I think it’s creepy.
Let the kid decide for him or herself when they are old enough to take care of piercings and understand what is being done to them.
That outfit is more potentially damaging to your child than her earrings are. 
I think it’s a little creepy, too, but nothing to throw a fit over (and I am very conservative about piercings and tattoos). I do wonder, though, how that looks as they grow, especially the piercings done on brand new babies. It seems like it would be hard to get the holes in exactly the right place (the same place on each ear lobe) and for them to stay in the same place as the kid grows.
Shrugs
Grew up in a culture where it is done. No big deal, and no problem with it.
And just out of anecdote, I never saw babies getting their ears pierced at a mall… Nor would I like to pierce my baby’s ears at a mall (if I ever have one, that is).
And other thing… the females that I saw with piercing infections were not the babies, but the preteens/teenagers. They are waaaay more active than a baby and maybe less clean, too. With a small baby you have mom plus probably (especially in those cultures that practice it) grandma, auntie, sis, godmother, neighbor, etc. taking care of the girl and cleaning her ears and making sure everything is OK.
I don’t see the babies with big earrings either. Just small studs, usually, at least until they’re older and know what they have. I know many times I cannot feel (and forget) the earrings when I have them, since I like using lightweight ones.
OTOH, it can be a permanent thing, and may never close again. My ears were pierced when I was 3 months old (kinda late actually)… For most of high school my “rebellion” was NOT wearing earrings. Those holes never closed. And sometimes I still forget to wear earrings some weeks or months… and they’re still open.
Doesn’t seem to be a problem, although sometimes I’ve wondered that too.
Absolutely. Wrapped dragons suck. They look weird and flat when viewed from straight on. Ami James won’t do 'em for just that reason, and he has to talk at least one guy a week out of it on Miami Ink. A wrapped tatt has to be carefully planned, and dragons just don’t wrap well - although someday I may get a dragon back on the outside of my arm, and his belly on the inside, as if my arm itself *were *the dragon. But wrapped around, you just have a flat-ass dragon. Besides, baby arms are way too small for dragons - the lines will just get blurry as they grow.
What?
I think earrings look cute on some babies, but they squick me out a bit as well. Around here, they’re not exclusively Mexican, but mostly. I won’t do it on my own daughter until she’s old enough to ask, and it may be a 13 year old rite of passage thing.
I remember reading (no cite) about a family with multiple births (triplets maybe) who had the ears pierced of each of the babies so that they could tell them apart.
I’m not a fan but it’s certainly not mutilation, imo.
As for the healing closed thing, I went for several years (over 10) and didn’t wear pierced earrings. I was able to insert pierced earrings without any problems.
My mom had my ears pierced when I was a baby. I didn’t manage to tear my ear off or anything, let the holes close whens I was a kid and got re-pierced as a young teen. It isn’t really a traumatic thing.
Eww. Creepy. OK, only slightly creepy but still.
I called CPS one day when I saw a biker with his 4yo son (or so) who had a full chest Harley Eagle.
Were you sure that it was a real tattoo?
Same here. I don’t know about nowadays, but it was customary in Mediterranean families to pierce a baby girl’s ears within the first month or two. My mother had hers done as a baby. So did my grandmother.
My mother wanted mine done when I was a baby, too, but my pediatrician vetoed it. I got mine done when I was 7 or 8.
Ditto. Usually the infant has itty-bitty studs that cannot be felt, and yes, the female caretaker(s) look after them.
I’d probably do a double-take if I now saw an infant with pierced ears. Haven’t seen any in a long time.
I have 4 girls, none of them with pierced ears. I had an argument with my brother one day, about how I ought to have it done (as he did to his daughters) because blah blah blah.
This is the same guy who told me I should set an 18 month old kid up with a temptation, and then smack them good when they ignore “No”, to teach them.
So much for his opinion.
