a little survey - circumcision?

[Sadie]

Without being biased or judgmental or anything else one reading this might assume... I was hoping to get an informal survey of people to post whether or not they circumcised their sons (without giving reasons for or against doing so). I am just curious! And, to be the first, I did not.

UPDATE - I was hoping for just some yes or no answers... I just checked this discussion after not reading it for a while. Seems to have gotten a little heated and/or weird. So, I am closing it. Thanks for the responses!

[Shag]

My son is almost 10 weeks old. I did not have him circumcized. The thought of performing cosmetic surgery on someone so helpless just seemed wrong to me. I did not defer to my husband, or anything. My feelings on this are much stronger than his, and so my wishes prevailed. I wouldn't give my baby a Prince Albert, so why cut off part of his penis?

[TrixieGirl3]

I am a CNA, working at a nursing home. One of my responsibilities is to clean the residents, some of whom are male. In my experience, the uncircumcised males most often are not properly cleaned, leading to build up of a lot of nasty gunk and sometimes even infection. I would be more worried about getting staph infection of that than when they are babies. To me that is a perfectly legit reason for why we are making the decision to circumcise our sons.

[Hugh7]

Well, TrixieGirl3, if one of your responsibilities is to clean the residents, and in your experience some are not properly cleaned, what are you saying? I'm sure every nurse has much worse things to do than clean under a man's foreskin - round the back, just for starters. If "some of them are male" then some are female - do you suggest cutting parts off female babies so they will be easier to clean, 70, 80 years later too? And you are right that circumcision is no protection against infection when they are babies, because the foreskin is usually fused to the glans for the first several years of life.

And Cyn-Diego, the "sand under the foreskin" story is an urban myth. You can see more at http://www.circumstitions.com/sand.html

[MamaRocwell]

wow. you need to calm down. why do you get so mad when someone is FOR circumcision. i personally had my son circumcised because of the obvious cosmetic reason- to look like his dad. also, its very common in my own culture to do so. and frankly, i don't care what the opposing argument thinks about what i do to my son because i don't care what they do to theirs. to each his own, right? and im with trixie on this one. i too work in the medical field and seriously its NASTY when an uncircumcised penis is unkept- old or young. i work in a hospital where you don't ever know who's going to be walking in the door next and i see it all the time in uncircumcised men of ALL ages. 2 words people- dick cheese!!! but anyways, it was my own decision to do so. i don't regret doing it and im sure my son wont be bummed out on us one day cuz we decided to do it.

[mrsmiller]

we didn't do it. they didn't ask in the hospital and even if we decide to do it, which we may not, I don't think it's right to do it when they're so young.

[James&Cindy]

We chose circumcision. I am and here in the southeast it is pretty common. I was upset that neither the hospital or our ped warned us about penile adhesions(as to how common and how preventable they are).

[Shelly Cunningham]

My husband was not as an infant, so we didn't circumcise our twin boys, who were born in June. Good luck with your decision!

[Sanibelle]

My husband is Jewish, I am not. I didn't want our son to be circumcised but it was important to my husband (even though he's not at all religious). We had it performed by a mohel. The ceremony was beautiful and moving, but I had NO IDEA that penile adhesions could occur until our pediatrician pulled apart the skin at the six-month appointment and made my son bawl. I was SO upset. He cried for the next couple of days at diaper changes and bathtime. He's eight months old now and we're still pulling back the skin every day and applying vaseline because we're so afraid of it happening again. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have done it and the more I share my story with other parents, the more I hear about other circumcision issues. I don't know why more isn't done to educate parents about what can happen.

[Dutchmom]

We didn't circumcise ours...

[mendoza_line]

we did. they warned us about the possibility of adhesion though, so we cleaned / applied vaseline to prevent it.

[Esther]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and I just had my second child. His name is Josiah and is now six months old. But circumcision was a huge question for me. I did a ton of research. and dh and I were on opposite ends. I said no and he said yes. I wasn't totally against it, but out of fear and not wanting to see my son in pain I decided no.
But when it came time and my son was born , we did circ him. dh took him because I couldn't bare to watch. But when they brought him to the room, he was sleeping and my dh said he barely cried. they used a bell thing that falls off in a week (plastibell I think) Never had a problem with it.
The reason that we decided (I ultimately let dh choose) was because dh is circ'd. and he felt like it was the best for our son.

[Kayt]

We just had our first child three weeks ago. I didn't have a strong opinion about it, so I let my husband choose. He wanted it done, so James is circumcised. To be fair, my parents were hysterical about it. I guess if I had ever had a brother, he wouldn't have been circumcised. My one request was that my husband went with him for the surgery. They gave him a bit of sugar water on a pacifier and a bit of children's tylenol, and he slept right through the surgery. He didn't cry until I changed his diaper for the first time.

Also, we had no problem with adhesion. We just put a bit of Vaseline on his penis at every diaper change for the first two weeks, and it was fine. Good luck with your choice!