My twins are intact. My mom doesn't agree with my decision. She was watching Dr. Oz on Oprah the other day and she said "Well, Dr Oz said that intact men have 10x's more infections" She also said that adolescent boys have problems with hygiene, as far as keeping themselves clean, (she gave the example of my brother who refused to brush his teeth).
Uggh, what can I say to her when she brings it back up?
Tell her that little girls sometimes arnt the best at keeping their bottom clean but we dont cut parts off them because of it. Intact woman also have more infections than intact men as well.
"How hard is it to remember the three R's. Retract Rinse Replace? Seriously Mom, men aren't that dumb. You've just insulted EVERY male born in this country!"
ETA: Dr. OZ is a Turkish Heart Surgeon. Turks are CRAZY about circumcision! What does a circ'd heart surgeon know about the anatomy of an intact male?
In Turkey 4-7 years old boys are circumcised in front of the whole family without any pain relief. That's what is the back ground of that doctor.
He has absolutely no information about intact penises.
You can tell your mom that you trust that your sons are smart enough to learn simple things like washing face, brushing teeth and keeping their penises clean - the last one being the easiest and fastest job.
You can also tell your mom that over 80% of world's men are intact and fine.
Dr. Oz's misinformation about the foreskin seems to be cropping up a lot. We need to have simple answers to defuse this. This is actually a great opportunity to engage many Oprah-watching Americans with the other side of the story, when you hear "I heard on Oprah...".
The simplest reply is: Dr. Oz's claims are exaggerated and incorrect. The foreskin is a normal body part that is easy to take care of. End of discussion.
My twins are intact. My mom doesn't agree with my decision. She was watching Dr. Oz on Oprah the other day and she said "Well, Dr Oz said that intact men have 10x's more infections" She also said that adolescent boys have problems with hygiene, as far as keeping themselves clean, (she gave the example of my brother who refused to brush his teeth).
Uggh, what can I say to her when she brings it back up?
I take it she removed all his teeth then? How about his ears? Did he clean his ears out to her satisfaction?
"Dr Oz" clearly knows nothing at all about the intact penis, he comes from a muslim country where they cut off foreskins of young boys, without anaesthetic, and then have a party to celebrate. He was peddling dangerous misinformation, and I hope that anyone who gets injured as a result of his ridiculous advice sues Oprah for millions.
This hygiene thing is a load of BS, really, I can't imagine another nation on earth that is so obsessed with "hygiene" that it's willing to cut off body parts so they can't possibly need cleaning. WHY???
When boys reach the age of 10 or 11, they go through a phase where they consider personal hygiene unnecessary.
It's almost impossible to get them to take a bath or shower! Brushing teeth? Changing clothes? "But Mom, I did it two days ago!"
You're lucky if they shower once a week!
:
When my sons were that age, I worried about their ears, teeth, and general body being clean, but their foreskins? Never!
Don't worry. When they reach puberty, they'll do a 180 degree turn and take a shower every day! Their foreskins, and the rest of their bodies, will be spotless!
If someone ever bothers to ask me this my reply is going to be
"It's called a bath. Even my cat knows how to bathe. Why are you assuming
my son is too stupid to bathe himself?"
I'd just use Penn and Teller's line - Does she really think it's that hard to convince a teenage boy to spend a few extra seconds cleaning his penis in the shower? Really?!
out of my 7 kids, 4 of them have some difficulty with hygiene - 2 females (13, 10), 2 males (11, 4)...brushing teeth, washing bodies, brushing hair, etc...no matter how we remind, nag, set schedules, etc...there are still difficulties...they will either grow out of it and figure out that having clean skin is a good thing, or they wont...theres only so much i can do...
i dont have any responses for you...but i like Terri's...
Hygiene problems are/is just another fabricated excuse to push circumcision. I personally never worried that my boys wouldn't be smart enough to rinse their penis. We've never had issues at all.
When my dad was in the army stationed in Korea during reconstruction, he was in an area where they could only bathe or shower once a week when they had time to walk for an hour to wherever they could get to water for hygiene purposes. He was and is intact. There were no problems because he couldn't scour himself every day.
Originally Posted by kalynnsmom
"Well, Dr Oz said that intact men have 10x's more infections"
I actually do think that this is true, BUT it is the difference in .1% and 1%, I think (don't quote me on those exact numbers), but it was something like that. So, really, it's not a big deal at all, IMO. Statistics can be made to sound significant when they're really not.
Originally Posted by Mrs-Mama
I actually do think that this is true, BUT it is the difference in .1% and 1%, I think (don't quote me on those exact numbers), but it was something like that. So, really, it's not a big deal at all, IMO. Statistics can be made to sound significant when they're really not.
Those are the generally accepted numbers for UTIs in boys under 6 months of age. 0.1% for circ'd boys and 1% for intact boys. I say generally accepted b/c I am not very impressed by the way the data that those statistics came from was collected.
The only infection my intact dh has ever had was a yeast infection or two and they cleared up in a day or two because he used anti-fungal cream
: Not a big deal. Not nearly as big of a deal as preemptive surgery would have been. Treating a yeast infection in an intact man is WAY easier than treating one in a woman.
He just rinses under his foreskin with warm water every time he takes a shower. Not a big deal
" She also said that adolescent boys have problems with hygiene, as far as keeping themselves clean, (she gave the example of my brother who refused to brush his teeth).
Uggh, what can I say to her when she brings it back up?
Seriously dude, have you ever met a male, especially an adolescent, who keeps his hands off his penis
? Teeth I understand, but heck my guys are only 5 and 3 and their penis' are the part of their bodies that I never have to remind them to wash. I am quite confident that fascination will not go away as they age
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