When we were at the hospital shortly following the birth of our son they came in to take him for his circumcision. I balked. Emotions were high as I was holding him and I just couldn’t fathom doing something so horrible. Granted, I had the previous nine months to have researched this, but in that moment… I knew I did not want to send our precious boy away to do anything that would cause him pain. In the end, the procedure was done and I had to rely on my calm, level-headed husband’s guidance.
The hospital told us the care guidelines for the circumcision. We were to leave the p*nis alone for the first several days and apply vaseline so the diaper would not stick to the area. Easy enough. We did that and seemed to be healing up fine. But as several healthy-baby pediatric visits went by I was troubled at the fact that the doctor had to loosen (or un-attach) the for*skin each time. And each time it would seem to be worse and more painful to do. When our son was 15 months old our family doctor said that we were likely candidates for a second circumcision since we couldn’t seem to get the area to heal without re-attaching. I. WAS. DEVASTATED.
I asked the doctor what I could do so that I might possibly be able to avoid the second procedure. He recommended bringing the p*nis fully out of the sheath and cleaning it once a day and then applying vaseline at the bottom of the head. I decided to follow those directions but to also add two more times per day when I brought the p*nis completely out. So during a regular day I would clean it three times and apply vaseline once. This simple change in how I was caring for our son has made the difference. He has healed 100% and we have avoided the second circumcision.
THE BOTTOM LINE: To heal a circumcision, we have to clean the p*nis by bringing it completely out of the for*skin daily (or more as needed) and applying vaseline until completely healed.
My hope is that all of you new moms- and moms to be can read this and see how SIMPLE caring for your son can be. If only I had proper instructions from the start (where is that baby handbook anyway!) all of the painful appointments for our son could have been avoided.
What about baby care have you learned that no one told you?
I totally agree! We did have to do a 2nd circ bc if the same lack of care instructions. It was horrible to put our son through a second time. My husband and I decided that for our little guy, we needed to apply vaseline and pull the skin back every diaper change. Still after the 2nd circ, we had terrible instructions, and it honestly almost healed back badly again. Thank you for posting and getting this info out there!
Thanks for adding your tips too! You had it so much harder and were my inspiration through all of this! xo