Doctor experiences, take 2

[BlessedMommy2006]

Vote on the poll.

[the_lissa]

No problems here, but circ is in the minority.

[Drummer's Wife]

I voted: I have had problems with doc retracting and/or giving poor advice or recommending post-newborn circ

and partly b/c of that experience years ago, this now applies: I don't take my son to the doctor except for emergencies

[MyBoysBlue]

I voted that I don't take my son to the doc except for emergency. But that isn't because of a bad experience with a circ suggestion or anything. More to do with bad diagnosis and perscription errors. Circ is in the minority here and when my first son was little I did do well baby visits and I never had problems with doctors retracting or anything.

[MommytoB]

I voted Other when I lived in california many doctors were not a problem with my son's foreskin One didn't know and she was a female doctor but the male docs in california had a clue.

The ones in Montana I had to slap their hands away and they would be like I need to examine him & I'm like no you don't but then of course they been at that clinic since in the beginning of the 80's.

So then I took my son to a female pedi in montana & no problems . Didn't mess with my son foreskin at all but was misinformed about retractability stating it should be fully retractable by age 5 and I corrected her saying an average is 10 yrs-12 yrs. My ex whose my son's father didn't retract his foreskin fully until he was 11 1/2 yrs old!

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Several instances of attempted retraction and off the wall advice the last being 2 months ago when the ped. said ds's foreskin was to long and cause problems with erections : I vented about it here.

[l_olive]

One doctor in our family practice tried to retract him at about a month old. I switched doctors. When I told the new doctor not to try to retract him, she said that she would never do that until after turns three.

That's when I started keeping a copy of the AAP guidelines in my wallet at all times, and I practiced my little "no manipulation" speech to give to each and every doctor he ever sees until he's fully able to retract on his own.

[mysticmomma]

I voted we don't take him except for emergencies. We had 2 instances of 2 separate doctors that started to retract but I luckily smacked away their hands first and they gave terrible advice about how much regular retraction is necessary.

[Friday13th]

We've never had an issue with our regular doctor but saw a different doctor on staff for a really high fever when DS was about 6 months old. Once the diaper came off and the Dr. saw he was intact he immediately said "well it could be a UTI" and started to retract his foreskin. I yelled "he's not retractable" and pushed his hand away. The response was "most babies aren't, I was just checking for infection." Ugh.

[Crunchy Frog]

No problems yet, but my sons are only 7 1/2 months old. I'm fully expecting it to happen at some point.

I have had a couple of older nurses tell me that I was supposed to pull back the foreskins and clean under them. They were not part of their regular medical team though.

[phrogger]

I voted other. I have had different experiences with different kids. My oldest, is ped wanted to retract him. I had to yell at her to stop.

My second son I didn't really take to the Dr. but it was because of the vaccine issues, not circ. I can fight off the Dr. with the retraction, but I hated fighting over the vaccines.

My youngest son is only 3 months, but no problems so far. His ped knows not to retract, but I asked her to write it in his chart on the first page incase we have to see another Dr. We have seen a different Dr. once and she was totally fantastic about it. We are still doing the wbc things for now, but might end up "forgetting" appointments if the whole vaccine issue starts becoming an issue. We don't get to choose our ped or the clinic we go to since we are military.

[Dave2GA]

No problem with second doc after 1st son's 3 month visit when we left the first doc who came at him with a probe to separate him. Second doc was amazed and never, ever touched either boy's foreskin. But then again, he was one of the smartest physicians I have known and he was a minimalist.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Originally Posted by Dave2GA

No problem with second doc after 1st son's 3 month visit when we left the first doc who came at him with a probe to separate him. Second doc was amazed and never, ever touched either boy's foreskin. But then again, he was one of the smartest physicians I have known and he was a minimalist.

[Eman'smom]

8.5 years and no problems with our doc. He was also the first person to tell us we didn't need to circ.

[stiss]

I love our doctor. No problems whatsoever.