It’s not my body. It’s not my choice. I extend this to all non-medically-necessary body alterations to both boys and girls. I’m even thinking of this where orthodonty is considered, as “mildly crooked teeth” is not the same as ‘snagglepussed troll’. When they’re old enough to understand and accept any pain involved, the aftercare, and the potential for consequences…well, their bodies, their choices.
Admittedly, my description of babies’ ear piercing as mutilation and disfigurement in the OP was hyperbole, but the whole deal does seem inherently wrong to me.
Is it common for parents to do this to distinguish the gender of their child? I was thinking it was for pure aesthetics.
Hmm, it seems you’ve exposed a bit of hypocrisy in myself, beacuse I would get my child braces if a dentist told me his/her teeth would be mildly (and visibly) crooked. My bottom teeth are slightly bunched together (kinda like Robert McNamara’s…you can see it really well in The Fog of War), but they’re not really visible, so it doesn’t matter. But if my front teeth were visibly crooked, I’m not sure if I woulda made it through high school alive. Those kids and everything, you know?
So I guess I could get behind this earring thing if my girlfriend could convince me that it would be in my child’s best interest. Heh. Good luck with that.
I’ve heard a lot of mothers say they did it so no one would mistake their baby for a boy. Who cares if they do? I just don’t get it.
I’m with WhyNot on the rite of passage idea (if my daughter chooses to have her ears pierced). I remember my mom making a big deal of me being responsible enough to make my own decision. It seemed like a big deal and I felt proud that she trusted me to care for them. I had been begging for a couple of years, and when she decided I was old enough (I think I was 10ish), we made a whole day of it.
I don’t think it’s weird but that’s because everyone I know is pierced (m or f) on the 12th day after their birth at their naming ceremony. I was only pierced when I was 1 year old but that’s because I was the post infertility miracle baby and my parents wanted me named at our ancestral temple in Goa.
I kinda had a pede as my primary care physician till I was kicked off my dad’s insurance 2 years ago (shuddup! He gave easy referrals and I’ve known him since we moved to the US…and my mom does his finances, it was kinda you scratch my back I’ll give your kids easy derm referrals!) and he had a sign in his office up to pierce children hygenically. I think a lot more people may be getting it done at the pede’s office than at Claire’s because that’s where my cousins are having their l’il ethnic children pierced as well.
I’ve always seen babies with tiny studs, I never thought anything of it, I didn’t even realize that it was a cultural thing. Most people around here get it done at the pediatrician’s office. You mean that doctors don’t do kid’s ear piercing in other parts of the country like they do here? What backward savages you guys are. Ear piercing is considered mutilation and a form of disfigurement where you guys live? You non-border state people are really, really strange 
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Doctors don’t seem to offer that where I live and no one seems to have any qualms about taking their kids to Claire’s. Yuck. I’ve tried to explain the risks before (offered links, literature), but all I got were rolled eyes and talk about how they didn’t know anyone who got hepatitis or whatnot from a piercing gun. Ooookay, dumbass. I guess it’s safe then. :rolleyes:
My ears were pierced the day I was born by the doctor- the holes are still there, perfectly in place, and I never ripped an ear off or had it fall off due to infection. In fact, the only piercing related infection I’ve ever had was the upper ear piercing I got when I was 14. When I was 13, my mom let me get a second set of holes done and when I was 14 she let me get the upper cartilage done.
I work in malls, and see the babies before and after their piercings. I’m always worried about the choking hazard…babies can be quite good at manipulating small things. But I’ve never actually heard about anyone choking on an earring. I got my ears pierced at 13, when I was old enough to earn the money myself. My daughter got hers done at 9 or ten, after I made her sign a contract that she would never get multiple ear peircings…she still carries it in her wallet to show people if they aske her why she only has the classic one-hole per ear look.She’s 24 now. I’m so proud of her!
Not only do I dislike pierced ears on babies, I hate, hate hate those stretchy headband things with a silly flower on them for baby girls who have very little hair. I just think they look silly, and just call attention to the baldness. I was a bonnet loving mom…so much cuter.