What were your medical reasons for circumcising?

[iwiamandaiwi]

Originally Posted by kushie tushie Personal means for that person. Circed boys dont made that decision. Also I dont see where anyone was bashing circ-ers Many posters were talking medical reasons. There are few reasons and they are minimal thats all those mamas were pointing out. Amanda . Blaming my phone for typos and crap.

it is a personal choice that a mother makes for her child. just like any other parenting choice. and with that i better leave because I do not want to get into a cat fight over something so dumb...

[tinyblackdot]

I think that no matter what as long as a mother is making an educated choice, she is making the best choice for her child. Be that circ, or Bfing, or Cding, or Vaxing, or whatever it is.....there are many things that would not be ok or work in our family, and there many things that we had planned and where not able to do or that didnt work out for us. No mother should be made to feel like she is making or has made a bad or unsafe choice for her child just because you made a different one.

[kushie tushie]

Originally Posted by iwiamandaiwi it is a personal choice that a mother makes for her child. just like any other parenting choice. and with that i better leave because I do not want to get into a cat fight over something so dumb...

I wasnt fighting. I was saying a personal decision is something one decided for ones self.

Amanda . Blaming my phone for typos and crap.

[Joyful Tie Dyes]

Originally Posted by iwiamandaiwi ugh, just now reading over this thread and I see that , as usual, it has turned into a bash everyone who dares to circ thread. the OP did not ask for that, she simply asked for medical reasons why we diecided to circ. I reaqlly need to stay away from these circ threads, they make me so angry. You should be ashamed of yourselves for trying to make mamas who chose to circ feel bad about it. It is a personal decision and should be respected. You act as though they are murdering their children for gods sake...

I don't see any bashing and you can't make a PERSONAL decision for someone else. I agree 100% that making the personal choice to circ should be respected...as long as the person with the penis is the one making the decision.

Originally Posted by iwiamandaiwi it is a personal choice that a mother makes for her child. just like any other parenting choice. and with that i better leave because I do not want to get into a cat fight over something so dumb...

See above.

I would NEVER consider permanently altering my child (for any reason) something too "dumb" to discuss.

In answer to the OP's question:

DH had severe hypospadias. In his case (and over 30 years ago) the foreskin was used in the repair. I don't believe that is common practice anymore.

[AnimalHouse]

Originally Posted by iwiamandaiwi general anesthesia scares the crap out of me. i would much rather have it done after they are born and avoid that. i am sorry your son is having to go through this My two sons were circed after birth and a numbing agent was used on both and they were born at different hospitals. I did it for many reasons. the cancer risk and infection risk were among those reasons. If this next child is a boy he will also be circed for the same reasons. Honestly my boys did not seem to be bothered too much by the procedure and once it was over it did not seem to be very painful to them during the healing process. I think it is a necessary discomfort that will benefit them greatly in the long run.

GA scares me, too .

[blackbirdmama*3]

Originally Posted by DesertRat Here's a link that talks about several studies that were done about normal retraction. http://www.cirp.org/library/normal/ I think it's important that parents know in case they come across misinformed doctors. When DS's ped said he'd have to be circumcised, I knew it didn't sound right, but it had been so long since I'd read anything about it. Thankfully I came home and googled the info and found these studies. But for a parent who doesn't know and just trusts their doctor, it pains me to think there are doctors out there circumcising boys for being totally normal. And for the OP, I know this probably seems like I'm getting off-topic. But, when discussing the need for circumcision, there are so many people who say they know someone who had to be circumcised as a child or adult, to the point it feels like an epidemic. And since it appears to be such a common problem, I think some parents are talked into circumcising their infant b/c they feel that problems are almost inevitable. Unfortunately, I think a lot of the "medical necessity" for late circumcisions stems from doctors not knowing any better, or from forcibly retracting which causes problems that do require circumcision. I think it's important to point out that when an intact penis is cared for properly (ie: left alone!) the chance of problems is incredibly rare!

Thank you for this link! My ds2 is almost 8 and his still does not retract. I have been getting anxious about it. I am nervous about it because we did very minimally retract to clean when he was an infant because I didn't know any better.

[aimeeturd]

Ricki Lake is talking about circumcision on today's show.

[JennTheMomma]

Medical reasons would be abnormatlities and other complications with the foreskin or urethra. But those don't all require a circumcision, in fact, very little do. One of my son's has a urethra abnormality, but no action is required as he can pee just fine, has never had any penile infections or bladder infections. It is just something you keep an eye on until you know exactly how it will affect the child.

"Benefits" like UTIs, penile cancer, STDs, etc can be reduced by proper hygeine, safer sex, and education. Also, penile cancer is cancer of the penis, not the foreskin (there is foreskin cancer, which is even rarer than penile cancer which is rare to begin with). Statistics show men are more likely to develop breast cancer then they are penile cancer.

As for performing the circumcision, hospitals here do not use any sort of numbing agent. I've never heard of a hospital using a spinal block, only numbing creams and sprays.

