TikTok Mom Opens Debate — Should You Pierce Your Newborn Baby’s Ears?

A mother on TikTok just opened an age-old debate: should you pierce your newborn baby’s ears or not?

Of course, for many Latinos, that debate is nonexistent — as one person tweeted, “Somewhere right now a Latino OB/GYN is trying to figure out how to pierce a baby’s ears in utero,” and he’s not wrong. Many of us had our ears pierced the same week we were born (if not the same day), fashioning cute little studs our madrina got us.

While we may have survived just fine, many people on TikTok are freaking out about it.

A TikTok mom is facing negative comments over her baby’s pierced ears

So, why the debate now? Well, a Colombia-based mother on TikTok just got tons of backlash for one particular post about her newborn daughter. While her page is full of tons of cute baby videos, this one shows her daughter had her ears pierced “a few hours” after birth.

While the post was meant to just show how the newborn was “born adorable,” users immediately noticed the baby’s flower-shaped earrings instead.

One TikTok user commented, “Too early,” while saying her earrings were way too big. Another agreed, “Poor baby… she is not even a day old.” Yet another chimed in, “Sorry why must baby experience unnecessary pain. This can also be a few years later. She’s beautiful without those earrings too. Shame.”

As many brought up that the mother should respect the golden rule of, “Their body their choice unless it is medically necessary,” others defended piercing babies’ ears as a cultural decision. One TikTok user said it all with this comment: “People here in the comments would just die of culture shock in Latin America. Girls get their ears pierced in the hospital the day they are born.” Who else has a story like this?

The debate on piercing babies’ ears is very much a cultural one

Another agreed about the cultural aspect to the debate, writing: “Remember that pieced ears are traditional for many cultures around the world,” including Latin America. One user agreed, writing that it’s “not weird” for “basically the entire Latino/Hispanic culture and I’m sure many more cultures pierce the ear of newborns.”

Plus, many commenters actually identified with the mom’s decision to pierce her baby’s ears. As one person put it, “Can someome tell me why people are making such a big deal about her ears pierced? I mean I got mine pierced when I was born and I’m still alive, chill.”

That being said, while many commenters talked about babies not “feeling a thing” when get their ears pierced at days old, that’s not exactly what experts say. In fact, according to the The American Academy of Pediatrics, you should only pierce your child’s ears once they’re old enough to care for the site themselves. Why? To decrease the possibility of infection.

The TikTok mother’s response

Meanwhile, the mother explained to Newsweek that she simply pierced her baby’s ears because she “wanted” to, and it’s “possible” in their country. She also said, “I think a few days after birth is much more non-traumatic for a child to pierce their ears than when they are one or two.”

Plus, thankfully, she said her baby had “no reaction” to the piercings.

As one Twitter user who might’ve seen this TikTok debate asked, “Do white/non Latino people think it’s weird to pierce a baby’s ears?” It’s true — for many Latinos, it’s kind of a non-debate from the start. Have a baby? Put cute earrings on them! And then… upgrade with some cuter bautizo earrings.

Of course, all of us are going to have different opinions on the matter — then again, it’s more than a cultural debate. What do you think? To pierce or not to pierce?

And now, we’ll just leave you with this: