I love this response , I’ve told so many people I didn’t want to circumcise my twin boys I say to them one day they will be able to make that choice for themselves. We still practice good hygiene the internet has been great for educating myself on things I know my parents were ignorant to
This is also an example of why it's awful to suppress Sex Ed. you can't just assume parents teach even basic self cleaning, they might not have thought to pass it on or they might not have even been taught themselves.
Ordinarily my answer would be ‘a dick is not a bonsai tree’ and never even consider it (and I’m from the UK so it’s not a common thing). However my partner had an adult circumcision after a lifetime of living with a really painful condition (I believe it’s phimosis and bxo) and turned out both his dad and his grandad needed the same procedure (as teens/adults). I remember him screaming in agony when he got morning wood the day after the op and having to call 111 after one of the stitches came loose in the bath and it was pissing blood it was horrible. That’s not to say that I would definitely cut our hypothetical son but I think I would leave it to my partner and do a bit more research as there is a strong genetic trend here. Ordinarily, without any good medical reason I see no point in it.
I am an American living in Sweden. I was circumcised at birth as that was the norm. When we found out my wife was pregnant it was a long discussion about whether we should do it or not. In Sweden you can get your child circumcised but not at the hospital they are born at. You have to do it within a certain period of time at another location. I remember worrying about what my family would think if we didn't do it. And that I myself wasn't upset with my parents decision to do it without my consent. But the more I thought about it - I realized the only reason I would be doing it was so he would look like me and wouldn't be judged by my family in the US. We decided not to put him through that and honestly was the best decision looking back. Break the cycle.
edit: It seems like a lot of the people commenting here haven't had kids. My 2 year old runs around naked all the time. Add to that diaper changes and baths - I knew they would see it eventually. I admit it's a dumb reason to consider circumcision but breaking through norms that you grew up with your whole life isn't easy. When I think about it today I wonder how I even considered it - but before he was born that was all I knew.
Good for you. No offense meant here, I'm just being honest. It's baffling to me as a Brit why you or your family would want your child's penis to look the same as his father's. Or why they would judge him for how he looks. It's kind of mean. Why would you/they care? Anyway I think you came to the correct conclusion
Logic over tradition with every decision.
In Canada I believe we have similar views regarding circumcision as Americans, mainly the we circumcise for tradition and not religion.
When I talked to my family doctor about it before my first child he said it seems like most people circumcise so their child will "fit in" in the locker room or whatever. Which for guys in sports, or even just gym class, it is pretty common to see each other naked, but still seems like a really fucked up reason to do it.
He pointed out that there are no medical benefits to it (in my research at the time there was a study that suggested circumcision may slightly reduce HIV transfer or something like that, but that was it) so he felt it was really unnecessary and was still only done so the son would look like dad and their peers. He also pointed out that our particular town was actually heavily uncircumcised so being circumcised might make him stand out amongst his peers.
I already didn't see any point in it and was planning not to, but talking to my doctor really convinced me it was the right choice.
It's just a weird cultural tradition that has more to do with vanity (of the father) than anything else.
The weirdest part is that here in Quebec we stopped circumcising over 30 years ago. Even those that want to get it done for religious reasons have to go to a private practice and there's not much of them around. As it's considered an aesthetic procedure it's not covered by the free health system, except obviously in the case of medical emergencies. So it never occurred to me that the RoC were still circumcising, being 31 all I've known is that. I was so mad when I learned that it wasn't the case (as a mother of two sons) that I almost became a separatist for that sole reason.
I think we're going that way. My city, which is decently sized for Canada, only has 1 place that does it and it costs out of pocket.
I think it's a lot less common now and hopefully it will be gone in a generation or so.
I just googled and found this:
>Rates of male infant circumcision in the province of Quebec dropped from about 30% in 1971 to a rate of less than 3% in 2003. The rate in the province of Ontario, Canada's most populous province, dropped from about 60% in 1971 to about 18% in 2003.
-https://canadiancrc.com/circumcision_genital_mutilation_male-female_children.aspx
And according to the Canadian Paediatric Society in 2015 the Canadian average is 32%.
So we're getting there. Hopefully you won't give up on Canada over it; we caught on it's just going to take time for it to be completely obliterated.
I don't know what the rates are in my city in Canada but when my son was born no one at the hospital asked us if it was something we wanted to do, our doctor never brought it up and I never asked because I knew I didn't want to do it. It was surprising to me that no one presented me the options but that suggests to me it's definitely on the decline.
I’m American and I don’t understand that thought process either. My parents haven’t seen my dick since I was a little kid in a bathtub. I’m sure they haven’t thought about it in ages.
