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Babies: 0 - 3 Months
BiscuitEater21
member
circumcision
BiscuitEater21
member
I just got my LO's appointment scheduled today (cut it close but got in just in time-I had to come up with the butt-load of money it cost first), but don't know anything about circumcision, other than that I want my boy to be done just like his father. He goes in on Wednesday, he'll be 5 weeks and 1 day old! The deadline is 6 weeks where I live..
I scheduled over the phone so I didn't get to ask anything about it, like what method are they going to use? How long does it take to heal?
I looked up that it should take a little less than 2 weeks to heal (which isn't as long as I was thinking, TG!). And my grandma told me that you have to put Vaseline all over his wee-wee and change his diaper much more frequently. All easy enough.
So basically my only question is what method is more common?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: circumcision
Ds had the plastibell. You do nothing to it except rinse with water and soap. It fell off in about 2 weeks.
Just out of curiosity, why didn't you have it done earlier or at the hospital?
We had a bris at 8 days so it's a bit different than being done in the hospital but we put gauze over the penis for 2 days post bris and then for the next 2 weeks we have to put vaseline on his penis so that the diaper does not irritate it.
I'm sure they will give you care instructions after the procedure is completed.
There are two methods, plastibell and gomco (I hope I spelled them correctly). I don't know which one is more common but have the one done that your pediatrician does the most often.
My DS had the gomco one and the aftercare is easy like everyone else said. Pertroleum jelly on a gauze pad until it's healed. And don't use wipes on it as this will sting. My DS isn't even two weeks old yet and his looks great!
Please, Please, Please, Please, Please do more research on circumcision asap!
It is such an unnecessary cosmetic procedure!!!! Looking like daddy is not a reason to do it! Removal of the foreskin takes away about 20,000 nerve endings used for sexual pleasure later in life. A circumcised penis is NOT more clean than an intact one. It is NOT difficult to keep an intact penis clean! I beg of you ... please do some research now! Look up side effects and botched circumcisions. Why would you put your son through an unnecessary cosmetic procedure? It is not your penis, it is HIS! It is HIS choice to cut off a part of it, or not. And since he cannot make that choice right now ... you should leave it alone!!! Don't cause him unnecessary pain and suffering!!
I have two circumcised sons and it is my BIGGEST regret! Once you know the truth about circumcision and how they NEED their foreskin as much as we, as women, need ours you will never feel the same again! Please, please PLEASE look further into it! DrMomma.org , TheIntactNetwork.org, SavingSons.org are great places to find information! These links aside, you should know that NO medical organization in the WORLD reccomends routine infant circumcision. There are NO health benefits to circumcision. 217 baby boys die every year from routine infant circumcision. You can also find all of these pages on FB and if you want to talk to men who have been circumcised and have had problems as a direct result. I know that it is hard to choose to not do it, especially if DH is for it, sit down and watch a YouTube video of the exact procedure done. Saving his son is like admitting that there is something wrong with him, that can be hard for some men. Please don't let them strap your baby to that board and remove such an important part of his little body, that belongs to him and him alone! You can also message me with any questions or if you need more links! Please, consider this for your son!!
https://www.facebook.com/circumcisedmencomplain
https://www.facebook.com/chooseintact
Danielle
Don't do it! This is a painful, unnecessary, cosmetic surgery done on the MOST SENSITIVE part of a baby boy. More than 100 boys die in the US each year, and one in THREE circumcisions end up needing further surgery later in life.
The intact penis needs no special care: wipe it like a finger, do NOT retract the foreskin (it's fused to the head until the boy is older) and that is it!
Check outwww.drmomma.org or www.thewholenetwork.org for more information.
Watch this video for a very informative talk on this topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ceht-3xu84I
It's not too late to cancel that appointment. Let it be, and when your son is older, he can decide, for himself, if he wants to 'look like dad'. (I guarantee he won't choose this for himself. My son feels sorry for his dad, because "He doesn't have the fun part" It's cute, and I'd follow that with LOL, except that it's not that funny to me, or to his dad, who was robbed of the 'fun part' before he knew he had a choice)
Please reconsider, and keep your baby boy whole, perfect as the day he was born.
Save your money!
