Forum Discussion - Piercing Infants' Ears Right or Wrong?

I must first admit that I am a parent who pierced my baby's ears long before I knew any better. Not only that, but I did it twice before I learned my lesson. When my oldest daughter was very young, I got really tired of everyone telling me what a beautiful boy I had, so I took her to a department store and got them pierced. A couple months later, one of her earrings disappeared while she was in her crib - it is still unknown to this day whether she had swallowed it or not. We never found it again.

When she was 5, she really wanted her ears pierced and she was too young to get it done at a professional studio so I took her to a department store again. This time the stupid gun-thing got stuck in the closed position and she sat screaming while the lady tried to dislodge it from her ear for 5 minutes while I went back and forth between trying to comfort my daughter and fuming at the incompetant "piercer", not to mention cursing myself for allowing this to happen in the first place. NEVER again.

What about you? Do you think it's OK to pierce an infant's or child's ears, or should you just let them wait until they're old enough to get it done professionally? Discuss it on the forum with our other members.