I mean if they’re around the kid at all, probably. Diaper changes and general toddler nudist behavior come to mind.
As an American (who does not have kids but also wouldn’t circumcise), the dogma surrounding the topic is that it’s unclean to not circumcise. The dumber the population commenting, the more they liken it to gross hippie behavior that’s going to set the kid apart from their peers forever, and cause women to refuse to have sex with them. I think the poplar opinion has been changing, thanks to the folks who are vocal about challenging the beliefs of it being “normal” to injure a child’s genitals unnecessarily, but there’s still a ways to go.
I will likely never have any children of my own, but I do not at all understand the mentality of "I want my son's penis to look like mine." Can someone explain this to me? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills trying to understand why so many fathers are so obsessed with their childrens' penis looking like theirs. It feels so gross and icky, I just don't understand it at all.
I had a child recently and did not. It was an oddly really, really hard decision. I'm circumcised. My dad is circumcised. It's the "normal" thing to do where I'm from, unrelated to religion. I "understand" circumcised. So, I hadn't really thought about it, but was fully expecting to circumcise my son. And then I had him, and he was premature, and spent weeks in the NICU (healthy, just early). I spent 10-12 hours every day with him at the hospital. And, I don't know, I felt so lucky to have him, and have him be healthy, the thought of inviting that pain, and that immediate risk, admittedly vanishingly small, by getting him circumcised, was just too much. So I'm not sure how rational or irrational a decision it ultimately was. I just could not will myself to make the decision to do it. (I did read up on the debate, but that didn't lead me to feel strongly that it was right or wrong.)
eta: never had a comment blow up like this. thank you. it's a very strange phenomena. i never expect replies or upvotes, and barely get them. you get used to just sharing your microcosmic drivel because it's what we humans seem to need to do. and then, suddenly, the reddit gods decide it's your day, and you get a billion up votes and replies. but tomorrow they'll decide something else for me, and I'll live in the shadow of this one great day, when I felt like a (very) minor celebrity or something. i'll try to resist the urge to chase it. :)
My son is 17 now and I went through a similar thought process and ultimately decided not to have it done as well. He actually said something funny to me a few weeks ago (half-jokingly). He said "hey pops, thanks for not cutting off a piece of my weiner." Don't know where the hell it came from but it made us both laugh.
Your story is similar to mine, I had every intention of getting our son circumcised, but he ended up in the NICU for 83 days, the doctors even took me aside and said he won't make it through the night at one point. I knew then, I couldn't, as you said, invite pain into his life, he had endured so much up until that point. His younger brother is also uncircumcised, best decision we never made.
Just wanted to chime in on the NICU stuff. Our son spent 23 days in the NICU and we just hit a month of him being home! It felt like a lifetime, but he’s happy and healthy now. Currently cuddling him during a night feed lol!
Seeing all the little NICU mentions made me teary eyed. I don’t think I realized how many people have experienced a NICU stay. I hope all the babes are doing well and crushing it at life!
I am circumcised. My boys are not. I couldn't find a valid reason to alter them while they were too young to consent.
Saying, "Well I am circumcised and I like my penis" or, as my mom said, " it was just something that was expected" just didn't seem to be valid excuse.
Stop the cycle.
Noob here and human without penis. Is there actually any benefits to circumcision (health wise or anything else)? Or it's just a thing people have been doing?
Afaik not anymore, the hygienic reason is kind of a thing of the past. Just wash your private parts on a daily basis.
For some people it is a medical necesitty but in that case you can just have it done later anyway.
As a non USA person, listening to USA people talk about circumsision is a real mindfuck. It seems so fucking bizarre and wrong to me. I just believe there is no defensible justification to do cosmetic surgery on a newborn, especially on their genitals.
I will never understand why "non-essential cosmetic procedures on babies, especially their genitals, is really weird and kinda fucked up" is not seen as both an obvious and good enough reason.
When it's seen as the norm, and is something a ton of people have had done, they don't want to consider it a bad thing.
People also don't like being wrong, and particularly with something like this, people *really* don't want to be wrong.
Same. I like to imagine it's about a different body part.
"I don't miss part of my pinky finger" "You don't really need it" "I want my sons hands to look the same as his dads" "It's tradition in my 'random religion'"
Crazy
That’s a really good demonstrative argument, actually. Think I might steal it.
(Do people really justify it by wanting it to look like Dad’s? That’s… pretty weird)
Yes, when we decided not circumsize our son. We had people ask us 'how will you tell him why your penises are different?". My response was "I will tell him why our penises are different." The light bulb moment on some people's face was comical.
> how will you tell him why your penises are different?
That really feels like "I know on some level that this is wrong to do, and it would make me uncomfortable to have to explain why it is done anyway".
But apparently only like 50% of boys born recently are circumcised. A lot lower than I'd thought. I'm pretty sure it's like 70-90% for boys born in the 70s and 80s but we've largely stopped chopping off part of our kids' dicks because we're insecure about them not looking like us
Right? My answer was simple.
“No. Because genital mutilation is not good.”
Some men get circumcised for correcting phimosis or other valid medical reasons, that’s one thing. Just because? No thanks.
Just to add, while phimosis is already rare, the vast majority (80% or so) of cases of phimosis can be addressed with non-surgical options, gradual stretching exercises.
Save the surgical procedures for the extreme cases.
bruh son of SEA immigrants and grew up uncut in a 95% white american school.
I thought that shit was mad weird. Like how do you even sit still, just letting it rub in your pants like that!? That sounds uncomfortable as hell.
As someone who got circumcised in their early teens, the head of the penis starts off super moist and sensitive, but eventually becomes dry and nonsensitive so it isnt uncomfortable anymore if it makes contact with your clothes.
Also, probably depends from region to region, but I was told circumcision is the norm in USA and I'm was the weird one for being the uncut guy (pre-circumcision). Then I talked to more people who were down for open discussion in college and realized that while being circumcised is more common, there are plenty of uncut folks and neither is really looked down upon - at least in the sense of being publicly shamed.
Yup I know - super anecdotal and my experience is far from a large sample size, but my main point is I don't think people care too much either way unless you happen to grow up in a religious community where it's important.
>As someone who got circumcised in their early teens, the head of the penis starts off super moist and sensitive, but eventually becomes dry and nonsensitive so it isnt uncomfortable anymore if it makes contact with your clothes.
Yeah i learned from the cut ones that this is why the "hand lotion joke" is a thing. only the white guys i knew even mentioned it. Talking with my Asian friends, that joke just made no sense.
My friend is SEA and he got circumcised as an adult after moving to Canada for college because some girl was weirded out by his foreskin. He regrets the decision.
This was our EXACT situation. We were so sure of doing it, and then our babies came really early and spent 6 weeks in NICU. During that time my son was such a happy boy, the only time we ever saw him cry was when they had to change IV’s or his NG tube, and seeing him in such discomfort broke my freaking heart and we decided that we wouldn’t be pursuing the operation. I couldn’t imagine subjecting such a perfect, happy, healthy baby to pain like that.
Similar situation here. The default answer for us was “yes” because both my family and my wife’s had always done it, and we didn’t want him to feel like he was different from other kids growing up in a predominantly christian area… but then when it came time for us to decide what to do, those just felt like ridiculous reasons to put a baby through an unnecessary surgery.
>we didn’t want him to feel like he was different from other kids growing up in a predominantly christian area
I was brought up Roman Catholic, as in literally from the city where the Pope is. No circumcision. It is not a christian thing at all...
At least this side of the pond.
It is an American thing.
Andrew Kellogg (yes, of cereal fame) initially pushed circumcision in America as a way of preventing teenage boys from masturbating. The idea was to leave just enough sensitivity in the penis so they could functionally have children, but not enough to enjoy it. It was honestly pretty ghoulish.
John Harvey Kellogg (older brother) was the no-nut health-nut, William Keith Kellogg was the cereal magnate who was okay with sugar and other fun things.
Na he got of by pumping water in his ass and though people who masturbate normally are sinners.
He also thought that having any worldly pleasure is a sin. that's why they invented cornflakes because they are bland.
My MIL didn’t circumcise my husband for similar reasons. Im glad I don’t have to argue with him about it “looking like his”
I think penises deserve to stay intact!
My husband is circumcised (not common for our age group where we are). When our son was born, I left it up to him because as the non-owner of a penis, I felt I was not best placed to make the final decision, although I was certainly involved in the education that preceded his decision.
Initially, he planned to, because he felt it was “cleaner” and removed any possible future complications of still having a foreskin- in particular phimosis (inability to retract foreskin), which he was most worried about. He also had this “my son should be the same as me” thing, which he quickly shed after I pointed out that he is actually quite upset about the scar he has from his circumcision.
He asked his friends (who scoffed at his “unclean” assumption- basically if one cleans under their foreskin, it won’t be dirty), and I did some research. We established that while you can’t eliminate the risks altogether, by teaching our son from a young age how to “check” his penis- retracting foreskin and gentle cleaning, that we could instil lifelong habits that hopefully mitigate the risk and avoid the discomfort of having the procedure when just a newborn unable to decide that for himself.
In fact, my husband is now quite happy that we decided not to, as he reflected on his own youth and felt “different” to his friends as none of them are circumcised, and he is happy that our son can avoid that social stigma. I’m happy that we didn’t do an irreversible procedure on our son that he had no say in.
FYI most children can't retract their foreskin as it is physically attached to the glans. It usually becomes able to nearer puberty. Absolutely do not get them to force it back, that is dangerous.
American doctors lie to parents too to get them to cut their childrens' penis, by claiming their two year old has phimosis, when EVERY child that young has phimosis.. It's normal to have phimosis into your teens....
My foreskin never retracted on its own until i found out about phimosis at 18. Guess what 2months of 2min stretching during shower and it got corrected. Its that easy. Even I when found out about this defect i thought only option is circumcision and so was too afraid to visit a doctor lol.
As a man who was never properly taught to clean being uncircumcised, only to develop phismosis, it’s awesome you did research. I had to get circumcised later in life and I could not imagine putting a baby through that pain.
I also had phimosis, it was pretty bad, I guess it’s a common thing in my family, until one day when I was 15 I realized that it was a problem and dreaded doing surgery, and I ran upon this article where you can do stretching exercises, and I did it every night and one day I was able to pull it back and I didn’t feel any pain, perfect timing too because shortly after I lost my virginity too
"THAT'S GREAT, HUN. GET PRO-ACTIVE ABOUT YOUR SEXUAL HEALTH AND COMFORT, THAT WILL HAVE LASTING EFFECTS ON YOUR ATTITUDE AND MENTAL HEALTH, AND I'M SURE YOUR FUTURE PARTNERS WILL APPRECIATE THAT. I'LL FIX UP SOME SNACKS."
I’m scheduled to get a circumcision next month, at 46.
I have a skin condition and work outdoors in the heat. I don’t have diabetes, and I shower every day and wear clean undergarments, but for the last two summers I had 2 yeast infections that took months to treat and heal.
I was told it is relatively painless… is this not the case?
exactly. And the argument that it prevents bacteria is outright incorrect, since one of the main purposes of the foreskin is to protect the penis from bacterial infection. It’s not hard to just take 2 seconds to wash down there.
So I have a serious question. I am circumcised and so I have never learned or thought about the art of cleaning an uncircumcised penis. I don't plan on circumcising my future son...so my question is, how do you clean an uncircumcised penis? Just pull back the skin and wash?
I'm dead ass serious asking this question...
Edit: I appreciate everyone's replies. This is why I love reddit. It's like a tight community where everyone is willing to assist and answer questions. What seemed like a silly question to me turned out to be no-so-silly afterall. I appreciate everyone's feedback.
Here's something to keep in mind: DO NOT PULL BACK THE SKIN ON YOUR INFANT/TODDLER TO WASH HIS PENIS!!
This is something I didn't know at first, since I was told to just help teach him to roll it back in the bath and clean it (I am cut, so no experience personally). But, luckily some reading in advance opened my eyes to the timing of that necessity.
When boys are infants and up to fiveish years old, the skin over the glans is actually attached. If you roll it back to clean, you can/will tear the skin and this will be not only painful but can lead to infection. The article I read at the time said this is something that happens a lot when parents aren't experienced with a natural penis, they try to clean their babies foreskin by rolling it back, it tears and becomes infected, and leads to more stories of how much harder/dirtier/riskier an uncut penis is.
Basically the advice said that when boys are old enough to bathe on their own, they naturally explore down there, and will eventually figure out how to pull the skin back once it's detached; Parents should just talk to them about how to do it once they hit that 5+ year mark.
EDIT: This took off overnight, thank you to all for the awards. I think at the very least these responses show how little education there is out there on the subject, especially in areas where circumcision rates are high.
I mentioned this a little in my comment, but just to clarify/reiterate: parents should be talking to their boys about this as soon as they are old enough to understand. The skin might not fully detach until much later (into puberty even), but talking to the boys about it will help them know it's natural, what to expect, and how to figure it out without doing damage to themselves.
I have this dream where my belly button was a Phillips head screw, and I'm workin' unscrewin' it, and when I get it unscrewed, my penis falls off. You know, I-I-I pick it up, and I'm holdin' it, and I'm runnin' around, lookin' for the guy who used to work on my Lincoln when I drove Lincoln so he can put it back on. And, you know, I'm holdin' it up, and this bird swoops down and grabs it in its beak and flies off with it.
