please help

[jennyfah]

.

[Lauren82]

omg mama I am so sorry!
I was under the impression that boys could be cathed without retraction?! Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

How is your son doing now? Has he had any bleeding?

I'm sure you are so upset. Just reading that put my blood pressure through the roof. : Please let us know how he's doing.

[Leiahs]

Intact boys do *not* have to be retracted to get a urine sample. If the UA violations of health care providers had any education about normal male anatomy at all, they'd be able to handle it. I'm so so sorry your son was retracted, and that his screams affected you so much. I am totally a non-confrontational person, but witnessing that...I would really have to restrain myself in order to stop myself from decking the offender. And maybe I wouldn't, if I heard screams from my innocent boy.

At any rate, here is a fantastic resource/sticky thread at the top of this forum:
A Warning for Parents of Intact Sons. I'm only sorry you didn't see it sooner. Basically, your son should be fine now, if you just leave it alone and keep an eye out for infections caused by the retraction.

You have two options for urine samples: A "clean catch" which it sounds like many doctors are hesitant to allow (for no freaking good reason). It's a sterile bag taped to the penis, and you just wait for the urine. If it comes back negative, it's negative. If it comes back positive, then you can do a cath to investigate further, if needed. If you go with a cath, your other option, track down a neonatal nurse...they're usually more familiar with intact boys (since they haven't been circed if they're in the NICU, usually!). They can put the cath in the foreskin, and then fish around for the opening on the meatus, no retraction needed.

Just reading that put my blood pressure through the roof.

By the way.... YEAH, THAT. I hate reading these types of posts. It's no wonder I'm so overprotective of my perfect little son. I hope you and your son will both recover from this trauma and abuse quickly.

[alegna]

They do NOT need to retract to cath.

-Angela

[ThreeBeans]

My son was 14 months old and I was 7 months pregnant with DD when I took him to the ER with a 106 degree temperature. Before I could stop the nurse she did the same thing. I was in tears. It was absolutely horrible. My poor, precious little boy :


I just wanted you to know he did OK. He healed up fine, no scarring, no bleeding, no infection. He has never retracted it since and is now 2.5 and appears (judging from what he does to it given the opportunity ) to be absolutely fine and doesn't suffer from what that U/A violation of a nurse did to him.

[mamaverdi]

NO FISHING FOR THE MEATUS!!! Please. This can scratch the very sensitive head of the penis.

The proper way to cath an intact male who is not retractable, is to flange the foreskin, visualize the meatus, and then insert the catheter gently into the meatus.


I'm sorry for what happened to your son.

[TigerTail]

thank you, v. i have to admit i might've not known exactly what to tell them to do.

'flange, visualize, insert' stuck in my head, the way all the descriptions i've read never have. i feel empowered now!

thought of a mnemonic- 'foreskin's very important!'

[jessjgh1]

Originally Posted by mamaverdi

NO FISHING FOR THE MEATUS!!! Please. This can scratch the very sensitive head of the penis.

The proper way to cath an intact male who is not retractable, is to flange the foreskin, visualize the meatus, and then insert the catheter gently into the meatus.

I'm sorry for what happened to your son.

What exactly is meant by 'flange'??

OP: I'm so sorry that this happened.... keep us posted.

Jessica

[Yulia_R]

Originally Posted by jennyfah

I feel so stupid, so inept, so incredibly weak. . . raped. . . I don't know how to describe it.

And if you could have heard the way he cried it would have broken your heart. I am weeping now thinking of it...

oh, mama, I'm so very sorry .

They did rape your baby, your feelings are right. They held him down, they violated his genitals in a horrible damaging way. If this is not rape than what is?!..
I’m sure other moms will give you great advices of what to do; what to put on it (if anything). I’d probably give him a warm bath with few drops of Tea Tree Oil. I would have DEFINITELY taken legal actions against the hospital to make them pay for what they have done to your baby and to safe other babies from this nightmare.

Please read this thread http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=129378
Unfortunately, doctors/nurses in the US are unbelievably ignorant and uneducated when it comes to foreskins: . So, it’s up to us to protect our babies .

yulia.

[mamaverdi]

I don't know if legal action would help honestly. Contacting the patient advocate may help.



Okay, flange. Flange is...thinking how to explain...it's when you press on opposite sides so the foreskin will naturally open. This is done WITHOUT a downward motion.

Sort of like if you pressed on the corners of your mouth, pushing them towards each other, you will eventually have the lips slightly flange open.

Most importantly, it should not hurt.

You should also be able to move the foreskin this way or that to get a meatus that is not quite centered.

I've seen it done a lot of times. But describing it is difficult at best.



TT, I like your mneumonic.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

I am so sorry. Please contact Dave2GA here he is a lawyer and will send a letter telling them what they did and how they are opening themselves up to lawsuits pulling this kind of crap.

