[Matt L]

Copied and pasted this from my Yahoo question:

Yesterday, I felt my ear was a little swollen. I thought it was just normal, maybe it'll go away after a day or two.

Then today, I got my mom to take it out (I can't take it out yet, I'm still sort of a newbie to do it), and then my mom said it can be infected. I put some disinfectant on my ear, and on my earring.

I took my earring off.

My mom told me to put some anti biotic on it, but she said the earring hole might close up.

When I got the que tip and dabbed some disinfectant on it and touched the back of my ear lobe with it, it sorta hurt, and when I looked, there was this brown sorta slimy stuff with blood. It's bleeding in the back.

I'm not sure if it's infected or not, I don't want to close my earring hole, but my mom said I might have to.

What should I do?

P.S. - I've had this earring on for about two months no without any problems. These are still my beginner earring, but I just changed the back of it with one of my mom's earring.

Edited by MLibid, 27 August 2007 - 10:35 PM.

[Advertisements]

It is infected. Even though it's been 2 months, it's possible for it to get infected. It happened to my daughter, and we did end up having to let her ear close up because it was so painful. It's possible the back was on too tightly, though, which could contribute to it. You can try keeping the earring a little looser, and keep putting antibiotics on it. I'd suggest putting something like Neosporin on it.

[sari]

It is infected. Even though it's been 2 months, it's possible for it to get infected. It happened to my daughter, and we did end up having to let her ear close up because it was so painful. It's possible the back was on too tightly, though, which could contribute to it. You can try keeping the earring a little looser, and keep putting antibiotics on it. I'd suggest putting something like Neosporin on it.

[dsenette]

It's possible the back was on too tightly

that's the typical reason for "piercing" failures...putting jewlery that's too small in the hole too soon....this doesn't happen AS often with more "extreme" piercings like your tongue or certain larger guage ear studs because those tend to be done by a piercing proffessional and a tattoo shop or piercing parlor...and they know that for the first month or so you need to wear oversized jewlery to compensate for swelling. however when you get your ears pierced at the mall (the piercing pagoda comes to mind) or at walmart....you're basically getting pierced by someone qualified to work at burger king...they generally #1 don't know anything about anatomy and #2....don't give a hoot about the end results....they just pierce 100 ears a day and go home...that's why i suggest shelling out a couple extra bucks to go to someone who knows wha they're doing

that's kind of the issue with getting your child's ears pierced at these kinds of places....when you pierce your kid's ears they automatically wanna put those really cute stud earings in there and wear em all over the place.....when what they need is an extra long stud that has alot of wiggle room etc...

also...kids are dirty and they never wash their ears....parents have to take innitiative to keep up on the maintenance untill everything is healed up

[sari]

It's funny, but I'm actually pretty sure my daughter's ear got infected from the hospital. The very first day she could change her earrings, I was trying to help her, and all of a sudden she turned ghost white and fainted. I had to take her to the emergency room - it turned out she was really dehydrated and they had to give her an IV to get fluid levels back up. They gave her the IV in her left hand. A week or so later, she got a nasty infection in her underarm on that side, as well as her ear. She actually had skin ulcers in her underarm, and it was red and swollen and nasty. We were able to get that cleared up with antibiotics, but we had to give up on her ear. We got her ears pierced at Claire's the first time. I've since had them done at Piercing Pagoda, for her first and second piercings, and my older daughter's first, second, and cartilage piercing, and had no problems.

[Johanna]

There is a metal commonly used in jewelry called "nickel" and many people are sensitive or allergic to it. Examine the package the earring came in, and look for "real 24 Kt. gold" next time, if yours does not say that. Especially when a hole is brand new and healing, it makes sense to wear high quality earrings to help avoid the risk of infection. Keeping the holes clean is important, but also check the earring package label. "Hypoallergenic" does not mean "nickel-free".
HTH
Johanna
(Who did three of her five holes with a needle and potato)

[dsenette]

(Who did three of her five holes with a needle and potato)

*dsenette never used potatoes
just grab and stab that's what i say...or said...at the time

[Matt L]

Well, my mom said it could of been too tight, but I've always worn my earrings like this, but I have a feeling it could be my headphones. They're those gamer kinds, and I noticed my ear started hurting when I used them all the time.

[dsenette]

OHHH...it's YOUR ear.....take out the darned earing you dirty hippie!

[Matt L]

OHHH...it's YOUR ear.....take out the darned earing you dirty hippie!

I took it out already.

If I have to, I'll just get it repierced next summer. They don't allow guys to wear any earrings at all in my school. (whaddya expect? they're catholic private school that's Top 100 in USA!!)

[Matt L]

What I'll end up probably doing (the earring hole has a scab inside of it so it will probably close up) will get it repierced next summer.

I couldn't of gotten the back of the earring any looser, it was as loose as it could get. Like I said, it's probably my headphones that screwed this up.

[Adrian Anansi]

Some earrings are made out of cheap metals, that corrode over time, leading to invisible imperfections in their outer layer that end up scrapping the inner part of the piercing, as well as collecting germs. If I were you, I'd swab her ear with alcohol, and switch her to an earring that is stainless steel. Stainless steel doesn't have that problem.

[Kat]

This thread is three months old. I'm sure the original poster has since resolved his issue.

topic closed.