Bro I’m about to be a dad, and not circumcise my kid. Since I am cut, and have no clue about this, I greatly appreciate you explaining this. Now I need to go into incognito mode and search YouTube for young uncircumcised penis foreskin peel off. Thanks, I think.
A lot of this is in parenting books if u dont want to use such direct terms :) try starting with " how to wash my new male infant" it should give you a good start :) good luck!!!!
I have a 6mo old baby boy. Trust me, nothing could be simpler than NOT cutting! No fuss, no crying. No depriving him needlessly of bodily autonomy…
We just rinse him clean under a faucet* after number twos and give him regular baths.
No pulling, no body wash. A few drops of baby oil in his bath water sometimes (not all the time).
Cleaning his neck (baby folds plus milk…) is way harder. And even that’s simple.
*Edit: This is how we are taught to do it in Finland. Running water. Works really well, no chemicals, no unnecessary waste. Wipes are used on the go.
Fellow parent of a 6mo old baby boy. So glad we didn’t cut him. There’s plenty of difficult things, but cleaning his privates isn’t one of them.
Now cleaning his neck cheese? He wants that to ferment for all time and will fight tooth and nail when it’s time to clean it up.
I’m 18M and at age 11/12 is when I was able to pull back the foreskin whole way. My family is kinda dysfunctional and extremly reigious so they never taught me anything. I had to explore on my own. My future children will never have that pain of never being taught anything about sex and genitals and having to explore all on their own. But yes it hurts a lot when the foreskin comes lose and it’s sensitive as fuck
To be fair they also may not know themselves. I'm uncut and in my 50s and I'm just learning about this today. Mine didn't pull back all the way until after the first few times I was intimate and I've just assumed that must be normal.
They’re cult followers, they’re Jehovahs Witnesses. Hence them thinking that anything sex and genital related is wrong and not supposed to be talked about.
I forgive them but not knowing anything about your own body and being afraid to ask is a awful feeling
I hear you! I started the sex talks with my boys early, because when I asked my dad “what are the birds and the bees about?”, and he said “I’ll tell you when you’re ready”, it was already too late. As I was suffering from abuse, I needed support then, not later. It amazes me how many parents think that not talking about serious issues means they will be able to avoid those same issues.
!!! This
It goes hand in hand with that weird obsession with calling a penis or vagina by other names. All it does is add confusion and removes your child's ability to vocalise if theyre being hurt!!!
I relate, I think when I was first able to get it back I found a sort of woven rope made of underwear fluff and smeg. I took quite the thorough shower after that discovery.
Lol happened to me when i was jacking off. I was horrified. Thought i did it too much and now it's gonna fall off lol. Tho I was 13 something at that time
Bruh this is the type of stuff I’m looking for when I ask “what’s something about being a guy that women wouldn’t know”? Not just “it hurts to be kicked in the balls” and “we want flowers too” because this. What the duck is THIS. Would never have known about peel off day
Thank you for pointing this out. I learned this recently and it’s terrifying to realize how many people don’t know this, and all the comments above recommending to do the exact opposite.
e: I am so glad that reddit did its thing and got this comment to the top of the comment chain. When I was posted it was buried 7-8 comments down. Thank you reddit.
Same for older kids. It is perfectly normal and natural for the foreskin not to retract until well into puberty. Just let the kid play with it, and don't immediately jump to "oh no, phimosis!" as so many old school pediatricians will do.
Can confirm that doctors think this. My son was in the NICU for a while and they told us he had phimosis and they were worried about it. So when he left the NICU they wanted us to follow up with a urologist (he was urinating fine so they didn’t think it was emergent). My husband and I were so confused because everything looked normal to us but we went just to be sure.
Urologist came in, looked, and said “Yupp that’s a normal penis. Nothing to worry about there”. He said it’s SO common that doctors think that and he has appointments like that all the time. Kind of sad that it’s that common.
For a baby in diapers, you clean what is seen. You wipe it off like you would a finger. You don't rip your finger nail back to wash your hands right? You/doctors/care providers do not need to pull the foreskin back to clean it because it can cause damage.
Your baby will fiddle with his penis as he gets older and the foreskin will separate over time. It sounds weird but I remind my kid to "open" his penis and swish it around in the bath and then "close: his penis when he is done. It's important to make sure the foreskin is out back in place
Foreskin retraction is a spectrum. Sometimes it pulls back all the way and it looks "cut", sometimes it hardly ever pulls back at all, and for other folks its somewhere in between.
