless children will get hurt? You are right parents don't have thre right to produced such pain on their children.
I'm sorry but I don't quite understand this. I'm sure it hurts because I have seen it myself. Sometimes they do apply this numbing cream but sometimes, it ends up hurting a lot. Or do you mean it's not supposed to hurt if done right? I know there are ways to reduce the pain but to my knowledge, it does hurt and sometimes, quite a bit especially for a baby. I know it doesn't hurt once it's on but the process of putting it on, yes.
The kid girls look lovely and charming when they wear earrings on their ears. However, it is their mother's choice to do it or not. Ear piercing is not painful for a kid's tender ears. It is just a slight pain. However, it creates fear among those kids. Well, it is no longer a problem in this modern days. Ear piercing couldn't no longer hurt the kid even a slight of it. Kids usually love to wear earrings when they see them from the adults or especially from their mothers and sisters.
I think ear piercing for baby girls is done by all cultures. My question would be at what age is good for the baby to have her ears pierced. Sure the child is certainly going to feel some pains which adults cannot tell to what degree. I feel for babies when they have to undergo these necessary pains.
@tony if it is part of your culture and you have to do it in all circumstances then earlier the better. In case it does not matter whether the subject has his/her interest in piercing than probably the age in between 1-5 is best. In our part of the world it is done with great fanfare. Although my daughter has no pierced nose or years till date.
My ears were pierced when I was about 4 and it was painful. I've learned, however, that nowadays, ear piercing can be done the painless way. I think I would have preferred to have them when I was a baby and unaware of the pain than a few years later. Girls will generally have their ears pierced anyway so if a mother decides to have it earlier, it shouldn't be an issue for me.
I can say you did right since the baby doesn't know how to express themselves.Waiting for the baby to decide for themselves is good .My mother also made that choice on me and I will do that to my child too.
I appreciated what my parents did and they had my ears pierced when I was a baby. I was spared from the pain of having it pierced as an adult, so I would urge them to also try it on their baby girl.
Even in our culture, we pierce ears of the babies anywhere between few days to few months old. The skin is very soft and thin and believe me, all the babies feel is a pinch and not much discomfort. Later on as they grow older, the skin becomes thicker and that is when it pains also a lot.
I think we as parents are in a better position to decide what is best for them. My daughter is 8years old and I still haven't pierced her ears. Heck, my mum would kill me. I think when she is a little bit older I may consider it. My mum wouldn't take it nicely though. She still doesn't like my piercings. I would only consider piercing her ears. The rest maybe when she is 18years old.
True..it is for the parents to decide that. Also the culture plays a large role in this. In our country, that is India, wearing earrings for girls is a part of our daily lives, irrespective of religion. Almost all girls and women, you would hardly find a single woman who does wear an earring, have their ears pierced quite early. So I guess, this decision is also influenced by the social norm where we live!
Even here there are some tribes mostly the nomads they pierce their girls from childhood and it's their tradition. Even the males pierce themselves.