It wont be a letter saying you are going to sue but it will hopefully put the fear into them and they will change policy so that what happened to your ds wont happen to other innocent little ones.

Odds are good that he will not have any lasting damage from this as long as you make 100% sure that this never happens again. What causes the damage is repeat retraction. Watch him for infection and if you see anything that looks like it is then you can treat it with abx or topical abx cream. It is OTC called bacatracin and it does well on the penis. You just rub it on the outside no need to try and get it in there.

[mamaverdi]

Okay, I saw the word "flare" mentioned in another old old thread. Perhaps that makes more sense? But it also mentions "fishing." Please, no fishing. It would be better to try to move the flanged area around to try to visualize the meatus. Or attempt to flange it slightly more, to the patient's comfort, than to "fish."

[Fi.]

I would personally be emailing Dave (Dave2GA on the boards) and talking to the patient advocate at the hospital about the poor training of their nursing staff. I'd have the AAP recommendations on hand as backup and I'd tell them how dissapointed I was at the fact they did something damaging to my son due to poor training and an obviously bad hiring process.

Okay no I wouldn't - I'd say whatever Dave recommended I'd say But that's what I would WANT to say.

[LavenderMae]

You've gotten excellent advice already and I agree you should contact Dave2GA on here. They need to know how to cath intact boys, this sh%t needs to stop.

s to you.

[jennyfah]

.

[glongley]

Originally Posted by mamaverdi

NO FISHING FOR THE MEATUS!!! Please. This can scratch the very sensitive head of the penis.

The proper way to cath an intact male who is not retractable, is to flange the foreskin, visualize the meatus, and then insert the catheter gently into the meatus.

Hi Mamaverdi:

I am a NICU and nursery nurse, but ours is a Level II nursery (not the sickest babies) so it is pretty rare that we ever do caths, and the nurse practitioners mostly do the,. So other than knowing my foreskin anatomy and development, I am fairly ignorant of the correct way to do this. The nurse practitioners do not retract them all the way, but they do try to get the opening taut enough to be able to visualize the meatus, and to have a straight shot into the opening. The thing is, with newborns,the foreskin is so tight that you can't very often visualize the meatus, you just get a little pouty area of foreskin around the opening, and still end up having to fish.

I'd really like to know more about what is medically recommended re: cathing intact boys. Any other details from any knowledgeable people here on how to do it would be appreciated, especially when the meatus cannot be visualized. It would seem like if you can't visualize the meatus, you're going to have to go by feel.

Gillian

[phatchristy]

OMG......that is awful what happened. Definitely contact Dave2GA. They need to know there what they are doing is harmful and DAMAGING. So sorry they hurt your little boy.

[jaxinsmom]

Originally Posted by Leiahs

You have two options for urine samples: A "clean catch" which it sounds like many doctors are hesitant to allow (for no freaking good reason). It's a sterile bag taped to the penis, and you just wait for the urine. If it comes back negative, it's negative. If it comes back positive, then you can do a cath to investigate further, if needed. If you go with a cath, your other option, track down a neonatal nurse...they're usually more familiar with intact boys (since they haven't been circed if they're in the NICU, usually!). They can put the cath in the foreskin, and then fish around for the opening on the meatus, no retraction needed.

This is what the nurses did with my ds when we brought him to the hospital. It worked fine and they were able to get a urine sample without touching his penis in any way.

((hugs)) Im so sorry this happened to you, and I know the paralyzing fear when you are at the hospital to begin with, and the loss of control you feel when the 'professionals' are working on your child. Don't beat yourself up because of it. I'm sure your little guy will be just fine!

[pdx.mothernurture]

I think it would be fabulous for an intactivist to work with a foreskin friendly ped or urologist and create a simple guide---like, a standard one sided sheet of paper---with cath instructions for intact infants, *with photos*. I think it would be a wonderful thing for parents to be able to keep in their diaperbags, as well as something that could be distributed to hospitals and clinics.

Jen

[Leiahs]

Originally Posted by pdx.mothernurture

I think it would be fabulous for an intactivist to work with a foreskin friendly ped or urologist and create a simple guide---like, a standard one sided sheet of paper---with cath instructions for intact infants, *with photos*. I think it would be a wonderful thing for parents to be able to keep in their diaperbags, as well as something that could be distributed to hospitals and clinics.

Jen

I totally agree. I was thinking of all the threads I've read over the past two years that describe "fishing" for the opening for cath'ing, and I hate to think that we've all been wrong about it for this long. If I ever had to describe it for a procedure for my son, I sure don't want it to hurt him! I would love to have something to print out to include some visualizations.

Also, I don't think that my son's foreskin is very long, but I'm trying to visualize this "flange" method, and I just can't see it opening enough to see anything on the glans without at least some downward motion. :