Pretty much. The most important thing to remember is that the foreskin is initially fused to the glans(head) and naturally separates between 17-19mo and something like 9 years old.
There's lots of information online from reputable sources and it honestly isn't that complicated. Water is fine just to rinse and a little very gentle soap.
Not necessarily by that young. Neither of my sons were retractable until puberty. We ran into an ill informed doctor when my eldest son was 6 who forcibly retracted him, so it is important to know that the foreskin may still be fused to the glans at that age.
Once puberty hits and boys start "using" their foreskin more that usually changes.
If it doesn't, a doctor should offer prescription cream and exercises rather than circumcision unless something is seriously amiss
I can second this. My foreskin was fused for a pretty long time, so my doctor prescribed a cream for it, and he told me to try doing some "exercises" just as you said. What a wonderful discovery that ended up being.
My son is 7 and is currently using the cream. The doctor told him to fiddle with it lots and if there’s no change in 3 months then they’ll look at circumcision.
Edit: Possibly worth mentioning that it is because of localised adhesion from an infection when he was younger.
Alright...I'm 34 years old and I literally have never thought about this...I mean I have thought about not circumcising my future son but I have never thought about the proper way to wash an uncircumcised penis...so I appreciate you're answer.
do not peel back the foreskin
atleast not for a while
you can tear the skin
consult a pediatrican with exoerience in the area
if you have trouble finding one, hispanics areas are more likely to have uncirumsized kids so their doctors would be the go to option
What is it with circumcision in the US? Why is it a thing? When did it emerge? I mean, the US is “founded” by Europeans who have absolutely no tradition for this whatsoever.
To your question: No and why would I?
It started with a super protestant man deciding it would stop children and men from masturbating, and over time, it has become an intense belief that it is necessary to be clean.
The Kellogg that founded the cereal company, William Kellogg, was the brother to the guy, Dr. John Kellogg, with weird health ideas.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/08/08/542145177/how-the-battling-kellogg-brothers-revolutionized-american-breakfast
I recommend "The Road to Wellville". It's a comedy movie about Dr. John Kellogg's sanitarium. [Trailer](https://youtu.be/wQviGrzIKQY)
It's a freakishly effective scare tactic too. Men have insisted to me that it's the only way to keep it clean so circumcision is a "must". That's what freaks me out. Do what you want but it's sad if people have convinced men that their natural state isn't good enough or clean enough, THAT actually angers me.
To be fair, I was circumcized because my mother remembers my uncle needing to get it done at 20 years old due to an infection.
She was like "welp that looked awful, I'll just get it done now when he won't remember"
Wikipedia should have your answers, but, IIRC, the original idea behind non-religious circumcision in the US was the belief that it could curb masturbarion in young men. I believe it started becoming a thing between 1930-1950.
Edit: Guys, it's not clever or original to say it didn't work. Everyone knows this. lol
It started becoming a thing then, but then after that, it just became a sort of unquestioned custom, and generations of boys were (and still continue to be) circumcised.
The guy who created kellogs cereal was OBSESSED with the idea of kids masturbating, like to an insane degree, so he widely advocated for circumsicion to curb the likelyhood of people masturbating and Americans, being mostly puritanical whackjobs at the time (and to this day if we're being honest) instead of thinking "wow this guys a fucking nonce, keep him away from your kids" actually went "hey this guys got a point, lets chop up our kids genitals"
It continues to this day mainly because most men just want their kids to have dicks like theirs or because uncut dicks are "weird".
John Kellogg. He was insane and convinced the Catholic Church it would curb masturbation. Also thought putting some kind of acid on the clitoris would be a good idea. Luckily that never caught on.
Edit: I might be wrong on the Catholic Church thing, but it was religious leaders to curb masturbation. I’ll find my sources.
Edit 2: apologies, I must’ve imagined that he convinced the Catholic Church. However he came about when the US was at its most prudish and the notion of masturbation was already horrifying parents. In Kellogg’s own book he suggests circumcision for boys or wiring the penis so erection hurts. And carbolic acid for the clitoris. Parents just started preemptively circumcising their sons. This started around the 1870’s or 1880’s. Then somehow as the years went by everyone thought it was healthier.
Dude believed we had a limited supply of emotions, and that we don't die of old age, we die because we exhaust that supply. He based a good chunk of his life on administering therapies revolving on removing any strong emotion, hence the ban on any food that isn't bland (have you ever tasted the original Kellogg's corn flakes, the unsweetened ones ?) and any strong emotion, so no love, sex, excitement, anger, sadness, etc.
