Getting Aisha’s Ears Pierced: The Before, During, and After

So right before Aisha’s 10 Months Birthday, we crossed a major milestone and got her ears pierced! I asked all of you on Instagram if you guys wanted me to share the experience and a the pleasantly surprising 100% of you said yes. So here it is!

More than me, my husband wanted to get her ears pierced the moment she was born, but since she was born in middle of spring, we were advised to wait until the cooler months to get her ears pierced: less humidity, sweat, and overall irritation. I, however, was under the thought process that it’s her body and she should decide this on her own when she’s older. But, I noticed her playing with my earrings a lot and when I wasn’t wearing them she’d be looking for them. So seeing her do that and seeing how strongly my husband felt about getting her ears pierced, we decided to go ahead with it.

Finding the Right Person: Finding the right person was fairly simple. I asked my pediatrician for recommendations for anybody who does baby piercings, and he immediately gave me a name and phone number of his colleague who does exactly that. Another reassuring factor was that our friends who also go to the same pediatrician as us got their daughters’ ears pierced a couple weeks before us-so we were able to speak to them about their experience.

Booking the Appointment: Once we made up our mind to go for it, I called the pediatrician, who immediately connected me to his assistant. His assistant walked me through the process, explaining that we need to take out 45 mins to 1 hour out to allow the cream to settle on the piercing spot before going ahead with the piercing. After that explanation and a few schedule checks, our appointment was booked for the following Friday. The doctor had two time slots available-morning and evening. Our priority was to find a time that was most suitable to Aisha’s schedule-where she wasn’t sleeping or eating. Therefore the morning slot worked for us best-the time right after her midmorning nap and right before lunch.

Experience: The day we went for her piercing was an extremely cold day so we bundled up Aisha, packed her bag, and took her to the clinic. My nanny, my mother-in-law and I took Aisha for her piercing. Once we reached the clinic, the assistant put the cream on her ears, and we had to entertain her for 45 mins or so for the cream to settle in. Thankfully, she was well-rested and fed, and ultimately in a playful mood. So we read her books (which I packed in her bag), showed her the fish in the aquarium (she was mesmerized to see live fish for the first time), made her walk around the clinic, and that took care of that 45 minute wait. Towards the end of the wait, we chose gold color to go with everything-a super simple, easy, and comfortable design. By the time the piercing came, the pediatrician marked her ears, verified it with us, and pierced her ears with a gun. The piercing was done in 30 seconds, and thanks to the cream, Aisha didn’t feel any pain. HOWEVER, she didn’t like being kept still for too long.

After Care: The pediatrician gave us 3 instructions for her after care: Don’t shampoo her hair for a week, but can make the hair wet; give her medication of she’s extremely uncomfortable, and put an antiseptic cream for a week. As I type this, it’s been almost one week since we’ve gotten her ears pierced, and she is such a trooper! Now the earrings look like they are a part of her.

So that was Aisha’s ear piercing experience. Please do share this with your fellow parent friends!