I had mine done at a beauty salon when I was like 8, but then they got infected so we let them close up. My redid them the exact same way (ice cube!) when I was a little older, and she used a needle and “cat gut” (yuck! :ick: ) thread which we had to rotate back and forth in our ears. As it turns out, I’m allergic to nickel, which is probably why I had problems the first time!
I had both of my daughters’ ears done at Claire’s with absolutely no problems–it was a great experience both times. The first daughter, they were able to have two associates pierce both her ears at the same time (which worked out well because she’s quite melodramatic and probably wouldn’t have allowed them to pierce the second one after the first one was done!), but the youngest one they only had one associate, and she did both ears singly (which worked out fine because she’s the ruffian of the two and could care less about stuff like that). There were no problems as far as infection, etc.
When my daughters had their ears done, the ear cleaning solution at Claire’s was part of the ear-piercing package so there was nothing further to buy; since it was included, we used this to clean the piercings twice a day for those first six weeks or so. I believe the active ingredient in the solution was hydrogen peroxide, but I think either alcohol or peroxide would work to keep the ears clean and infection free.
Good luck, and congratulations to your daughter on this big step! 