Help with the "it's hard to keep clean" argument.

[WingonWing]

Hello friends,

I need a bit of help. A friend of mine is pregnant, and she has being weighing the circ decision.

Here is what she wrote to me today. Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance!

So I'm not going to have the baby circumcised. I am going to get a bunch of crap from my family on this, like the "he'll be made fun of" which now I know that only 40% of the worlds male population is circumcised and that 40% of the northeast was uncircumcised as of 2006 and those rates are growing. But I need some backup.


What would you say to someone who says "you'll have to work really hard to keep it clean" besides the obvious "it'll be just as clean as it would be without circumcision. Basically I'm looking for backup

[Sasharna]

When someone once asked me about the cleanliness issue, I told her that prior guidelines were a mistake on the parts of medical professionals and these days we know that a baby's intact penis is self-cleaning, requiring no special care at all. That seemed to go over well.

[PuppyFluffer]

Actually, nature's design is wonderful. There is no cleaning beyond wiping off like a finger! The foreskin is adhered to the glans of the penis. It is one structure at this point. They are totally attached, therefore, nothing can get in there to clean out. There is a little tiny bit of an opening that should it get anything in there, will simply be flushed clean with the next passage of urine. Beyond wiping what you can see, there is nothing to do to a baby boy.

Never ever pull the foreskin back. We don't spread the inner labia on a girl and flush her out to clean. That would damage the delicate genital tissue and create irritation and open the skin up to infection. Retracting the foreskin does the exact same thing. There is no reason to pull back to clean.

The only difficult part of diapering a baby boy I have found is the nature of the scrotal skin to move around on you ask you wipe it off. Girl parts are not that squishy.

[Fyrestorm]

You also might want to correct her info a bit...over 80% of the world's men are intact.

[JollyGG]

The majority of the time that someone says this they are referring to retracting the foreskin to clean it.

I usually say something along the lines of -

"You know I thought that too. I'd heard you were supposed to pull the skin back and clean under it. After doing some research I discovered that that's actually harmful and outdated advise. It makes no more sense to retract and clean under the foreskin than it does to to retract and clean under the eyelid. Turns out that proper care is about as complicated as wiping a finger. It's actually easier to care for than a circumcised penis."

[ancoda]

And accually in the case of retracting a babies foreskin to clean underneath it is like ripping back your fingernail to clean underneath.

[tutucrazy]

Care is quite easy. Only clean what is seen. Here is a good video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=367CR4EqyWo

Usually people who are not familiar with the intact boy think that you have to pull back the foreskin to clean. This is not so. In fact pulling it to clean will tear the foreskin and introduce infection. The foreskin is the perfect barrier to keep urine, feces, and other harmful pathogens away from the developing penis. It is firmly attached to the glans (head of penis). Here is something I wrote:

MYTH 2: Having an intact boy means more work and extra cleaning to prevent infection.
TRUTH: It is actually easier to care for an intact boy. Only clean the exterior of an intact boy, a swish in the bath is sufficient. People are severely misinformed about the anatomy of foreskin. During the infant/childhood years the foreskin is fused to the head of the penis (glans) and the opening is only wide enough to allow for urine to pass through. This protects the developing penis from urine, feces, and other harmful pathogens. An intact boy should NEVER be retracted for cleaning or for any other reason. Premature retraction causes tearing, pain, and can result in many complications, including infection. The proper care for the intact penis is to LEAVE IT ALONE, only the exterior gets cleaned. Should poop get on the penis, all you do is wipe it like a finger. Throughout childhood the skin will slowly separate from the glans and the foreskin opening will widen. Self-cleaning excretions prevent the need for cleaning during that time. Through self-discovery a boy will learn to retract his own foreskin. After retraction is possible a boy can easily clean himself with a quick rinse in the same way that girl cleans her privates. It is a good rule of thumb to never let anyone touch your intact son’s penis. Many people, including care providers, will ignorantly try to retract the foreskin. Fact is, the US medical profession cut off so many foreskins in the past that the doctors rarely if ever saw an intact boy and have lost the base of knowledge of diagnosis and treatment. Now, they are operating in a vacuum of information or even worse, in an environment of false information. The only tool you need to care for an intact boy is a ruler to smack the hands of those curious people who attempt to retract his foreskin. Retraction happens at a different times for each boy. Some boys do not retract until puberty, this is perfectly normal.

http://www.nocirc.org/publish/pamphlet4.html

http://www.nocirc.org/publish/pamphlet6.html

http://www.cirp.org/library/normal/aap/

http://www.cirp.org/pages/parents/peron1/

MYTH 3: If I don’t circumcise my son he will be ridiculed in the locker room.
FACT: 85% of the world is intact. In the US the circumcision rate is 56% and falling, so almost half his peers will have foreskin. In general boys make it a point to not look at other boys’ penises. They are not interested in whether someone is intact or not and it is safe to say that most people will never even see your son’s penis. When intact boys learn that some baby boys have their foreskins cut from them at birth and that you protected them from being circumcised, they are thankful and find it shocking that anyone would do that to a baby. Their reaction is one of pity for circumcised boys. A friend’s intact son learned about circumcision when he was about 5 years old. His response was, “OUCH, why would anyone want to do that?!?” Lastly, children will always find something to poke fun at. With positive reinforcement from his parents that his body is normal, whole, and healthy, an intact boy will be able to keep a healthy perspective should he ever encounter a problem with his peers.