Circumcision is NOT recommended by any medical authority in the world ... 100% of baby boys would choose not to be ciorcumcised. This is a painful, unnecessary cosmetic surgery - unless there is a true medical reason, please, do some more homework and don't mutilate your son's genitals. "Looking like daddy" is not a good reason - baby penises should not look like adult penises. Please reconsider, BiscuitEater21. Your son will thank-you or else HE can choose to have this surgery done when he's older.
Save your money. Why would you pay someone your hard earned money, to cut the most sensitive part of your sons penis off? Let him keep his foreskin, it's his body not yours. More and more boys are not getting circumcised, he won't be alone, in fact, by the time he is in school the intact boys will be the majority.
Research circumcision before it's too late. It's a scary, scary thing to do to a child.
And watch a video, that usually changes everyone's mind.
THIS. YOU ARE MAKING A HORRIBLE CHOICE IF YOU DECIDE TO HAVE IT DONE. Do your research, watch the video and dont mutilate your perfect WHOLE baby boy. Leave him alone, leave him perfect, the way he was born is the way he should be left.
First off, I think looking like daddy is a perfectly good reason to get it done. It's your baby, your decision.
Secondly, ours was not done with a plastibell so it may have been the other. Like pl's said, gauze and TUBE Vaseline. So much easier. Our pedi also advised us to keep pulling the remaining foreskin back to make sure it didn't reattach. (I thi I they leave more than they used to for future sexual pleasure or something...)
Hi Mama,
Please look into this procedure more. It is your job as a mother to research anything and everything done to your son.
First of all, NO MEDICAL ORGANIZATION in the WORLD (including the American Pediatric Association) recommends infant circumcision. There is no medical benefit and it is actually incredibly painful. Even with the best pain control, the baby can feel the pain very intensely. Babies cannot go under anesthesia so they are awake for the whole thing. I have personally set in on a circumcision during rotations in nursing school and let me tell you- the baby screamed like I have never heard a baby scream before. It was loud, sounded scared- and shuddered. Look at your baby, why would you put him through that for a cosmetic surgery?
Let me tell you about the procedure. It involves driving a blunt object in between the penis and foreskin. In babies, these two parts are adhered together like a fingernail is to your finger. Then a clamp crushes the foreskin and in snipped off. And the baby is screaming and crying the whole time. The female equivalent would be removing the inner labias and the clitoral hood. In fact, the male foreskin contains most of the sensitive nerve endings in the penis and chopping it off removes a LOT of the sensitivity. The foreskin HAS A FUNCTION. It is not just some flap of skin. Think about this: If men were meant to have foreskins, then they would be born with them!
My husband is circumcised. My son is NOT. I dont know about your family, but my family does not consist of whipping out penises and comparing them at family get togethers. Just because your husband is does not mean your child has to be. Those are HIS genitals. He can decide when he is old enough if he wants the procedure done. Let it be HIS choice. I am sorry your husband did not get a choice in the cosmetic surgery his parents done to him, but it is not too late to give your son a choice.
Please check out the links the previous poster left. It is your job as a parent to look at both sides of this argument before implementing it on your child. He was born perfect the way he is.
so if his nose doesnt look like dads, youll get his plastic surgery?? and when is he ever going to see dads penis to know his is different? if anything, youll be needing to explain that dads is mutilated and his is normal....
YOU ARE IGNORANT AND NEED TO DO YOUR RESEARCH FROM A CREDIBLE SOURCE.
This is not true. Personal experience- my brother is 15 and my mom didn't circumcise him because her insurance didn't cover the procedure done in the hospital, so she figured she'd "let him decide later". Now he hates it and wishes he was circumcised, but who really wants that done when they are older and can remember? They do numb the area. My son did not cry during or after the procedure.
Don't let the one person who created multiple accounts and made all the "1 posts" above scare you. Do do some research, but decide what is best for your family. All the organizations that "don't recommend" it are also not against it either. It is up to you.
Cupcake I'm a physician and I have actually read and understood the literature (clearly by your prior comments you are not able to comprehend it), and if you read my post, you would see I have actually performed the procedure so I'm a little more qualified to comment on how it's done lol. Like I said before, there are benefits, but they are not huge therefore it's not recommended by the AAP or the AAU. This is one of those decisions where there is no obviously "right" answer. This isn't a recommendation against it, it is a statement that the benefits are not strong enough to recommend it. I'm not sure why this is so difficult to understand for you. It's a personal decision and attacking someone either way is stupid IMO. I'm an advocate for patient's receiving accurate information prior to decisions, whatever they decide. I have no interest in swaying people as you clearly do.
