need help with my golden opportunity

[titania8]

ok, my friend has a circ'd son, who had developed adhesions. she has been retracting his remnant of foreskin daily to prevent it from adhering again. i told her that there is no reason to do that, and that it may in fact cause damage (to rip the adhesions that form). i offered to gather some info for her in regards to that and have done that, but i haven't sent it to her yet. i want to include something that addresses that issue, but also plants the seed for leaving the next baby intact. she is going to be ttc and day now, and i am 100% certain it will be another boy. i would like to have this be the start of a conversation about circ and the long term damage it does. does anyone have any ideas? i don't want to just come out and say "you were wrong", i don't think that would be the best way to approach this.

[jessjgh1]

How long has she been doing this? How old is the boy??

This is a question I have for our resident experts here..... since I've heard o parents doing this ripping for even longer than a year on other boards. I'm just not sure how long this forced retraction can go on w/o some thought of permanent damage-- and if at one point is it better to resolve the adhesions by being vigilant and using vaseline... or is it ALWAYS going to be an option to just do nothing??

Back to the problem...
First, if she's retracting daily and that's all-- that is not even correct information and is extremely painful and may not help quickly. The pro-circ advocates and doctors would say that she would have to retract at every diaper change and put vaseline there to prevent adhesions from re-forming..... otherwise she is likely to have the problem repeatedly for a long time.

Second, the option of doing nothing, allows the adhesions to 'heal' and then the skin will seperate on its own. This is what is recommended by the AAP and what she should have been told. Doctors are supposed to give out information to parents to PREVENT the formation of adhesions just after the circumcision is done. The parent should be advised to do the retract and vaseline EVERY TIME after a circumcision.... hardly 'easier to clean', huh... but that may prevent most adhesions from forming. I'm sure the time this takes is very individual, but many parents never get this information and then after months end up with an adhestion.

Or a doctor notices the skin has adhered at a later appt., should leave well enough alone, but decides to rip it up and tell the parent that s/he needs to do this (and should have been doing it all along). And THAT is against the AAP recommendations for adhesiion, if I remember correctly, unless the scar line is involved.

I don't have access to my adhesion information I saved before, but I'm sure someone will be on (and if not, I'll try to add what I have later).

Jessica

[titania8]

sorry, he is almost 2. in the beginning, she was told to do the whole vaseline at changes thing. and she did. but at some point i think she stopped doing that and guess what? adhesions (and yes, a dr ripped them apart). anyway, if she does the daily retraction now, it is free and not adhered at all. but a few months ago she stopped doing it and it adhered again, so she is back to the daily ritual to prevent adhesions from forming again. :

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Here are some links that you might want to add if you havnt already.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract
http://www.mothersagainstcirc.org/adhesions.htm
http://www.cirp.org/library/complications/ponsky2/
http://www.kidsgrowth.com/resources/...il.cfm?id=3420
http://www.medem.com/medlb/article_d...NC&sub_cat=474
http://pediatrics.about.com/od/weekl...l_adhesion.htm
http://www.henryfordhealth.org/19160.cfm
http://www.circumstitions.com/Complic.html