Should It Be Legal to Pierce Your Infant Child's Ears?

@ bella heart shawnee
Your posts are off topic and have nothing to do with ear piercing, but Ayana personally. Personally critiquing another user isn't ok is what I'm saying.

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http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/six-year-old-girls-earlobe-splits-after-piercing-575794.html

Someone was recently awarded a settlement worth several thousand dollars because of damage to a child's earlobe.

While I think piercing kids ears is wrong, I don't see the legitimacy of this settlement. The mother, fully aware of the consequences (or, at least she legally was because she signed Claire's waiver), knew the risks and did it anyways.

This wasn't a baby though, but a six year old. But I guess the question is, if you agree to do something medically dangerous for your kid, can you sue when it goes wrong?

@ the drupocalypse.
I'm not making up facts. I said I think. A thought isn't a fact.

@ bella heart shawnee
I know you're not. I'm just trying to end it, that's all.

I feel like the basis of a lot of opposition here is that people see it as something, a practice, that's not of their culture, they don't understand why its done, and so assume that it must be wrong. Even when people who have actually experience of being within those cultures and those practices speak up on how the experiences have affected themselves and others around them.

Personally, I come from a West Indian family (black, African American, however to want to label it) and in our culture girls (and sometimes boys) get their ears pierced as infants. Every female in my family has had her ears pierced as a baby (under a year old) and no one had suffered for it. No ripping out earrings, no infections, no psychological or physical damage. So no. I don't think it's damaging to a child to get the ears pierced as an infant if the parent takes care of it as it heals. And I find it....disconcerting that people are so quick to make something that's generally a happy, milestone, family tradition among some cultures and label it as cruel abuse just because it's not part of their culture.

I really do think that's what it boils down to: "If it's not what I consider normal, it must be cruel, barbaric, ethnic abuse."

Audrey T:

And I find it....disconcerting that people are so quick to make something that's generally a happy, milestone, family tradition among some cultures and label it as cruel abuse just because it's not part of their culture.

I really do think that's what it boils down to: "If it's not what I consider normal, it must be cruel, barbaric, ethnic abuse."

I haven't seen anyone here suggest that something is cruel abuse just because it's not part of their culture. If anything, it's the proponents of infant piercing who seem to be suggesting that the cultural aspects of it constitute an argument in favour of it, which doesn't really hold up at all.

@ Audrey T
It's very very normal for white American babies to get their ears pierced as infants. I've seen it so many times I can't count and have family members who did it. I don't think it's weird or unusual or strange or out of the norm; I just think it's wrong to risk your child for a cosmetic procedure they cannot agree to.

But it is normal for babies to get their ears pierced in a lot of cultures, including mainstream American culture. I think that's what the problem is. I think it's actually really odd that we have a pretty sizable group of Mibbians opposed to infant ear piercing, because it is so normal and accepted.

It's normal to risk giving your baby HIV, hepatitis, infections, etc. so they can look cute. Medical associations are clear that a baby should not have their ears pierced until 3-6 months when they've had their shots and their immune system has developed. It's not a matter of culture, but science and risk evaluation.

Most people I know don't even consider this an issue. If I ask most people what their opinion on this issue is, they weren't even aware there was an issue to have an opinion on.

@ Audrey T

That might be true for you across the pond but the stereotype of infants-ear-piercing is not associated with a "culture" per se, it's generally associated with "chavs" who are generally depicted as in poverty, violent, not especially bright and more or less exclusively white.

To quote a Jimmy Carr joke (upon being asked to identify something about the parents using a child's ears):

"If they're pierced and the child under a year old, their parents are the ones wearing shellsuits and having a fight in the carpark."

Of course, the whole thing is a gross stereotype. To consider it 'ethnic' is in itself is confirming a stereotype about impoverished white people.

Personally, I find the concept of piercing altogether rather...icky for reasons I am not gonna discuss openly. But, when someone reaches adulthood, I acknowledge that they can choose as they will. However, putting a child at risk needlessly for the sake of some cute accessory is just not something I can support. When a kid reaches the age that they can look after it AND they want one then whatever.

@ joan.
I've never known the piercing of infants' ears to be associated with "chavs". I would never say that my parents were ever remotely "chavvy", even in their younger photos, and yet they got all of our ears pierced, including one ear of each of my brothers. I had the idea that it was more of a "culture" and "trend" then anything over here, mostly because the majority of people I know had their ears pierced from a young age, and even then I wouldn't associate them with being "chavs".

If I'm honest, I much prefer the fact that I had my ears pierced when I was a child, mostly because I suffer from a lot of eczema around the ear area now and would never ever think to pierce my ears once, let alone twice like I have on both ears. Plus with regards to my left ear, if I hadn't have had that ear pierced before I had my accident where I ripped the bottom of my ear lobe off when I was small, then I probably wouldn't have even been able to get my ears pierced.

@ castiel's vessel

-shrugs-

It is where I am from.

And did I imply that everyone who got their ears pierced at a young age were "chavvy"? I'm merely stating that there is a stereotype (which generally implies that it's more or less nonsensical in the first place).

the drupocalypse.:

Most people I know don't even consider this an issue. If I ask most people what their opinion on this issue is, they weren't even aware there was an issue to have an opinion on.

I think that because in most cultures around the world, it something accepted. It's something we've been doing for thousand and thousands of years and I honestly don't think it's as big of an issue as some of you are trying to make it to be. Most people I know that had their ears pierced at a young age (not necessarily infancy) had no problems at all with getting it done and was actually happy about it. And I can safely say that applies to 99% of the people I know.

However, I would be against a cartilage piercing for any child because I got mine done a few days ago on my birthday and it hurts a lot. Lots of discomfort in my sleep and swelling. Lob piercing don't hurt me at all, but the cartilage.

EDIT.
Okay, regarding the infancy issue, I can agree. I don't see the purpose of piercing an infant's ear. Also, the think that Courtney said about HIV change, that's so rare that I wouldn't even consider it. I think some people forget the fact that it's a lot harder to get HIV and AIDS than we think.

@ Ayana Sioux
But most people you know isn't even the majority of the people in the world. It's a very small percentage of the people who exist. And I'm much more likely to take actual statistics done by a research group than the polling of a group of people some random person knows. Because every person in the world knows a minority of people.

@ the drupocalypse.
True. So what's the majority then? I never hear of the majority of people who get their ear pierced at a young age having dire issues.

@ Ayana Sioux
I just mean you say no one you know has had issues, but the statistics show more people than that have. You can't just go off who you know, you have to use an objective study. The objective study doesn't state the majority of children have problems, but it does state 25% do, which is a far greater number than you personally know.

I'm just wondering, to what age are we counting as "infancy" and to what age are we counting as "young"? =)

^ I'd say that infancy is generally accepted as 0-2.

@ joan.
I wouldn't consider a 2 year old an infant. Perhaps 0-1.

@ Ayana Sioux

Well, that's what they're classified as under Piagetian developmental theory.

In my opinion, yes. Until the child is old enough to realise what they want to do with their body, with their parents permission of course.

Just want to edit to say that I got my ears pierced by my own accord (much to my dads distaste) when I was seven... because my best friend had them done. I got my ears pierced a second time when I was 15.

There's no actual law against piercing is there? But there is for tattoos. Or does it apply to certain piercings? I got my nose pierced when I was around 14 and no one seemed to care.

@ Jenni
I'm not sure about the UK. In America, you can't be pierced until you're over 18 or with a parents' consent. They don't really ask for an ID for ear piercings if it's just an earring and not at a tattoo shop. I got pierced with my friend's mother. But if it's at a tattoo shop or any other type of piercing, ID is required and logged. (My sister got a cartilage piercing after my tattoo and my mom had to sign a form.)