Cultural meaning of baby/child ear piercing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure it’s significant to some cultures. I’m white, Jewish and baby ear piercing is definitely not a part of my culture or even family. But I like it and my daughter had her’s done at 8 weeks.

Its common among Hasidim, actually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Body mutilation should be done with consent of the person getting it. A baby cannot give consent.

So it depends on how we define mutilation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s very common in many cultures. African, middle eastern, south Asian, and some Asian.

It’s just not very common among whole people.

So when someone says it’s trashy, I just think they don’t like what brown people do.

Latino as well.

[Anonymous]

Nigerian here and it's tradition. Not sure why. One of the reasons could be that baby boys and girls wear the same clothes and it's one sure way to tell if a baby is a boy or a girl. It's usually done in the hospitals before discharging mother and baby. It was strange to me when I first moved here to see little girls with unpierced ears. I like the look so I got a second one when I was an adult so I could were two earrings. I am also a mother to girls and all got their ears pierced at about 3 months. No option to do it at the hospital and their pediatrician advised to wait till after their first tetanus shot. The area is usually numbed before piercing. One of my dds didn't cry at all and one cried just a little then slept off.

[Anonymous]

So those for whom it is not traditional to pierce as a baby, or who choose not to, at what age do you think your child is old enough to consent to it? Genuinely asking - I am in this category, I have a DD who is 5 and is already asking about it. I am not planning on doing it for her now, but I will let her in the future. I'm just not sure what age. 10? 12?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m curious, too OP.
I had mine pierced at 13, and my three girls are all desperate to have theirs pierced earlier.
I’ll be the one to say: it’s trashy to pierce babies’ ears.

I never get this. You guys keep saying it, but no one ever has a good answer as to why its trashy. SO I think it's trashy to attach that thought to someone's baby.

They aren't your ears to pierce. Modifications to your daughter's body should be made at her discretion when she is old enough to make such a decision. I'm not sure how you can do something like this and then turn around and tell her that her body belongs to her. You've already shown very clearly that it belongs to you and to society.

Say the people who circumcise their boys

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re south Asian and it’s very common to pierce baby girls’ ears but there’s no meaning behind it. I wish I had done it when my daughter was a baby. At five there was a lot of drama.

South Asian here, there is actually meaning behind it. Perhaps not here in the U.S., but along with the religious significance that a PP described earlier, ear piercing is part and parcel of the South Asian tradition of adornment of religious idols, women and children, which is done in a devotional sense. It is known as "alankaram" when done during worship. And of course, culturally South Asians love and place great importance on wearing jewelry, so there's that, too.

[Anonymous]

I had my ears pierced before I left the hospital, so I was a few days old. I was born in the 60's (in DC) and mom had a Latino doctor. My mother is from South America born in the 30's and she also had here ears pierced at birth. I also wore a gold bracelet, in this Andean country it is a sign of wealth, even poorer people decorate themselves with gold. We have 22 and 24 carat gold and silver and not very expensive but precious. There is documentation of Incas wearing earrings as far back as 400 AD (also gold) so I imagine it is cultural, it is a common practice.

[Anonymous]

I come from the culture that doesn’t pierce ears in children. We truly believe that ear lobes have a lot of receptors that are “connected” or “responsible” for a lot of internal organs. Hence, part of the routine massage is to massage ears to stimulate blood flow in that organs. The belivebos that of you pierce a hole in the ear lobe when the body still developing, you can unintentionally affect certain organ (child’s vision, for example). I have not seen any scientific support for this theory, but have not pierced my daughters ears when they were young.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nigerian here and it's tradition. Not sure why. One of the reasons could be that baby boys and girls wear the same clothes and it's one sure way to tell if a baby is a boy or a girl. It's usually done in the hospitals before discharging mother and baby. It was strange to me when I first moved here to see little girls with unpierced ears. I like the look so I got a second one when I was an adult so I could were two earrings. I am also a mother to girls and all got their ears pierced at about 3 months. No option to do it at the hospital and their pediatrician advised to wait till after their first tetanus shot. The area is usually numbed before piercing. One of my dds didn't cry at all and one cried just a little then slept off.

