This was in response to a West Side Mom member online discussion about circumcision

I’m back, and saw this and of course have to share my experiences.  Again, these are MY personal opinions and experiences.  If you judge me by them, then you need to find a new mom’s group. 
First I have to say that we were talking about the penis a lot during the Vegas weekend.  The discussion was that one person really enjoyed looking at penises, but the rest of us did not.  Other than our own husband’s, of course.

Both of my boys are circumcised.  I wasn’t there for Zander’s original circumsicion, but my mom and Doug were.  I went into the office where he had it done and saw some blood and instruments and it made me squeamish.  They used a plastibell.  I didn’t research my pediatrician, so I just went with the one on call at the hospital.  Big mistake.  The plastibell did not work like it should have and we had to get have it fixed a few weeks later.     I was with him that time.  He sucked on my finger during the procedure and did fine.  Needless to say we never went back to Dublin Pediatrics after that.  We had another issue later on because he was a big baby.  The fat pad on his pubic bone kept his penis retracted all the time. When he started to get erections, the skin stuck together.  Ouch.  No one told me that I should have been pushing the skin back over the head of his penis after the circumcision.  This would not have been an issue if he was a skinny baby.  We treated his penis with A&D ointment and I gently pushed back the skin each morning with the first diaper change.  After he thinned out, no issues.

With Zevan, Doug was home with Zander when the doctor came to do his circumcision, so I went with him.  No anesthesia, just a little sugar water on my finger, and he was fine.  He didn’t cry, just sucked on my finger a whole bunch throughout the procedure.  I did nurse him just before we went in there.  His circumcision was done by hand perfectly.  I knew about pushing the skin back, so we never had problems after that.

And both my boys have beautiful penises now.   

Like Wendy, I have heard personal stories recently from parents of children who have had to had circumcision when they are older for various reasons.  Not hearsay, actual parents I know.  Of course they do their research and would never subject their child to unnecessary surgery.  I know of one medical condition, called phimosis, which is basically tight foreskin.  There are non-surgical treatments for it, but if those are not successful, then circumcision is the alternative.

There are all sorts of reasons for and against circumcision.   The hygiene issue could go either way, really.  Then there is religion/tradition.  (Have you read The Red Tent?  There’s a big circumcision chapter in it).

I’ll be perfectly honest.  Our reasons were tradition and personal preference.  We did it so that the boys would look like their dad.  Because that’s how it was done in both our families.  Because boys in general lack the ability to maintain personal hygiene habits – I don’t want to be cleaning their penises for them past the diaper stage.  Smegma may be healthy, but if you don’t clean your foreskin and it accumulates and gets stale, it gets stinky.  And, because in my life, I’ve seen a number of penises, and the one penis I saw that was uncircumcised looked odd to me.  Again, my opinion.  Lastly,

I believe it is completely up to the parents to decide.  And I believe that Dad should get a weighted vote if the parents disagree.  He has a penis.  Mom does not.  As long as he listens with an open mind to mom, of course.

On a semi-related note, you can also read about my experience when Zander was misdiagnosed with undescended testicles and they wanted to do surgery on him.

I’ll leave you with this:

Highlight of the policy published in Pediatrics, the peer-reviewed, scientific journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

CHICAGO – After analysis of almost 40 years of available medical research on circumcision, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued new recommendations today stating that the benefits are not significant enough for the AAP to recommend circumcision as a routine procedure.

The new policy statement was published in this month’s issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the AAP. “Circumcision is not essential to a child’s well-being at birth, even though it does have some potential medical benefits. These benefits are not compelling enough to warrant the AAP to recommend routine newborn circumcision. Instead, we encourage parents to discuss the benefits and risks of circumcision with their pediatrician, and then make an informed decision about what is in the best interest of their child,” says Carole Lannon, M.D., MPH, FAAP, chair of the AAP’s Task Force on Circumcision. The policy concluded, however, that it is legitimate for parents to take into account cultural, religious and ethnic traditions, in addition to medical factors, when making this decision. It states that to make an informed choice, parents of all male infants should be given accurate information and be provided the opportunity to discuss this decision with their pediatrician.”

Thank you and good night…