Thoughts on circumcision for baby boys ?

It's not a common thing to do in the Uk, unless it's for medical or religious reasons!

We did it and I highly regret it. He cried in pain for days! They don’t deserve that trauma simply to be conformed into what society thinks they should be. That’s my opinion. We did what we thought was right and now I’m incredibly sad we did it.

I did it with my first my second I didn’t

We will never. I find it to be cruel and there’s not enough sound reasoning. It can always be done late in life by choice, it can never be reversed.

Conflicted tbh I asked my mum what should I do but she told me she didn’t circumcise my brother and he later went to get it done. But the thing is with them getting it done later on can set them back etc. My partner said he’s not fussed if we do or not. I think I’m leaning towards my son to get it done though. Just need to research more

Unless medically necessary, I won't be doing it for my son. It's pretty uncommon in the UK anyway (which just goes to show that it's generally not needed)

After I watched the documentary "American circumcision," i knew then that I'd never do it.

We left our son intact and well do the same when our 2nd son comes in May. We definitely do not regret leaving him whole. If you decide against circumcision just do some research on how to take care of it it’s really easy just do not pull the foreskin back! Because that can cause infections.

Your baby. Your choice

We didn’t do it and now at 3 years old one of my twins has phimosis and may need to get one anyway. I’m not really advocating for or against it, just sharing our situation.

My husband is circumcised and for my son we decided not to do it. Has nothing to do with religion or anything else, i was just uncomfortable taking that decision for my son’s body. If he wants to do it when he grows up,thats up to him!

@Chloe my husband had it for at 16 and it didn't ser him back, he just never had the opportunity to be sexually active earlier then he was.

I personally wouldn't circumcise unless it was medically necessary. Think of it this way, would you cut your daughter privates? because that's still a cultural norm in some cultures. It obviously varies place to place to the severity of how they are cut but many within those cultures still believe they are doing it for their daughters good. Where as we see it a mutilation amd barbaric. There are the rare occasions that surgery is needed but medical need for alternations to the privates isn't common

I let my husband decide since they have the same equipment. He decided on circumcision because there were issues of bullying at the all boys summer camp he went to every year growing up. Procidure went well, he healed very quickly

@Genevieve that happened to my oldest son when he was 7…maybe not exactly the same as your son’s situation. He started to complain of feeling uncomfortable, showed me and clearly something was wrong. Took him to ER & basically his foreskin had been pulled back but got so tight it could retract back. They had to medicate him and pull it back in place and luckily it never happened again so far. He’s 9 now. I had always been against circumcising but that def made me rethink everything. When I was pregnant with my 2nd son, now 8 months, I did very seriously consider circumcising him to prevent it from happening to him & my partner wanted to initially. However, once he was born I had a change of heart again & couldn’t do it. Couldn’t imagine putting his tiny body thru that pain & trauma. So he’s not cut either and I’m just hopeful he won’t have the same issue when he’s older.

I have two boys, I chose to not circumcise them. My husband and I had a mutual agreement as he wasn’t circumcised either.

No boys so far but my partner and I did discuss this when we were pregnant (before we knew the gender). Luckily we are both in agreement that it is definitely not for us. We feel it is mutilation unless medically necessary and not a decision a parent, or anyone, should make for another human being.

Uh i didnt but i do properly clean it and have pulled the foreskin to clean since birth with his father teaching me and never had any problems 🙏🙏 I cant imagine hurting my children unless absolutely necessary and dad was a definite no lol

I would only do it if medically necessary!

Absolutely not! It’s so unnecessary both my boys are intact. Just teach to clean properly when they are old enough and there won’t be any issues. I don’t get why you’d willingly cut your child’s foreskin off unless it was medically needed.

