What is your advice on how to keep your stretched ears from getting infected?

Personally I started off with a stretching balm. Cheap enough, goes a long way and not only lubricates between gauges, but moisturizers and helps fight bacteria etc. I found that if a little redness appears it calms it down straight away.

•Use coconut oil, or sesame oil to stretch ear lobes
• dilute about 10 drops of tea tree oil in purified water. Or even the mentioned oils!
• clean ears lobes with a cotton swab. *(especially when healing )

Pink Himalayan salt or sea salt in water- make a mixture in a glass spray bottle and spray ear with it.

Tea tree oil kills bacteria & will also dry out any moisture. )

• DON’T PLAY WITH EARS WHEN HEALING!

If they get crusty use the solution to clean them.

Don’t play with them, especially if they are healing. Clean them regularly.

Alright so the number one rule, don’t touch your ears. Think of your freshly stretched lobes as new piercings, because they’re equivalent to freshly pierced. They’re healing and so the skin is fresh and open mainly. Don’t rush sixes, I know it’s tempting but it’s not a race. Listen to your body, if you’ve ever had in injury you know what that means. Something I do is after I’ve stretched and given the fresh stretch 2 weeks, I’ll remove them as I wash my face. I place the stainless steel tunnels in alcohol while I wash my face. With the warm cloth I used for my face I will rinse it and then gently pat my open lobes. Then, rinse the harsh alcohol off the plugs and place them out on a clean hand towel. Extra step I’ll take is sea salt solution my loves. I’ll then lube my dried lobes with Jojoba oil. If the tunnels don’t slip in then use a cleaned taper. You need to wash your face every day so just include your stretched lobes in the routine! Just make sure you’re using the appropriate cleaner for your lobes and your jewelry. Stones and wood shouldn’t be dipped into alcohol! Research your jewelry! If you do use alcohol for steel or metal jewelry always rinse off with warm water. If I don’t remove my plugs because they’re freshly stretched or I’m lazy, I’ll take a q tip and dip it in the salt solution. I’ll go around the plugs and my skin to clean. Then place a couple of drops of Jojoba oil on your fingertips and massage around your jewelry. Always! Always wash your hands before touching your lobes. Also, don’t let others touch your lobes. As I said treat them as if they were a new piercing and your hands and others hands are contaminated with the plague lol. Just take things slow and try to clean them at least once a day, I’ll clean mine twice a day if I recently stretched.

Take them out while showering and clean them thoroughly and take baby wipes occasionally and clean your ears and jewelry. Don’t stick anything in your ear that isn’t meant to be in your ear.