Thursday night, my daughter came out of the bathroom saying her ear really hurt. I looked at her earring and it was almost embedded in her ear. OUCH. So, I took out the earring and as I was pulling it out, a little puss came out. The ear lope was swollen, red and a bit warm. The back of the ear was red and purple in color…almost looked like a little blood blister. It looked quite a bit better Saturday. But, when I tried to put the earring back in Saturday afternoon, she wouldn't let me, saying it hurt really bad. I go the post 1/2 way in and a few hours later it looked purple/pink in color on the back again. I have been cleaning it multiple times a day with an Antiseptic supplied by Claire's where she had the piercing done and I have been putting Neosporin on it. She had the piercing done 8 weeks ago. The earring has now been out of her ear for 3 full days. How do I get this infection cleared up? Do you think I will be able to get an earring back in that hole? Will she end up having to have that one pierced again?
I am certain I am to blame for this. Thursday was Crazy Hair Day at school. Wednesday night, I put a bunch of pony tails in her hair and then braided them. She was having trouble getting comfortable in bed. I wanted to take the pony's out, but she said she would be fine and insisted on leaving them in. My guess is, she slept funny on the ear trying to be comfortable and the earring got embedded. Uggg.
Any suggestions?? THANKS!
Sounds like the earring was too tight. My sister however had had to let her holes close twice as a child because of infections she could not get rid of. She learned years later that she was allergic to neosporin which my mom kept reapplying to her ears for the infection. Ugh! No wonder the infection never got better and she had to let the holes close.
First off, your ear lobes have NOTHING to do with your eyes. Seriously???
Second, do NOT, I repeat NOT use peroxide!!! All it will do is continue to eat away at the healthy skin and not allow it to heal! I had my ears pierced the first time at 7 and my mom was told to use peroxide and my ears ended up trying to grow around my earrings and I had to have them yanked out =( You should ONLY use the cleaning solution given with the piercing OR rubbing alcohol.
It actually sounds to me like she has some blood pooling inside the hole. I've had this happen before, no fun =( You will have to leave the front of the hole uncovered and squeeze the back part of the hole so that any pus or blood can ooze out the front part of the hole. Then clean it really well (I'd use the rubbing alcohol until the piercing is healed again, it will keep it clean, but also dry, so that it can scab over and start to heal.) She should probably not wear earrings until it's healed, and she will probably have to get it re-pierced. I've kept earrings in before while my infection heals, and you have to be extremely careful to not let the skin attach to the earring and it can be quite painful to have the earring in during the healing process. So considering it's a kid we're talking about, then I say leave them out and re-pierce later.
Yes, after three days she likely will need to have that ear pierced again after it's completely healed. The re-piercing will hurt her less than trying to push an earring through a partially infected ear.
The method you are using to clear up the infection should work. If it's not looking better in a couple more days, you might want to try a different antibiotic cream or even have a doctor look at it.
It is possible to be allergic to antibiotic creams, but fairly rare. I am allergic to these, but that didn't develop until adulthood. An allergy to this would look like small, liquid filled, and very itchy bumps on the location you've put the cream.
Take the earring out and let it fully heal.
I'd take her to the doctor's just to be sure...
My daughter has a nickel allergy that showed up long after her ears were pierced. She had to have her ear lobe lanced to get the infection out of it. Not fun.
YMMV
LBC
The earring is most likely too tight. Also, she could be allergic to the metal. I am, and so is my daughter. We have to have nickel free everything. Peroxide is fantastic. GL Hope she clears up soon!
I had an infected ear from an earring as a child. The front of my earring was almost covered by my swollen ear lobe. My parents took the earring out and let my ear heal, the hole closed up. When the ear was back to normal I got that one ear re-pierced.
I'd leave the earring out and let the ear heal.
My chiropractor recently told me that piercing a young child's ears will interfere with their eye sight. Maybe letting her ears heal will be a good thing.
I hope everything turns out okay!
That happened to my mother. She would pure peroxide in the cap of the peroxide bottle and soak her ear lobe in it for a few minutes. Then she would apply Bacitracin (sp). My doctor recommend Bacitracin when I had an ear infection one time.
The earring was probably too tight. That happened to my older daughter. I felt really bad after that happened too. But I took the earring out, cleaned it off with peroxide (the others are right not to use it all the time, but it's great as a debridement (removal of dead or infected tissue) making sure to remove all puss etc. After soaking the earring in an antibacterial (Claire's solution would work for this but I didn't have any so used Chlorhexidine, a prescription strength antibacterial mouthwash) I put it back in the ear. It hurt a lot, bu tit had to be done or it would close. Then you just treat it like it was just pierced, putting on the antibacterial solution, rotating the earring, etc.
She's healed fine and it still wearing earrings. We have discovered through trial and error with her and her sister though, that they can't actually wear the hypoallergenic earrings.
Put it back in asap and keep it cleaned as you were, you still need to be turning them and checking the backs arent too tight still. It will take more then 8 weeks to completely heal. Always seems like 1 takes longer
Don't blame yourself please. I doubt that was the cause, but STUFF Happens.
Don't try to put the earring back in until it's completely healed.
Clean the ear twice a day with peroxide and disinfect with witch hazel.
If the hole closes, so be it - you can always get it re-pierced after it heals.
Sounds like you've already got some good advice - I think tackygothgirl says it best! I just wanted to throw in my two cents and experience. Let her ear heal, close up, and have some time before you try to re-pierce. My neighbor's little girl got an infection and it ended up slitting her earlobe in half. She had to have it fixed by a plastic surgean. I know this isn't overly common but it was pretty traumatic for her. It happened very quickly and her parents felt terrible. It's probably just not worth the risk since she's already having problems.