Is it bad that I giggled at this post? I am not one sided in either direction. Do what you want for your child. However, this picture is a joke. Maybe I was done like this in 1950, but I watched them do the plastibell on my son and it was nothing too bad. They numbed him, he didn't cry, they put it on, he didn't cry. He nursed normal afterwards and was not upset in any bit. That includes the to weeks it took to fall off. He also wasnt strapped down.
My brother wasnt circumcised, and has had numerous infections due to him not washing properly. 13 year olds will do that and they won't want mommy to do it. He made the decision to get circumsised. He is now 35 and doesn't regret it. But did help educate our decision.
There are NO PROVEN health benefits from circumcision. If it's STD's you're worried about, then teach your children to wear condoms. Condoms work FAR better than circumcision. Circumcised boys/men CAN get STD'S too. Circumcision does not protect anyone from them. And penile cancer rates??? Ha, MORE babies die from circumcision every year, than men die from penile cancer every year.
Please show me a video of a circumcision where the baby is all gooing and gaga'ing and having a fine time. Yeah, they don't exist. And believe me, if they did, the pro-circ'ers would have them all over the place. If a baby seems to be sleeping through circumcision, HE'S IN SHOCK. There is no peaceful way to cut off someones genitals, with very little to no pain medication. And as a doctor, you should know that a newborn cannot have the adequate amount of pain medication for the procedure to be completely painless. It's not possible.
Oh and stupid people, huh? We're stupid for not wanting baby boys to have their genitals cut on? Yeah, that sounds real stupid.
Well, what if daddy has a missing finger, or arm? It would be fine to remove the babies too then, right? I mean if daddy is missing a body part, then of course JR, should match daddy.
But honestly, baby penises do not look anything like adult penises. And by the time the boys penis even starts to resemble an adult penis, i highly doubt he will want to compare penises. And i guarantee you, he won't want part of his cut off so it will match daddy's.The same "benefits" of male circumcision has also been said about female circumcision in cultures who practice it. And the benefits are not ENOUGH for medical associations to endorse it.
Look. HIS body, HIS choice. Let your son make his own decision about his own body. But if you believe all the crap people are saying about the supposed benefits, well better make an appointment for yourself to get your clitoral hood and inner labias removed (which is the equivalent for foreskin.) With those things gone it will essentially "dry" up your vulva and you will not have to clean it as much OR get as many infections! Woo! Oh whats that? You don't mind washing your vagina or getting medicine if an infection arises? WELL IM SURE YOUR SON WILL NOT EITHER.
To BiscuitEater21: Look into WHY 67% of American are not circumcising as of 2009. Look at WHY people like myself and other posters feel so strongly about not doing this. I have absolutely NOTHING to gain from your son's penis being saved so I am sharing all this info on it out of pure passion about saving babies- unlike the "doctor" here who makes profits doing it. I am not saying the other mothers who have obviously cut their kids and are defending it are bad mothers. I almost cut my own son until I learned more about the procedure he was going under when my OBGYN talked with me. A lot of people are not informed about the procedure and how it is very optional. I believe when you know better, you do better- and now that you know your options- you can make an informed decision.
Look at this article. https://www.drmomma.org/2011/08/intact-or-circumcised-significant.html It compares circumcised and intact penises. Has great pictures and details.
While I agree that many of the people on this thread went a little overboard, considering the emotional mess a mother is in right after giving birth, I did loads of research on this subject prior to having my son and the facts don't lie. While this is a subject I am very passionate about, given the research, yelling at each other is not going to get anyone anywhere.
It was widely once considered to be a great idea for reasons such as decreased cancer rates and infections, etc...but this is false information. There are ZERO health benefits to circumsizing a boy. The studies do not show decreased rates of anything. The most common misconception is similar in nature and is that it gets infected, etc due to the extra skin folds. This is surely the most ridiculous. As females, we have far more going on down there and (hopefully) manage to keep it clean. Its the same thing. Folds are folds. Cleanliness is cleanliness.