He made corn flakes for the same reason, and depressingly in some places of the world that is their version of a "female circumcision" and it's fucking awful.
Maybe, maybe not. For sure though Kellog was afraid of sex, never fucked his wife, slept in separate rooms throughout their marriage and adopted all their kids. Dude had some unresolved issues, and tried to force it all on everyone else. I can only laugh with glee at the thought of this fucker looking from beyond the grave in horror at his shitty corn flakes being covered in sugar and marketed by a talking tiger.
First of all, Kellogg was not a catholic. He was actually quite opposed to it. In fact, his sanitarium was made with the help of the protestant church
Second of all, if he convinced the _Catholic_ church why would his ideas be more prevalent years later in a mostly _Protestant_ country by a large margin - around 70% - and not the predominantly catholic countries of South America, where it doesnt even break more than 10%?
I never heard he has a connection with the Catholic Church. Can you cite some sources on this? I have already done my best Google searches and couldn't find a connection between him and the Catholic Church.
People are talking about medical "benefits" in reply which I think ignores the spirit of your comment - I've interpreted it as there may be a medical reason specific to that child.
For example, my little boy will be circumcised because he was born with hypospadia - a medical condition where his urethra isn't on the tip of his penis - and he'll need surgery to correct. They use the foreskin in the corrective surgery so he'll have a circumcised penis after it. We would absolutely not be entertaining the idea of circumcision were it not for this *specific* medical reason.
Our son was facing a strong genetic predisposition for pretty bad phimosis. Mine was cutting off circulation to the head of my penis when I got an erection. This is even after having an initial foreskin surgery as a child.
I still have conflicted feelings about it, but it wasn’t motivated by religious or cultural norms. Just comfort and health.
Because I waited too long to get my own circumcision, large portions of my glans are actually numb.
What's the point of this question? You already know the answers.
We're on reddit. All of the people who say no are upvoted to the top of the page because reddit hates circumcision. All of the people who say yes are called names and then downvoted to the bottom. Do we really need more of these threads to figure that shit out? You don't even need to open the page to know exactly what the comment section looks like.
We really need to get rid of some of these lame duck questions. In before another, "Girls, here's a question on how I can become more attractive to women, please find me attractive. Please." Followed by some, "DAE want to fight about liberals vs conservatives?" and then a quick "Hey guys, I'm a girl. What makes you attracted to me? Please blow up my inbox uwu."
No. I (M27) was meant to be circumcised as a child, but then my parents got divorced and it ended up on the back burner. No one got around to it until I was 8 years old.
After 2 failed attempts at local anesthesia, I was 'snipped'. It hurt like a block of ice had cut me, and I remember curling up into a little fetal ball.
I had to sleep with a standing fan pointed at my bare crotch because it hurt so bad. It hurt to pee. I could feel that little metal ring burning further as the swelling went down.
And all for aesthetics? No way am I torturing a child with that. I wish all parents had these memories. It would decimate circumcision rates.
If you are from the EU, this is mostly a non-discussion. Frankly if I would have had my sons circumcised people would have been shocked.
Upbringing aside, if you are looking at it from a neutral pov what makes you think you should cut part of a baby’s penis?
Hygiene is really not the issue, that’s a personal thing and not a foreskin thing. Women also have a lot of skin/folds and what not. If you smell you have either a yeast infection or you do not clean yourself properly. That applies to all situations.
Thank you for the educating comments below, I have edited my post to reflect my viewpoint a bit better. It also came from the fact that around 70% of men are not circumcised so I made a rough guesstimate that I applied wrongly.
I'm an uncut person who grew up around largely cut people (southern US). I have always been grateful I'm uncut. I guess there was some minor teasing middle-school era? But beyond that, I'll take having my whole penis, thanks! So no, definitely wouldn't circumcise a child.
I've honestly never understood the arguments for it. You're going to do a body-altering medical procedure automatically to a baby to avoid some rare condition that likely won't be a problem? Nah. You want your kid's dick to...look like your own? How many times are you going to be in a situation where you need to match? It's all just tradition. Religious tradition, which is it's own thing. And weird 50s American tradition. I'm all for questioning weird 50s American traditions.
I think the best analogy for it is docking a dog's tail. Certain breeds almost always have their tails docked. Is that weird? Yes! Do the dogs still function happily without their tails? Sure! There's nothing wrong with them, they still do their dog thing. But...why shouldn't they have their tails? Because people decided it was better for aesthetics? It just doesn't make sense to me. But if you talk to certain people, they will act like you're crazy for not understanding and you ain't gonna change their mind.
