My pierced ear won't stop bleeding—any advice?

Hey everyone,
I have a quick question.
Back in May 2010, we had my 8-year-old daughter get her ear pierced at a local jewelry shop. We were super careful about disinfecting it every single night and used antibiotic ointment for about a month. Now, four months later, one of her ears is still bleeding, sensitive, and slightly swollen.
I'm wondering why the body would react this way... and if anyone knows what kind of metal goes into medical-grade earrings or if an allergy to them is actually possible.
Any advice would be appreciated.🙂

She might just be allergic to the earrings. Honestly, my ears get irritated like that whenever I try wearing any jewelry, so I eventually just gave up on them altogether.

I’m not entirely sure what those surgical steel pieces are actually made of. If they have that silver sheen, they might just be a base metal plated in nickel. Theoretically, that should be hypoallergenic, but if I recall correctly, they caused me quite a bit of irritation. If her ear stays damp for long periods, I’d suggest she switches to some small gold drop earrings or maybe some hoops. That way, the piercing gets some much-needed airflow instead of being constantly compressed. It certainly worked for me,

I remember being right there with her when I first pierced my ears. Most of my issues vanished once I stopped wearing surgical steel altogether. I have rather fleshy lobes, and since the piercing, they’ve been a little swollen; those butterfly backs and the posts on standard studs used to chafe terribly and really slowed down the healing process.

I was thinking of something along these lines

http://www.walshbrothers.co.uk/Stock...ld/HNFD36s.jpg

Or perhaps something like this: these are wonderful because they don't irritate the skin, making them comfortable enough to sleep in—plus, there's very little risk of an allergic reaction.
http://jewelryring.us/wp-content/upl...20Earrings.jpg

It was the same for me—everything would get all swollen up and wouldn't go down, even when I was wearing medical-grade stuff.
Even with gold, if the shape was kind of "pokey," I'd have issues.

Then this jeweler told me that the most comfortable style was actually what ironsurfer8 showed in that first photo (the gold ones).
Since switching to those, I haven't had a single problem.

Also, honestly, just rub some calendula salve on it. It worked for me, and I've heard plenty of other people say it helps when cheap costume jewelry or allergies make everything flare up.

Thanks for the input and for sharing what you've all been through. I’m definitely going to try switching up the mustache wax and see if that clears things up.
If this keeps happening, I'll just have to check in with her pediatrician for some advice.
Appreciate everyone

Look, you don't go to a jeweler for this; you go to a professional piercing studio using a needle. Those cheap piercing guns? They’re mass-produced in China and made from god-knows-what kind of junk materials. Plus, when a gun fires, it basically just traumatizes the tissue, making the healing process take three times longer than it should.
So, if we're judging by that logic, getting pierced at a jewelry shop is about as professional as going to a guy at a hardware store to get a key cut. I'd ban the whole lot of them!
Anyway, I really hope the kid is doing okay and that the piercings healed up fine.
One more thing... honestly, it would have been much better if you had just used a sterile medical needle and some high-quality jewelry to do it yourself. Anything is better than those jewelers and those awful piercing guns. Just gross.

You might be dealing with some issues regarding your coagulation factors.