Hilary Duff Mom-Shamed Like Kylie Jenner For Piercing Daughter’s Ears: ‘Child Abuse’

Hilary Duff is the latest celebrity mom to be slammed online for getting her daughter’s ears pierced. Last summer, it was Kylie Jenner. This week, the “Younger” star was not spared by many netizens who do not condone what she did; some even labeled it child abuse.

The backlash against Duff started last Sunday when she shared an adorable black-and-white snap of her smiling while holding her daughter Banks in her hands. Then she decided to share another pic in her Instagram Story and captioned it, “Oh and yes we pierced her ears.”

Immediately after her post went live, many negative comments started rolling in. Many questioned the former child star’s decision, especially since for them it brought “unnecessary pain” on the infant.

“I can't believe someone who seemed so screwed on pierced her babies ears, causing unnecessary pain that isn't for medical reasons done by a fully qualified medical professional is child abuse in my eyes,” one follower wrote.

“Babies are beautiful, why would they need their ears piercing?” another Instagram user asked.

Others came to Duff’s defense because they said that there’s nothing wrong with what the actress did to her daughter’s ears. Some even pointed out that they, too, also had their ears pierced when they were still babies and they were’t traumatized by it since they couldn’t remember it at all.

Experts also don’t see anything wrong with it as long as it was done carefully and properly. They also cited family or cultural tradition as the main reason why some parents follow this practice.

“I don't have a good reason to say that (parents can't have a baby's ears pierced). Caring for an infant with pierced ears is no different than caring for another child, except (in a baby's case) it's up to the parent to care for (the child's ears),” said Dr. Bill Bush, the pediatrician-in-chief at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

In July of last year, Kylie Jenner also got flak online for having baby Stormi’s ears pierced. Forbes’ youngest self-made billionaire was mainly slammed for not giving her daughter a chance to decide on her own if she wanted to get piercings when she grows up.