As far as boys being self conscience about their intact penis's, it is uneducated people that cause them to feel that way. More men are intact than not. Most people just don't go around talking about their kids penis's when there's nothing to talk about, like caring for a circumcision. Looking like daddy is a poor excuse to remove a part of an infants genitals. If he doesn't have his nose would you change that as well? Of course not. If a grown kid has a problem with his penis, he can make the decision to have it cut later. Will it hurt? Hell yeah it will. He can put on his big boy pants and take it like a man. If you wouldnt expect a man to undergo that type of horrific pain, why should we put our infants through it? Just because they won't remember it? It won't hurt any less.
Do research. Lots.
*yawn* this isn't even good enough to microwave popcorn. trolling fail.
You are so right and I am so wrong... Let me go mourn the foreskin of my son's penis.
Seriously!? Our pedi gave us the spiel of it not being necessary, blah, blah, blah, and we said yes anyway. After it was done he told us circumcision was linked to lower rates of UTI's and STD's, which I already knew because I researched a lot. Turns out you can find research to back up nearly all opinions on this matter, not just yours.
And for your curiosity's sake, DH will be the one potty training our son and I'd say leading by example would require him to see his Father's penis.
Additionally, most everyone in our area Is circumcised, I'd hate to think of the emotional toll it would take on our little guy to be different than others in the locker room and be ridiculed for it.
She is the mother and it is her decision, just like I owned my decision and you own yours. Bottom line, my statement was aimed at the original poster, hoping she wouldn't be bullied in either direction. And making someone fear hurting their child (btw, our son didn't cry, barely even flinched) is bullying of the worst kind.
SMH. So much ignorance in this thread (I'd laugh if it wasn't so sad). There's no need to co a circ. The health benefits have been proven to be so minuscule that the AAP deems it unnecessary. Anyone claiming otherwise is working with outdated information (or working their own agenda (i.e. getting paid for the procedure)). I know tons of pediatricians (from med school, hospitals, and health centers) and none of them recommend circ's.
The "its my kid, my decision" is a lame excuse. This isn't deciding what your kid wears, eats, or where they go to school. This is chopping off a piece of your son's body. What makes you think you should have the right to mutilate your son?
Wow! The ignorance is strong with you! Sorry I don't support meaningless cosmetic procedures on those who are unable to voice their opinions.
Good luck in your mutilation goals in 2012!
Oh, you got me! I can fix my typing mistake but can you fix your ignorance? I surely hope so.
Have a nice day!
Live. Love. Laugh.
I think you need the mirror more than I. You're the one who came in and still continues to be butt hurt that someone dares to question your choice. I simply stated the facts that it is unnecessary and has minimal benefits. This appearently rustled your jimmies.
Plastibell device, Gomco clamp, and the Mogen clamp are the three most common methods. However, the Plastibell and Gomco have resulted in the deaths of several children. Plastibell has caused necrotizing fasciitis (gangrene) and been involved in degloving (removing all the skin) on the penis. The Mogen clamp has been involved in multiple penile amputation lawsuits where children lost some or all of their penises.
Gomco and Mogen remove the foreskin by crush injury, meaning it crushes the skin to aid in the amputation of the foreskin. The FDA has received at least 20 complaints about the Mogen causing permanent damage or penile amputation in infants. Gomco was responsible for the death Ryleigh McWillis (his autospy report is available online if you wish to Google it).
Plastibell removes the foreskin by inducing necrosis, meaning it creates dead tissue in the penis and the foreskin rots off in a few days to a few weeks. Plastibell is often called a noncutting method of circumcision but it does involve cutting. Plastibell killed a boy in Ontario few years back by blocking his urethra and causing multi-organ failure.
Cauterization may be an option but this is not recommended as at least 8 boys, including David Reimer (google him), lost their penises that way and were reassigned as female because their penises were damaged beyond repair.
Circumcision of a child is an extremely dangerous surgery because the foreskin makes up 50% of the penile skin and even one centimeter can make a life altering difference. Not to mention, an infant can only lose 2.3 ounces of blood before they exsanguinate (bleed to death). Pain killers are a dangerous area to venture into because with pain killers, they can overdose or go into cardiac arrest, and without pain killers, they can go into shock and die. No medical association in the world recommends infant circumcision.