My husband had it done and he was so keen for our baby boy to have it as well. I was so scared and angry about it at the time but agreed as he is his son too. After some time I realised it's not so bad. I still love my baby the same regardless so it did not change a thing in the long run. At times I am even glad we did it as I hear from my close family and friends how much they struggle with their son, numerous trips to doctors with problems etc. I think it's really a personal choice. If my husband was not so keen on it I would have probably not done it. We are going to have another boy soon and now I am more happy for him to have it done than it was for the first one. I did say to my husband that he will have to deal with all care and nappy changes until it is healed completely which he was happy to do as I just didn't want to watch my baby in unnecessary pain.

https://www.peanut-app.io/share/AwRdXwoU3Rb Resources on this thread Yourwholebaby.org The Elephant in the Hospital Room on YT Raising Your Whole Baby Facebook group

Routine infant circumcision is unethical.

Definitely watch the American Circumcision documentary. I saw that one too.

@Mariah I took him to our family doctor and got a cream for it that I have to put on twice a day. It has helped, but only with continuous use. I thought it was fixed and stopped using the cream for a bit and it went back to being too tight. He has an appointment with a urologist in September, so we’ll see what they say.

@Genevieve phimosis is not possible prior to puberty. The foreskin is physiologically attached to the glans until puberty starts. Yourwholebaby.org shares the info on it

1 more thing. His body his choice ❤️😉

@Alina that link is very informative, thank you. I think the specific problem he is having is called balanoposthitis. It is clearly causing him pain and is impeding normal penis function. I have twins, so I can make a direct comparison. It requires some sort of treatment, and I’m going to continue to follow the advice of medical professionals.

@Genevieve of course. BTW in the Raising Your Whole Baby group people sometimes post when issues come up and get guidance on navigating care there. At least one RN runs the page. Hope he feels better soon!!

We did it for our son - my husband was uncircumcised until 12 and had to get it done later. My husband was adamant he wanted it done because he found the experience later in life horrible (healing is harder). We went to a clinic that was “pain free” and it was an amazing experience. We were in the room the entire time, I held my babies hand the entire time, he was given a sugar water so it would distract him too, and the doctor was so friendly and nice. They used 2 types of numbing - topical and then injection and my son had zero discomfort and was not only not bothered during the procedure but also afterwards. Honestly my son has had no trauma, the doctors were so gentle, amazing follow up, and my son was and still is always the happiest little boy who now loves showing everyone his penis (he’s 2) 😂 I think if you get this done you have to do EXTENSIVE amounts of research. I researched for months regarding a proper doctor and clinic and we definitely paid a premium for it.

My husband is circumcised and really wanted his son to be as well. I really didn't want to have it done, but in the end I did agree because my husband felt so strongly about it. HOWEVER, they ended up botching my son's surgery and we had to wait until he was 2.5 to go in and do a revision surgery. In hindsight, I really wish I would have fought harder to not have it done. There really is no medical reason these days to have it done in my opinion, and I feel it's mainly done now for cosmetic reasons. I do realize lots of people have their sons circumcised and have no issue whatsoever and I'm more of an outlier, but my personal experience definitely has changed my outlook and opinion on the topic - that's for sure!

Had my son 5 months ago. I let my husband make the call. Don't let people make you feel bad if you choose to have it done. My son never cried, and it was healed in a couple of days. I was worried it would take a long time to heal and look bad, but it didn't.

We agreed that if he wants it when he gets older that we will pay for it, but it's not our place to make that choice for him

I have a friend that her son has had to undergo multiple surgeries to fix their circumcision so I was like nooooooooooope.

Its becoming less and less popular to circumcise in the US but its really not popular to do in other countries. If my kid had a penis we would leave it intact. If its something they want to change later on, they could, but if we circumcise them they cant undo our decision.

I truly wouldn’t ask anyone except your doctor. Everyone has opinions and their own “research” but at the end of the day you can get Google to side with you any day depending on how you word your search. It’s still very common to get in done in the US those moms just don’t talk about it as much cause they get attacked (that information is based off of every single mom I know in my personal life who has a boy in the US)