As the mom of a girl and an intact boy....

[BlessedMommy2006]

I can definitely say that the intact boy is easier to keep clean and more hygienic than the girl.

My son is just easy to care for and hardly ever even gets much diaper irritation or anything. He's just clean, healthy, and normal.

It just amazes me how simple it truly is to care for an intact boy, but a lot of sources like to make it sound like rocket science.

Hmm...and another thought I have as the mom of a boy and a girl is that in almost 3 years my girl has never gotten a UTI or yeast infection or anything, even though she's supposed to be more prone to them than a boy.

So how much sense does it make to circ a boy to prevent something that happens to girls more?

[ChickyMama]

Originally Posted by BlessedMommy2006

So how much sense does it make to circ a boy to prevent something that happens to girls more?

Good point!

I agree, an intact boy is easier to clean than a girl!

~Diana

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

The scrotum is what always got me. All those wrinkles and having to move it all around to make sure you got the poo out of all the cracks. That to me was just as hard as dealing with dd's folds.

The penis was a breeze just wipe from base to tip like a finger and done.

[susienjay]

Both seem pretty easy to me. I have 4 girls and 2 intact boys. Girls have more folds but boys have a scrotum that can take about as long to clean for a really messy diaper. With the 2 I have in diapers right now I'd say my dd is easier. She comes and lays down nicely and rarely sticks her hands in the diaper area. My son is 18 months and the minute the diaper is off his hands are on his penis. If he's messy I have to add washing his hands to a diaper change. And the minute his hands come off the penis he is wriggling around ready to be up. (my older son rarely did this kind of thing even at the same age)

None of my kids have ever had a UTI and 3 of them are preemies which are supposedly more prone to UTIs as well.

[Nandi]

Really if you're not told by someone to retract, it really seems like a weird idea. It never occurred to me in the hundreds of diapers I've changed.

[Dreamer]

I agree 100%!! I have one circ'd son, one intact, and our newest little girl was a WHOLE new experience for me come diaper time! I literally had to phone a friend!! We've never had issue 1 with ds2's intactness. I honestly don't think I've ever needed to even touch his penis but like maybe 5 times in the 2 years he's been around!

[Vancouver Mommy]

I was thinking exactly the same thing this morning! My son had his first (totally normal) penis irritation today. DD had way more problems with redness and irritation and nobody ever suggested a surgical alteration to prevent it.

[BlessedMommy2006]

Originally Posted by susienjay

Both seem pretty easy to me. I have 4 girls and 2 intact boys. Girls have more folds but boys have a scrotum that can take about as long to clean for a really messy diaper. With the 2 I have in diapers right now I'd say my dd is easier. She comes and lays down nicely and rarely sticks her hands in the diaper area. My son is 18 months and the minute the diaper is off his hands are on his penis. If he's messy I have to add washing his hands to a diaper change. And the minute his hands come off the penis he is wriggling around ready to be up. (my older son rarely did this kind of thing even at the same age)

None of my kids have ever had a UTI and 3 of them are preemies which are supposedly more prone to UTIs as well.

Usually for a really messy diapers, I wash him off in his bathtub. That's probably why I haven't found the scrotum to add much work.

[kriket]

I agree. With girls you have to be aware of how you are wiping so you don't push feces into somewhere it shouldn't. Boys you can wipe willy-nilly. No pun intended!

[jessjgh1]

I think if someone is so concerned about hygiene issues, they better PRAY (or whatever) they don't end up with a girl. That arguement makes no sense to me.
Young women/teens also have to deal with a lot more than the simple retract, rinse, replace issue an intact young man does.
The whole hygeine issue is just crazy to me.
Jessica

[PuppyFluffer]

I didin't find girls hard to clean and diaper but I had two of them first. Then I had the little dude and I found the squishy nature of the scrotum harder to deal with. With girls, things are relatively stable. Boy stuff moves around on you!

I am lucky that my diapering set up is on my bathroom counter and I just popped a poopy butt right in the sink for a nice rinse and didn't have to wipe and wipe to clean a messy diaper. A rinse in the sink is much easier I think.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Wish I had thought of the :

[PuppyFluffer]

Yes, I have a single sink on one side and a long counter. It's one of those one piece molded countertops with the sink all one part. I got one of those table top changing pads with the belt - though I NEVER leave the baby there. I've got a shelf right next to that with all diapering supplies at my fingertips. It makes it easy. He's a year old now and I hadn't had to put his bottom in the sink for a while now that his stools are firmer but shortly after I posted my last post here last night, I did indeed have to put his bottom in the sink. Much easier!

Regardless of your set up or how you do things, diapering an intact baby is so easy!

[RunnerDuck]

I really don't think the gender or intact status of the child matters so much as what the child has been eating... I have an intact boy and 2 (intact!) girls and when you're dealing with ie crumbly blueberry poo that just seems to move around and not really come off... it sucks either way.

The wrinkly balls are a force to be reckoned with but as long as the poo comes off easily it's OK. I have to say one of my first thoughts when I knew I was having girls was that wiping their parts at diaper time was going to be hard - but I find the "lips" tend to keep a lot of poo out and it's rare I really need to get inside and poke around to clean them.

I have never experienced a diaper change where I thought "Wow, this would have gone a lot more smoothly if he had been circumsized!!" Usually I just think "Dammit, why did I feed him/her so many blueberries..."

[jessjgh1]

Originally Posted by RunnerDuck

I have never experienced a diaper change where I thought "Wow, this would have gone a lot more smoothly if he had been circumsized!!" Usually I just think "Dammit, why did I feed him/her so many blueberries..."

AFter cleaning up a circumcised toddler (around 2 years old) I'd never think that, although people REALLY do think that cleaning an intact penis is harder, that's how messed up things are.
Anyways, my friends mom was gone for just an hour so she didn't even think to send him with a change since he'd just gone. However, he came down with some yucky diarrhea poopy and it took me forever to get him cleaned up. I would have preferred to have just washed him in the sink/tub but as he was not feeling well and he wasn't my child, I didn't feel comfortable doing that.
It was _very_ difficult to get the poop out around the ridge. It was not easy to clean up anywhere, but it was especially difficult there.

It sure made me thankful my ds is intact and it took that for me to realize how completely ridiculous the myth that it is easier to clean circumcised boys are.
I've always thought that was a bit ridiculous, but I didn't really realize it was completely the OPPOSITE, that it is actually EASIER to clean intact boys.

And yes it makes me angry- because it is just ridiculous that so many people think this and use it as one of many excuses based on misconceptions to justify this.
Jessica

[PuppyFluffer]

While we're on the diapering issue. I found in the newborn period when they still have meconium, if you put a little cream or a layer of olive oil on their bottom, the meconium doesn't stick and it's so much easier to clean them off.

[ChickyMama]

Originally Posted by PuppyFluffer

While we're on the diapering issue. I found in the newborn period when they still have meconium, if you put a little cream or a layer of olive oil on their bottom, the meconium doesn't stick and it's so much easier to clean them off.

That is a good tip, it would probably help at other stages too.

~Diana

[leila1213]

Originally Posted by PuppyFluffer

While we're on the diapering issue. I found in the newborn period when they still have meconium, if you put a little cream or a layer of olive oil on their bottom, the meconium doesn't stick and it's so much easier to clean them off.

My sister (& co) did that with her baby (girl) and it worked really well.

[kriket]

Originally Posted by RunnerDuck

The wrinkly balls are a force to be reckoned with