Piercing Infant's Ears

It is very cute to see a baby's ears pierced, however I could not do that to my own daughter. I am planning on waiting until my daughter is at least 7 or 8 before I get hers pierced. I would like her to be old enough to sit still so that there are no mishaps with the gun and that the piercings are placed evenly on both sides. I am very wary of a stranger sticking a gun to my child's ear and putting a hole through it. First of all, I do not know how experienced the person is at piercing infant's ears and secondly, I do not know how clean the piercing gun really is. My other concern would be if the earring should happen to fall off the the infant is at risk of swallowing or choking on it. Then there is the risk of infection. It is bad enough to have an infant plagued with an inner ear infection which you have no control of but to voluntarily put your child at risk to infection seems silly. I was in one of those costume jewelry boutiques at the mall one day and there was a small baby getting her ear pierced. She was screaming and the lady doing it was having a hard time getting her to sit still. I had to leave the store because I could not handle watching this. I don't know why they were being so persistent in trying to pierce her ears. Perhaps they should have waited and tried again on a different day.

It is advised by health officials that if you desperately want to pierce your child's ears, you should wait until they have had their tetanus vaccination.