[ScootchsMom]

We just had DS's 4 month visit and the ped didn't try to retract him, but I got a little nervouse when he touched DS's penis. I was ready to smack his hand away But he did say DS should be retractable by age 5 and that I should retract and clean when I give him a bath. This from a ped that works for a hospital that gave me literature that said to do nothing but wipe like a finger for an intact baby. If we go to the 6 month visit I'll be bringing him literature on the correct care of an intact penis.

[Llyra]

No problems, no phony advice. Nothing beyond the casual question asked of us right after birth: "Are you planning on having him circumcised? Would you like to speak to (doctor in the practice who does them)?" When I said no, they wrote it down in the chart, and that's the last I heard about it other than a sheet of paper they gave us at hospital discharge that detailed the care of an intact and a circumcised penis. The information on that sheet was up-to-date and accurate. The ped examined DS's genitals at our first office appointment to check his testicles were descended, after asking my permission, and the only time she's opened DS's diaper since then was when I asked for advice about diaper rash. DS is 2 1/2.

[minkajane]

We had a couple of issues. When DS was born, the ped asked if I wanted him circ'd. I said no and he said, "Yeah, they're unnecessary, but I don't try to discourage parents from getting it done because it's a procedure and I LIKE doing procedures!" Same doc "tested" his foreskin at every visit. Didn't really retract, but applied pressure at the base to see if it would retract. No clue why he did that. I wouldn't allow it now, but I didn't know better at the time.

When DS was about a year and a half, he was showing signs of a mild infection. The doctor INSISTED he be cathed because he could have a UTI, even though he wasn't showing any discomfort during urination. She said that he might not show when he was uncomfortable. I'm willing to bet she's the type that says babies don't feel anything when they're circ'd too. I suggested a bag catch and the student with her said "Well, he's uncircumcised, so he's probably got some bacteria in there, so it's wouldn't be a clean catch." They flat-out refused to do anything further until I agreed to a cath. So I agreed, then I had to argue with her because I refused to allow him to be retracted for the cath. The nurse did end up pulling his foreskin back enough to see the meatus, but it didn't seem to bother him, so I didn't say anything. Oh, and the aide that was helping her grilled me about why I didn't have him circ'd. And the nurse said they see a LOT of older babies coming in for circ's. I'm not surprised, with attitudes like that!

Not long after, DS started getting really bad diaper rashes. So bad, he was having raw patches on his scrotum and thighs. At one point, his foreskin got inflamed. He was having no trouble peeing. I took him to the doc and she immediately diagnosed it as a foreskin infection. The first thing that popped out of her mouth was "If this happens again, we have to consider circumcision." I glared and said "That is NOT an option." Why is surgery the first thing they jump to? We didn't even know what was causing it yet! So started bullying me to give him both an antibiotic and an antifungal cream, PLUS oral antibiotics. I said I wasn't giving him oral antibiotics without a culture. She refused to culture it! So I refused the abx. I figured out (thanks to MDC!) that it was a yeast infection caused by a food allergy. We cut out strawberries, put some Vagisil on him, and have had no problems since. If I had given in, he would have had a yeast infection AND an open would! Most other parents would have gone for it, with their kid ending up as one of those "Oh he HAD to have it done later because of infection and it was SO hard on him!" and all future sons circ'd at birth.

These were all military docs, by the way. No monetary gain to be made from circ. And they still jump to it first thing. For fun (first doc) or because of an ingrained distrust or hatred of the foreskin (next two docs).

DS is almost 5. Still happily and healthily intact. Still not retractable. And perfectly fine, despite not having had part of his penis surgically removed instead of putting cream on it.

[Claire and Boys]

Wow. So far 36% having problems with Dr retracting and/or giving poor advice.

Is it really any wonder that people think foreskin is so problematic with this sort of thing going on?

My sons born here in the UK had an examination post birth. The penis wasn't touched either time. My youngest had what we thought was an undescended testicle and took him to the Dr. Didn't touch his penis at all. It seems to be such a non issue here. No leaflets are given out about care for the intact penis. After all.. it's not rocket science.

[calngavinsmom]

Originally Posted by the_lissa

No problems here, but circ is in the minority.

: Ditto