So you assign gender at birth?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m curious, too OP.
I had mine pierced at 13, and my three girls are all desperate to have theirs pierced earlier.
I’ll be the one to say: it’s trashy to pierce babies’ ears.

I never get this. You guys keep saying it, but no one ever has a good answer as to why its trashy. SO I think it's trashy to attach that thought to someone's baby.

Yes, and I think it's trashy to call people (of any age) trashy.

Now, back to why people pierce babies' ears.

Particularly calling a baby trashy? That's trashy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Completely aside from whatever cultural thing is going on, I honestly think that piercing a young baby's ears is practically easier than when we got my DD's ears pierced for her 7th birthday at her request. If she had been 2 months, she wouldn't have been rolling, wouldn't have had hair to get tangled in anything, and would have been fine with me cleaning them. When she was 7, all that stuff was an issue. I strongly considered piercing our second DD's ears for that reason, but DH was against it.

Your examples are exactly why we chose earlier. She had no clue they were even there at 3mo. Cleaning was a breeze. She never touched them once.

So...what about the girls who grow up and DON'T want that? My SIL was literally stuffed and forced into dresses. She hates the outward trappings/signs of femininity, and never got her ears pierced. Why is whether or not your baby daughter would actually WANT pierced ears when she's old enough to know the difference not even a factor in these decisions?!

Oh well. She can take them out.

Will she also be mad I let her eat meat, take Tylenol, use tampons. I don’t know what to tell you.

If she has true lasting issues with these things, the problem is bigger than earrings and vegetarianism.

You can take out the earrings, but not the holes/marks left behind.

[Anonymous]

Its part of my Indian Hindu culture so I got it done for my DD. I don't give two hoots what some poster(s) who has not had the life experience or education to be exposed to different cultures thinks about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Completely aside from whatever cultural thing is going on, I honestly think that piercing a young baby's ears is practically easier than when we got my DD's ears pierced for her 7th birthday at her request. If she had been 2 months, she wouldn't have been rolling, wouldn't have had hair to get tangled in anything, and would have been fine with me cleaning them. When she was 7, all that stuff was an issue. I strongly considered piercing our second DD's ears for that reason, but DH was against it.

Your examples are exactly why we chose earlier. She had no clue they were even there at 3mo. Cleaning was a breeze. She never touched them once.

So...what about the girls who grow up and DON'T want that? My SIL was literally stuffed and forced into dresses. She hates the outward trappings/signs of femininity, and never got her ears pierced. Why is whether or not your baby daughter would actually WANT pierced ears when she's old enough to know the difference not even a factor in these decisions?!

Oh well. She can take them out.

Will she also be mad I let her eat meat, take Tylenol, use tampons. I don’t know what to tell you.

If she has true lasting issues with these things, the problem is bigger than earrings and vegetarianism.

You can take out the earrings, but not the holes/marks left behind.

Get over yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Completely aside from whatever cultural thing is going on, I honestly think that piercing a young baby's ears is practically easier than when we got my DD's ears pierced for her 7th birthday at her request. If she had been 2 months, she wouldn't have been rolling, wouldn't have had hair to get tangled in anything, and would have been fine with me cleaning them. When she was 7, all that stuff was an issue. I strongly considered piercing our second DD's ears for that reason, but DH was against it.

Your examples are exactly why we chose earlier. She had no clue they were even there at 3mo. Cleaning was a breeze. She never touched them once.

So...what about the girls who grow up and DON'T want that? My SIL was literally stuffed and forced into dresses. She hates the outward trappings/signs of femininity, and never got her ears pierced. Why is whether or not your baby daughter would actually WANT pierced ears when she's old enough to know the difference not even a factor in these decisions?!

Oh well. She can take them out.

Will she also be mad I let her eat meat, take Tylenol, use tampons. I don’t know what to tell you.

If she has true lasting issues with these things, the problem is bigger than earrings and vegetarianism.

You can take out the earrings, but not the holes/marks left behind.

Get over yourself.

Sorry if you don’t like the truth.