[cyberyoda]

Hello,

Does anybody circumcised your baby boy in HK?? Is it necessary to do that?? Do you normally do it within 2 days after delivery? What is the long term effect on the baby? Is it still very popular in the US that baby need to do circumcision?? I was told that men in US tends to laugh at those who did not do circumcision. I am shock to hear that, is that a correct saying? Seems like it is not that common in HK for baby to circumcised so not sure if the medical team here is experienced in doing that. How much does it take to circumcised a baby in private hospital??

Thanks for any input.

[barbwong_130]

In most religions that circumcise the procedure happened on the 7th or 8th day of life. If you do it at a week it has much less effect on breastfeeding than if you do it on the second day of life.

Often the breastfeeding is only just getting started and there are still a few problems to sort out on the second day. Also your milk will not have increased yet. So having a baby that is in pain and doesn’t feed easily can be a big problem. Also the baby is likely to be given medication to help with the pain which makes him sleepy and again causes problems for the breastfeeding.

Of course the baby is still in pain at a week but if doesn’t affect your breastfeeding so much because your milk has already increased and you are better able to cope with a baby like that.

My husband and I come from Britain and Hong Kong. We never thought of circumcising our boys. It seems a very cruel and heartless thing to do to a small baby.

I had a boyfriend who had to have it done, for medical reasons, as a 13 year old. He said it was the most painful thing that had ever happened to him. I don’t believe that just because the baby is only a couple of days it doesn’t hurt them that much. After all other things like injections hurt them as much as it does us.

There is also research telling us that babies that undergo lots of medical procedures as a baby are less able to copy with pain as they grow older. I can see this in my last child. She was quite sick after she was born and had lots of injections and blood tests for the first three weeks of her life. Every time something hurt her she was much more upset and for longer than my other babies. Fortunately after about 9 months she settled down and doesn’t get upset any more than necessary about injections now.

[ELT]

My circumcized husband who's raised in Philippines insists that our son be circumcized based on what he claims a known fact that boys who are not will be laughed at. I don't understand this at all.

Our pd suggested us to do this after he's toilet trained and before he goes to kindie.

[carang]

OMG!!!! ouch!

i know my helper was quite surprised when i told her that we had no intention of doing it to our son.

personally, i think that "because everyone else is" is not a good enough reason.

[barbwong_130]

If you are planning to bring your child up in Hong Kong I don’t think you need worry about this. Hong Kong is a very international city and has all shapes, colours and sizes in it (even for that part of the body).

I asked my teenage sons about the subject and they told me that no one has ever mentioned it to them and no one takes any notice of whether or not you are circumcised. They told me that out of their friends about half are and half aren’t.

[Chy]

We decided not to have it done as I couldn't bear my little one having to experience such pain at barely a few days old. I read in an article that there is a certain degree of discomfort if not pain, I just couldn't put him through it. I feel he can make this decision for himself when he's older, able to understand the reasons behind it, the pros and cons, how the operation will be administered, the recovery etc. Very personal and difficult decision indeed, and this is just how my husband and I feel about it.

[Mother Goose]

My two boys recently went through the surgery of circumcision together. They both had recurrent UTI, especially my then 5-mth-old. He had high fever (over 40 degrees Celcius) twice and went through a lot of painful procedures to check whether UTI is caused by structural reason (reflux of urine). It just kills me to see him go through such precedures and pain.

The actual surgery took about half an hour each and they spent one night at the Adventist. My 3.5-yr-old could get down from bed and play the next day (he still had a paper cup attached to his underwear to protect it). It took them about 7-10 days for total recovery but about a month for the stitches to be completely dissolved.

I personally don't understand why most HK pediatrician don't recommend this procedure for all male newborns. Well, I understand that this is not absolutely necessary but I regret that I didn't get it done when they're born. Main reason is that their father had it done when he's a teenager and kept telling me how painful it was. So he didn't want his sons to go through this unless it's necessary.

In fact, my pediatric surgeon told me that about 1/3 of the male population have the need to do this. So you'll have to decide for yourself. Good luck!

[carang]

it's not recommended because for most newborns it is completely unnecessary. why put your child through that if it is not ABSOLUTELY necessary.

kind of like having a breast removed just in case you get breast cancer, in my mind.

we consider female circumscision cruel and barbaric, why not the same for males?
(i'm not being nasty, it's just something that i've been pondering for a while)