[Minniebees]

The standard of care requires use of anesthesia for circs. As a Ped dh has done, gosh, I don't even know if I can guess how many circs. The military has a 90+% circ rate, and he spent 6 years either observing or solely performing them. I don't know how many newborns have been in his care over the years, and approx 50% of them are boys, and most military families circ. So who knows? But he was taught to always use a nerve block (injection), to always wait for it to take effect. They also use a numbing cream before the nerve block. We know a lot of Peds, obviously, and I don't know any who would even think not to use pain meds. Like I said, it's the standard of care. I've never met a Ped who enjoys hurting babies, but I guess that's just me.

Having said that, they don't use pain meds for all procedures, like spinal taps. If your baby under 30 days gets a UTI, they will get a lumbar puncture, and without pain meds. I've known NICU docs who don't do them for chest tubes, either (which drives dh crazy, he's all about pain control in the NICU). When you have general Peds who don't deal with procedures like intensive care docs do on sick patients, they are often not comfortable handing out meds they don't use much when the child has a condition they don't see often, so they err on the side of caution most times. But for healthy kids and circs, it's standard of care. Any docs not doing it, are not following the rules.

I think when the AAP came out with their new policy recently, they mentioned specific studies and risks. The OP could look there. There was another article, was it the NY Post? That had a piece on the rising costs of health care as circs go down, and they listed a ton of studies there, too. It also might be useful to look up rates of UTI's in newborns, including the rates of hospitalizations, death and so on. Any infection in a newbie can be a life threatening event very quickly. And they are not always easily taken care of in newborns with antibiotics. Then you have to decide, are those risk greater than the risk of circ? That what all of us parents do with every decision we make for our kids, a basic risk/benefit analysis.

I don't ever personally state my circ position on the internet because it squicks me out that people can then infer what my son's penis is like, and that seems like a gross violation of his privacy. Maybe because he's so much older now it feels like it should be kept private, so I won't say what we chose to do. But we did read the research, look at the risks from circs, which are very real, the potential benefits, and then made a decision based on what we thought was better medically.

If you want some real advice about information, OP, stay off of parenting boards, and try some journal articles, policy statements, talk to several medical professionals (Peds and urologists would be a good place to start), check out government agencies that collect raw data and so on and so forth. IMO, parenting boards are not a good place to do research, people are too emotional about their pet topic, and every parent has something, whether is it car seats, or circs or whatnot. Good luck with your decision.

[jaelynsmommy61607]

Originally Posted by Minniebees The standard of care requires use of anesthesia for circs. As a Ped dh has done, gosh, I don't even know if I can guess how many circs. The military has a 90+% circ rate, and he spent 6 years either observing or solely performing them. I don't know how many newborns have been in his care over the years, and approx 50% of them are boys, and most military families circ. So who knows? But he was taught to always use a nerve block (injection), to always wait for it to take effect. They also use a numbing cream before the nerve block. We know a lot of Peds, obviously, and I don't know any who would even think not to use pain meds. Like I said, it's the standard of care. I've never met a Ped who enjoys hurting babies, but I guess that's just me. Having said that, they don't use pain meds for all procedures, like spinal taps. If your baby under 30 days gets a UTI, they will get a lumbar puncture, and without pain meds. I've known NICU docs who don't do them for chest tubes, either (which drives dh crazy, he's all about pain control in the NICU). When you have general Peds who don't deal with procedures like intensive care docs do on sick patients, they are often not comfortable handing out meds they don't use much when the child has a condition they don't see often, so they err on the side of caution most times. But for healthy kids and circs, it's standard of care. Any docs not doing it, are not following the rules. I think when the AAP came out with their new policy recently, they mentioned specific studies and risks. The OP could look there. There was another article, was it the NY Post? That had a piece on the rising costs of health care as circs go down, and they listed a ton of studies there, too. It also might be useful to look up rates of UTI's in newborns, including the rates of hospitalizations, death and so on. Any infection in a newbie can be a life threatening event very quickly. And they are not always easily taken care of in newborns with antibiotics. Then you have to decide, are those risk greater than the risk of circ? That what all of us parents do with every decision we make for our kids, a basic risk/benefit analysis. I don't ever personally state my circ position on the internet because it squicks me out that people can then infer what my son's penis is like, and that seems like a gross violation of his privacy. Maybe because he's so much older now it feels like it should be kept private, so I won't say what we chose to do. But we did read the research, look at the risks from circs, which are very real, the potential benefits, and then made a decision based on what we thought was better medically. If you want some real advice about information, OP, stay off of parenting boards, and try some journal articles, policy statements, talk to several medical professionals (Peds and urologists would be a good place to start), check out government agencies that collect raw data and so on and so forth. IMO, parenting boards are not a good place to do research, people are too emotional about their pet topic, and every parent has something, whether is it car seats, or circs or whatnot. Good luck with your decision.

I always enjoy your posts.