Do you ever feel judged regarding not circumcising?

[momgoddesswife]

Originally Posted by crunch!910 3 years of age is too early for a diagnosis of phimosis. Boys are born with naturally occurring phimosis that gradually occurs over time, and there is no right age for a boy to be retactable, and generally occurs before age 18, often by puberty. "Almost all boys are born with narrow non-retractile foreskin which are fused with the glans beneath. This is a normal developmental physiological condition and is not a cause for concern. Some parents needlessly worry that the opening is not large enough. Retraction of the foreskin should never be forced. It will retract when it is ready. There is no "right" age for retraction to occur. A narrow non-retractable prepuce in boys is within the normal range of development and usually causes no problems. The prepuce usually will spontaneously widen until complete retractability is obtained. About 50-60 percent of boys at age ten do not have fully retractable foreskins.17 This is normal.17 After puberty, the percentage of boys with full retractability rapidly increases spontaneously.17 If a narrow or non-retractile prepuce becomes a problem, a wide variety of conservative alternative treatments to circumcision are are now available." http://www.cirp.org/library/normal/

Thank you for the information but he had been having issues with it for over a year and also had hernia's on either side which were repaired at the same time. We tried the cream and various other things with no success.

What's done is done and he is 6 now and hasn't had an issue since.

[crunch!910]

Originally Posted by momgoddesswife Thank you for the information but he had been having issues with it for over a year and also had hernia's on either side which were repaired at the same time. We tried the cream and various other things with no success. What's done is done and he is 6 now and hasn't had an issue since.

Glad to hear that other things were tried before jumping straight to circ. Good on you for realizing just because his older brother was circed due to legitimate medical reasons, that you didn't need to do it to the younger. Even if my intact son at any age would have a legitimate need for circ after exhausting other treatment options, I'd never feel guilty for keeping him whole at birth. The whole "what if he needs to be circed later" argument I hear from others when they find out my son is intact is complete bogus to me. I always tell them the chances are less than 1% that he'd "need" to be, and then turn it around, what if I had circed him when he would have never actually needed it, so I put him through an excruciatingly painful procedure for no reason at all. And if they really press the issue, I ask them if they'd have their child's appendix taking out at 3 days old to avoid appendicitis when they are older. They usually think I'm crazy - well that's what I think about performing an unneeded surgery on a baby for something that might and has a very low risk of needing to be treated in the future. /rant

It's a topic that actually came up at my workplace recently (small company and we are all friends and talk about all sorts of personal things together). It was brought up because someone asked me how my son's 9 month well check went and I expressed frustration that the doctor tried to pull back his foreskin. And I explained all this.

[momgoddesswife]

Originally Posted by crunch!910 Even if my intact son at any age would have a legitimate need for circ after exhausting other treatment options, I'd never feel guilty for keeping him whole at birth.

I don't actually feel guilty for not circumcising him at birth even though he did have to endure it at 3, even though it was a difficult recovery mostly just for us to have to look at (It was pretty gruesome)

Our choice to not circumcise has nothing to do with any beliefs or morality etc. It's purely based on the fact that it's not a 100% needed procedure, at the time, so why bother. I just don't see the point in adding that onto the birth experience and having the child go through it.

To our doctors credit both our family doctor and the surgeon all tried various methods before even suggesting the surgery, they also didn't push us to have the surgery even after almost 2 years of difficulty it was my husband and I who finally decided enough was enough and asked to go ahead with it. Since he was having the hernia surgery also it seemed like a good time too.

I still don't think it's anyone's business though and think it's kind of weird that people talk about it but that's just me.