Should baby ear piercing be banned?

The pain suffered by a properly done ear piercing to the ear lobe is often less than that caused by a vaccination (or cutting their nails!). The pain it inflicts is minimal and doesn’t cause any unnecessary or cruel suffering. Any discomfort will be quickly forgotten by a baby once the piercings heal. Older children will be much more likely to remember any pain associated with piercing and may be more traumatized later in life.

In this case it would be the responsibility of the parent to ensure that the piercing is kept clean and not tampered with. If the child is hospitalised because of an infection, then maybe it highlights a problem with the parent, rather than a minus point for banning baby ear piercing.

There are also many other risks in life that parents take that can cause a child to become hospitalized, such as a reacction to a vaccination, introducing new foods and having an allergic reaction.

If a parent does their research and makes sure that place chosen to pierce ears at is clean and sterile, The earrings come from a sealed sterilized package, and you research which meatals are not an allergen then there will be no issues with the piercing becoming infected, or needing to go to the hospital. Certain metals such as gold cause allergies, because gold is never pure and that is why if you talk to a professional body piercer they do not use it.

Parents buy clothes for their children, they wash their hair and are free to add other accoutrements if they so wish. Attractiveness is always on the agenda, often subconsciously, and we don’t force parents to make their children all look equally ugly. Ear piercings alone won’t make a child vain, and are a symptom, not a cause, of problems in society today.

Piercing ones ears is not an attempt to make a baby more attractive i am sorry but any body baby or adult who is already ugly (in whomever’s eyes) is not going to be found magically more attractive with pierced ears, because if it was then the whole world would have pierced ears.

Tattoos are ear piercings are not the same at all, that is like comparing apples to oranges.

Tattoos also are permanent while pierced ears are not, and if the child chooses later to not wear earrings they will close up.

Spain and Latin American countries have been piercing baby girls’ ears for decades: it is a very ingrained part of their culture. And as far as I am aware there isn’t a groundswell of opinion that it is barbaric or dangerous. Why on earth should it be banned? There is too much cotton wool already in the world.

Australia is also famous and infamous for alot of things e.g too many childhood vaccinations, poor nutrition for children, obestity, Autism (which is low in Latin American countries) , childhood cancer etc, and the list goes on. Other countries around the world have good reason to fault our culture too, we are very far behind in a number of issues eg fair trade, environment, arts, natural medicine, culture etc etc More children are sick here than in Latin American counties.

It should be left to the company who are resposible and who hold the licence on if their business should pierce babies ears. They pierce ears every day and are experienced enough to know what they are doing whether the client is a baby or an adult. Any adverse results will reflect on their reputation so they will be motivated to take the best care of the baby from a medical point of view.

The yes point is not true. When i called around to find out how old my daughter had to be to obtain an ear piercing they asked her age, as well as informed me she needed to have her first vaccination before she was allowed to be pierced. They also informed me that piericng them young is difficult because you can not ask them to hold their head still as you can with a two year old, and if she were to squirm too much it could cause the holes to be slightly crooked, or the piercer may choose not to do it at the time because the child is unable to be still long enough.

Company’s do not want to have bad customer service

I guess we shouldn’t dress our babies anymore because God forbid a parent’s taste is involved. I don’t remember any of my friends growing up and wishing their parents never pierced their ears as a baby…but I do recall girls that wanted earrings but their parents said no. Isn’t that impossing “the parent’s sensibilities and tastes on the child”? If my daughter doesn’t like earrings, there is a simple fix. She can take them out. I’ve seen parents do worse things to their babies than piercing their ears. I think a parent should make the decision. Banning is ridiculous.

Unnessary pain???? what about all the heel pricks they take when they are a newborn to test their blood for jaundice perhaps we shouldn’t put them through that either??? Vaccinations also cause pain.

Well a stick on earring could end up in the babies mouth and make them sick.

Piercing ears early allows the parent to have control over when they are cleaned and how often. A baby will not play with the earring risking infection, as well as does not sleep on the side of their head allowing for the ears to heal quickly

It is often difficult to tell whether a baby is a boy or a girl. If its ears are pierced then people can immediately identify the baby as female

Arbitrary gender roles?? What about the colors of clothing we choose to dress our children in once they are born, pink, blue etc. So stating that putting a girl in a dress or skirt to tell the gender apart is placing them into an arbitraty gender role stating that girls should wear dresses and skirts and not boys.

Babies are not old enough to make decisions for themselves. If they don’t like the earrings when they are older, then you can just take them out.

It’s not just rooted in fashion either. Some cultures pierce for religious reasons. To take issue with this then you must also take issue with, for example, circumcision.

Fashion is imposed on a child the minute it comes into the world with the choices of clothing the parents put on their body, and not everyone chooses to pierce ears for fashion.

A piercing is not always permanet, both the tongue and belly button (for example) heal up perfectly when the piercing is removed.

Whilst I personally disagree with the idea that babies should have their ears pierced I am also fed up with a nanny state that sees fit to legislate all areas of our life.

If we want parents to not do this we should convince them through reason and argument. If we can’t convince them, and clearly we will never be able to convince everyone, so be it. Part of living in a society is accepting people will choose to do things we may think wrong. Provided the things they do don’t harm others then they state has no place controlling their actions.

Aside from the fact that it is a safe and minor procedure, the effects of the piercing are reversible. If the child grows up and decides that they do not like having pierced ears they can simply wait for the pierce hole to close naturally, which happens when it is left alone for several weeks. Furthermore, tangibly and on the ground, there has been not much reported complaints from children who have suffered from their parents decision to pierce there ears. Thus there is not enough substantial reason for the government to intervene in the parent’s decision to pierce their children’s ears.

This is a pointless argument.
Ear piercings on babies or anyone will not be banned.
WHY ?

Because the British Government need the VAT from business owners.

A baby does not touch and tug on their ears to cause infection

Babies do not sleep on their side yet they sleep on their backs not putting pressure on the ear and causing pain. Also too much pressure can cause the earring to become embedded in the ear itself

Parents vaccinate their babies from birth. This is a constant thing. Ear piercing is about a one time thing at the same amount of pain.

This ensures that everything is sterile and lowers the chance for infection.