surgery to remove "fat pad" around ds's penis??!

[babybirkel]

so today we had our 6 months wbv. my ped and i don't really see eye-to-eye on...well, anything...but we live out in the boonies a bit and he's the closest for the time being. i mostly smile and nod with him. anyway, today during my son's exam he said something about having surgery when my son was 15 months old to remove the fat pad around his penis because it was "buried." i was like WHAT?????? he's not mobile yet, and EBF, and big (20 lbs 4 oz, 28 inches long). give him a chance to burn some of that baby fat off before we talk about baby liposuction!!

is my ped just psycho or is this really something i should be concerned about? has anyone else dealt with this?

pretty sure we're going to look for a new ped...this was just too much. but i do want to know if this is a legitimate concern or if he smokes crack.

[peainthepod]

OMG, I would be running screaming from that office! Even IF that's a legitimate reason to operate--big IF--why would he suggest it so far in advance?

You might cross-post this in The Case Against Circumcision to see if the wise mamas there have heard of such a thing. Yikes!

[leaveit2beeker]

There is such a thing as a buried penis. (And it has nothing to do with your son being pudgy or not!) Tell your pedi you will follow up with a pediatric urologist. And trust me, you'll want one if this is what your son is suspected to have. HTH.

[Mrsboyko]

My nephew had a burried penis too. He was over 20 lbs by 4 months so also a BIG baby and still I have never heard of such a thing. I know you were probably shocked into slience, but did you happen ot ask him if he has ever needed to have this done on a patient before? Poor babies!

DOc is smoking something.....

[bodhitree]

Sears Baby Book says: "Oftentimes, during the first two years boys develop an increased accumulation of fat, called the pubic fat pad, around the base of the penis. This mound of growing fat may appear to bury the penis...No, it is not gone. It resides comfortably buried beneath the mounds of fat. As your baby goes through the normal stretching and lengthening of his whole body, the mounds of baby fat melt away and the penis reappears. This curious relationship between fat and penis occurs in both circumcised and uncircucised infants."

In other words, your ped is crazy, and the fat pad will go away on its own. Yeah, I would not want this person handling my baby's medical care.

[babybirkel]

right. as i suspected, doc is crazy. will be finding new ped...and fast.

just found out this could have been caused by his circ. great. another thing to beat myself up over...

[MeepyCat]

Hey! My son has that same issue - fat pad around the penis, resulting in buried penis, which is still unresolved at 2y4m.

I'm going to give you my observation, and follow it with my experience talking to a doctor I trust. If you want the short version: I think your ped's on crack.

If you run google searches on "buried penis", in among the (OMG the shedloads) of porn, you will find a lot of concern about how little boys genitals look. Do they look "normal"? Will our sons face social difficulties because they don't have huge and prominent genitals, which are euphemised as genitals "like the other little boys"?

My kid is two. While this may be a social problem for him eventually (although I doubt it), it isn't one now.

The experience:
I was told that this condition would resolve by fifteen months, and it didn't, and additionally there was some concern about whether my son's testicles were properly descended, so I got our pediatrician to refer us for an ultrasound and a discussion with a pediatric urologist. I would never consider any surgery on my child without first consulting a specialist in the relevant area. The pediatric uro was very calm and practical. His feeling was, hey, some little boys (even active and otherwise skinny little boys like mine) have fat pads around the groin. Generally, it resolves on its own eventually. Best to leave it be.

The surgery, btw, is liposuction. Liposuction carries some risks I'm not all that comfy with (they showed me these gruesome videos of the procedure in seventh grade, and some people have died of embolisms after surgery). On top of that, there's the risks of anesthesia and the pain of recovery, for a procedure that would be entirely cosmetic in effect. If this remains unresolved when he's seven or eight and he develops an opinion of his own about it, we'll reconsider.

It does add a bit of a hiccup to potty training - we aren't thinking about teaching him to pee standing up right away. If you get to that stage, remind your boy to keep his knees together when he sits on the potty.

Also, please keep in mind that our situation is a bit of an outlier - most cases of buried penis do resolve around fifteen months. There's a large chance you'll never have to think about this stuff in this kind of detail.

[peainthepod]

Originally Posted by babybirkel

just found out this could have been caused by his circ. great. another thing to beat myself up over...

Originally Posted by Dr. Sears

This curious relationship between fat and penis occurs in both circumcised and uncircucised infants."

[leaveit2beeker]

Originally Posted by MeepyCat

If you run google searches on "buried penis", in among the (OMG the shedloads) of porn, you will find a lot of concern about how little boys genitals look. Do they look "normal"? Will our sons face social difficulties because they don't have huge and prominent genitals, which are euphemised as genitals "like the other little boys"?

This is why I suggested a pediatric urologist, too! Our son, from birth, was looked at because something didn't seem quite right, looked 'different'. So at 12 months we made our appt at the urologist's. He's uncirc'd, and they were suspicious of hypospadias (a urethral opening-placement problem.) I went in there armed with my research, and used all the appropriate terms and words. The urologist even said, "Wow you are using the word erection."

After the visit, everything is placed just fine, but the foreskin doesn't lay over it all neatly, it's kind of twisted. He kept mentioning corrective surgery but we got him to SAY that is would be cosmetic only. All the functions are there and it will not progress into a more complicated problem. Hey, outward appearance makes no difference to us. Function is what matters!

Anyway, my point is to the OP, just see a specialist if you think it's warranted. I wanted to go to ours to get some peace. But, please don't beat yourself up about what has already taken place.

[dawncayden]

Its interesting that the age is 15 months because when ds1 was 18 months he reached his largest size (33lbs) Its then that he started to stretch out and stayed the same weight or even dropped to 29 lbs, and lost a lot of baby fat.
At 3.5 years he's now 35 lbs.

He had the same pudge around his penis and it went away between 18 months and 2 years old.

[CallMeMommy]

Originally Posted by babybirkel

just found out this could have been caused by his circ. great. another thing to beat myself up over...

My baby has the same thing, and he's not circed, so don't beat yourself up too hard

[JBaxter]

Another vote for leave it alone. My now 14 yr old had it and yes he was circ'd. It resolved about 3 to 4 yrs old. He was a super chub ( 23lbs at 6 months).

DS4 has the same type of situation but is uncic'd it isn neaarly as bad as ds2 was.

[teachma]

Originally Posted by bodhitree

Sears Baby Book says: "Oftentimes, during the first two years boys develop an increased accumulation of fat, called the pubic fat pad, around the base of the penis. This mound of growing fat may appear to bury the penis...No, it is not gone. It resides comfortably buried beneath the mounds of fat. As your baby goes through the normal stretching and lengthening of his whole body, the mounds of baby fat melt away and the penis reappears. This curious relationship between fat and penis occurs in both circumcised and uncircucised infants."

In other words, your ped is crazy, and the fat pad will go away on its own. Yeah, I would not want this person handling my baby's medical care.

I agree with the above. My BIG ds #1 had this, and he outgrew it. He is now almost 9 years old and totally normal (in that area anyway!). Now, my 3 month old baby has the same. I am not worried about it at all, nor should you be. Yes, get a new doc.

[amis1mom]

My son is 2 1/2. When did your son out grow this? Thanks!! He isn't chubby anywhere else?