Here are informative videos of the 3 most common methods of circumcision (Gomco, Plastibell, and Mogen)
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xf2jkc_gomco-infant-circumcision-with-afte_people
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xk8q2v_plastibell-infant-circumcision_news
https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7156727590201060393#
Not a pretty sight, I know. I really don't have an opinion on which one is better, but these should at least give you a better understanding. Unfortunately very few doctors in the U.S. use pain relief for the procedure, so that's something you should talk to your doctor about. It used to be believed that babies don't feel pain. More recent studies have shown their nervous systems are actually hyper-sensitive and they do feel everything.
If you wait until he is 6 months old, he can get anesthesia. I do not know about the difference in cost, but I believe this is how it is done in Australia and Canada. The U.S. is the only country where this is still done to newborns on such a large scale. It's virtually unheard of throughout most of the world, and its dropped to about half or possibly less in America. Here is a link to most recent circumcision rates by state, and if you hold the curser over your state on the map, you'll see what percentage of boys were circumcised in 2009 (most recent stats known). No matter where you live and what you decide your sons will have both cut and intact friends, so the locker room issue really isn't an issue like it used to be (although every guy I've ever talked to about it says they NEVER look at each other naked!)
https://mgmbill.org/statistics.htm
I have to say caring for an intact penis is super easy, as I'm sure you've noticed in the past 5 weeks of course. You never have to retract it or clean it in any special way. Both of my little brothers are intact, even though their dad is circumcised, and BTW the only response one of them ever had to their difference in that area was "Daddy why is there a boo-boo on your pee-pee?" My mom explained why in an appropriate for a 3-year-old sort of way, and he later thanked her for not letting any doctors cut his skin off. My brothers are now 11 and 7 with no issues and have definitely never expressed any displeasure at having been left the way they were born. I know this is only a personal anectote, but the same could be said for billions of men throughout the world, since 80-90% are NOT circumcised worldwide and only a fraction of a percent of them ever have problems with their complete anatomy.
Obviously this is an emotional issue, but I would never fault a mother for making this choice for her son. There is a lot of old information floating around and it is pushed on newborns as the "right thing to do" for all sorts of reasons, but really because it makes doctors something like 300 million a year, and also because admitting something we've been doing routinely for so long is wrong, is pretty damn hard, especially for circumcised men and mothers of circumcised boys.
Please consider thinking about it from a fresh perspective. What other body part could we justify surgically modifying at birth in order to prevent ailments that may or may not occur, or just because they look ugly? A friend of mine had a baby boy a few weeks ago and was pressured into circumcising by a family member, and now feels horrible about it. She's not the first person this has happened to, and it breaks my heart that this is still pushed, even though it is backed by zero medical organizations, at the expense of the most vulnerable and innocent and their mothers who want nothing but the best for them.
Please consider leaving your baby boy the way you made him - the risks are just the same as having complete female genitalia, while the risks of surgery on a tiny baby are numerous. He can always choose to have it done later (WITH pain relief) but he cannot choose to undo it. I know looking like daddy can be important but unless your baby is humungous and hairy their genitals will certainly not match during potty-training no matter what you choose to do. But maybe they'll have the same eyes, or the same smile.
I'm sorry to see your question turned into an angry debate, but I hope you've found this helpful. Best wishes to you and your little one!
Hmmm....a doctor who gets PAID to perform routine infant circ.....is pro-circ?!? NO WAY!? Note the sarcasm.
A lot of excellent info has been posted here already. I beg of you to stay up all night if you have to and research. If you go through with this, you are violating your baby's basic human right. Circumcision is not a "parenting choice". It's not right for you to be in charge of this decision. If your son wants 1/3 of his penis cut off....let HIM make that decision. My husband is circ'd. My son is intact. He was born perfect and we felt no need to mess with that. My husband is a passionate intactivist after doing research.
This procedure is cruel and unusual. It's physically and emotionally abusive and as far as I'm concerned, a sex crime. Do you want that weight on your shoulders???
Think about this....should we start giving babies routine appendectomies....because they *might* need one later on? What about baby girls? Routing mastectomies because they will possibly develop breast cancer? It's the SAME thing. Please. Respect your sweet baby boy's body and leave it alone.