Anyone else not let thier ped...

[bbrandonsmom]

I'm wondering if I'm the only one. Every time we go to a check up, when they get to the groin area I ask them if they are going to retract the foreskin and stand gaurd against them doing so. Ds's first 2 visits put me on edge with her pulling back too far for my comfort and since then I've been on the watch and he's 22m now. Anyone else?

[njeb]

Good for you for doing this!
Bumping this up so it doesn't get lost.

[vermontgirl]

Harvest has had a few appointments since birth and I always stand right next to the doctor-even though he says he doesnt retract.
I decided last week that I am not brining him in anymore unless he is really sick. It is pointless.

[sarathan]

Oh yeah, I'm always on watch too! Our pedi has been great about it so far and has never tried to retract him. Although she will check to see if it in fact will retract, but she's never forceful. I do get a little irritated that she even checks it at all, I don't see the point.

[phatchristy]

OK, well I have to say that now I just tell them flat out that nobody touches the penis. My doctor, who herself has an intact son, claims to know not to retract. BUT, two times she handled the penis in a way as to pull it back slightly and make it look tight. That DID NOT look right to me (set off the mommy alarm), and I told her that since there was no reason to handle the penis I'd feel more comfy if she didn't touch it. From then on, if she needed to see it or underneath only I handled it (at well baby checks she always wanted to check under diapers for rash, I'd even lift the penis up if she wanted to see under it).


My point is, different doctors have different definitions of retraction. To her, retraction meant to expose the glans entirely. So, in her mind she wasn't retracting at all by pulling the skin back slightly. I don't feel comfortable with any pulling back of the skin, so that is where the no handling of the penis policy came in.

[mommyswenn]

My son has hypospadias and his foreskin didn't form properly, so this doesn't really apply to me. But...

At my son's last visit (several months ago) I thought he had rotavirus and my doc wanted to see if his diaper was poopy. She opened it up, saw that it wasn't poopy, and instead of closing it right away (that's all she needed to see, right?) she proceeded to retract what there is of his foreskin! :

It didn't hurt him in any way, but I was too stunned and caught off-guard to say anything.

I've already decided that the next time I have to take him in, I'm going to tell my doc that the only doctor to see/touch his penis is his urologist, and keep his diaper on.

[laohaire]

Originally Posted by mommyswenn

At my son's last visit (several months ago) I thought he had rotavirus and my doc wanted to see if his diaper was poopy. She opened it up, saw that it wasn't poopy, and instead of closing it right away (that's all she needed to see, right?) she proceeded to retract what there is of his foreskin! :

I read stories that go this way so many times here, that it makes me wonder if the average ped has some sort of weird foreskin fetish???

They can't control themselves, they have to play with them!

What a strange world we live in.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Originally Posted by sarathan

Oh yeah, I'm always on watch too! Our pedi has been great about it so far and has never tried to retract him. Although she will check to see if it in fact will retract, but she's never forceful. I do get a little irritated that she even checks it at all, I don't see the point.

There is no point. What she is doing is the equivalent of checking to see how tight a girls vagina is and most people would scream sexual abuse is a Dr. did that to a baby girl but we let Dr's do this to boys all the time. IT HAS TO STOP. She should not even be trying to see if it will retract : you need to tell her to not touch it because even tho she is "gentle" she may cause mirco tears and cause all kids of problems. What she is doing is retraction even if she doesn't get "forceful". Read the sticky at the top of the main page "The definition of retraction and why it is bad". Any movement at all of the foreskin toward the body is RETRACTION

JUST SAY NO TO ANY AND ALL MANIPULATION OF THE PENIS!!! Sorry but I am so sick of Dr's abusing boys.

[witchbaby]

this is exactly why i'm scared to take m to the doctor. he hasn't been to one since we left the hospital when he was 1 day old and we don't do well-baby visits. i've only taken k in twice since he was born (for a 2 year wbv i was bullied into by the grandparents and for rotavirus). we delay and selectively vax and are planning on starting m's vax this summer (he hasn't had any yet). i'm hoping i can get in simply for vax appointments, but i don't know that they'll allow him without being an "established patient". oy.

[stacyann21]

I always say, "Please do not touch my son's penis." as the mw/ped is taking the diaper off.

[DreamsInDigital]

Seriously, there is no reason to check the penis at all during a routine exam.
Not that I take my kids to the ped. But if I did, there would be a diaper on at all times kind of policy.

[LavenderMae]

With ds1 his ped never even touched his penis so no worries there (that was about the only thing good about that ped). I just recently took ds2 to the doctor and when the dcotor got to the taking off the diaper point I said he's intact so don't retract his foreskin (or something close to that) and he said "I don't do that"!!! I was so nervous he would do it anyway though, I stood guard ready to slap his hand away.

[KMK_Mama]

We just switched Dr's because our old ped used to retract at every visit...even after I told him NO RETRACTING. To him, what he was doing wasn't retracting, he called it "gentle stretching." After trying to educate him, him arguing with me, and then him trying to touch his penis only minutes later, we switched Docs.

When his new Doc went to do an under the diaper check, I casually asked if he was going to touch his penis. He said, "NO" so I went on to explain why we switched Dr's. He said in medical school they are tought to try and retract the foreskin at 1 year old and if it's not retractable, then you need to start stretching it. I told him I didn't agree with that and he seemed fine with it. I will remind him at every appt just in case. He goes for his 1 year appt in March and I know they need to check under the diaper because they are concerned about his testicles.....I think they went back up or something.

[falcon]

The dr used to look at ds penis when he was a baby (and yes, I always stood guard!), but it doesn't seem to be part of the exams anymore. If I have another son in the future, I'll probably have a "hands off the healthy penis" policy with doctors.

[bbrandonsmom]

I was just thinking that for the past few visits we had a great guy ped who was totally nfl, ebf you name it and he didn't even go near the penis. We actually only had his pants off because I needed to show him this rash. If I recall correctly, he just asked me if there were any problems,redness etc. I liked him and need to find out his new office location.
But it makes me wonder about newborns and how far they retract when they do a newborn checkup in the hospital? I only thought of this today. I guess make sure you're always with your kids. I never even thought that they wouldn't be doing that to a girl, so why are they checking boys? For infection? Couldn't we as parents tell them if something was wrong?