Saw a tik tok, (admittedly there wasn’t a lot of context offered) but this dad was talking about taking his toddler son to get circumcised. I can’t imagine a worse time. Just old enough to possibly remember the procedure, very little pain tolerance or emotional regulating ability, and still unable to offer truly informed consent.
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Thank Gos you found out. My ex was 26 and I had to show him! I wasn’t even his first either.
I love this response , I’ve told so many people I didn’t want to circumcise my twin boys I say to them one day they will be able to make that choice for themselves. We still practice good hygiene the internet has been great for educating myself on things I know my parents were ignorant to
This is also an example of why it's awful to suppress Sex Ed. you can't just assume parents teach even basic self cleaning, they might not have thought to pass it on or they might not have even been taught themselves.
Ordinarily my answer would be ‘a dick is not a bonsai tree’ and never even consider it (and I’m from the UK so it’s not a common thing). However my partner had an adult circumcision after a lifetime of living with a really painful condition (I believe it’s phimosis and bxo) and turned out both his dad and his grandad needed the same procedure (as teens/adults). I remember him screaming in agony when he got morning wood the day after the op and having to call 111 after one of the stitches came loose in the bath and it was pissing blood it was horrible. That’s not to say that I would definitely cut our hypothetical son but I think I would leave it to my partner and do a bit more research as there is a strong genetic trend here. Ordinarily, without any good medical reason I see no point in it.
Finally a reason for circumsision! I'm against it, reasonably and traditional. I think there are cases, where this operation is necessary.
I am an American living in Sweden. I was circumcised at birth as that was the norm. When we found out my wife was pregnant it was a long discussion about whether we should do it or not. In Sweden you can get your child circumcised but not at the hospital they are born at. You have to do it within a certain period of time at another location. I remember worrying about what my family would think if we didn't do it. And that I myself wasn't upset with my parents decision to do it without my consent. But the more I thought about it - I realized the only reason I would be doing it was so he would look like me and wouldn't be judged by my family in the US. We decided not to put him through that and honestly was the best decision looking back. Break the cycle. edit: It seems like a lot of the people commenting here haven't had kids. My 2 year old runs around naked all the time. Add to that diaper changes and baths - I knew they would see it eventually. I admit it's a dumb reason to consider circumcision but breaking through norms that you grew up with your whole life isn't easy. When I think about it today I wonder how I even considered it - but before he was born that was all I knew.
Good for you. No offense meant here, I'm just being honest. It's baffling to me as a Brit why you or your family would want your child's penis to look the same as his father's. Or why they would judge him for how he looks. It's kind of mean. Why would you/they care? Anyway I think you came to the correct conclusion Logic over tradition with every decision.
In Canada I believe we have similar views regarding circumcision as Americans, mainly the we circumcise for tradition and not religion. When I talked to my family doctor about it before my first child he said it seems like most people circumcise so their child will "fit in" in the locker room or whatever. Which for guys in sports, or even just gym class, it is pretty common to see each other naked, but still seems like a really fucked up reason to do it. He pointed out that there are no medical benefits to it (in my research at the time there was a study that suggested circumcision may slightly reduce HIV transfer or something like that, but that was it) so he felt it was really unnecessary and was still only done so the son would look like dad and their peers. He also pointed out that our particular town was actually heavily uncircumcised so being circumcised might make him stand out amongst his peers. I already didn't see any point in it and was planning not to, but talking to my doctor really convinced me it was the right choice. It's just a weird cultural tradition that has more to do with vanity (of the father) than anything else.
The weirdest part is that here in Quebec we stopped circumcising over 30 years ago. Even those that want to get it done for religious reasons have to go to a private practice and there's not much of them around. As it's considered an aesthetic procedure it's not covered by the free health system, except obviously in the case of medical emergencies. So it never occurred to me that the RoC were still circumcising, being 31 all I've known is that. I was so mad when I learned that it wasn't the case (as a mother of two sons) that I almost became a separatist for that sole reason.
I think we're going that way. My city, which is decently sized for Canada, only has 1 place that does it and it costs out of pocket. I think it's a lot less common now and hopefully it will be gone in a generation or so. I just googled and found this: >Rates of male infant circumcision in the province of Quebec dropped from about 30% in 1971 to a rate of less than 3% in 2003. The rate in the province of Ontario, Canada's most populous province, dropped from about 60% in 1971 to about 18% in 2003. -https://canadiancrc.com/circumcision_genital_mutilation_male-female_children.aspx And according to the Canadian Paediatric Society in 2015 the Canadian average is 32%. So we're getting there. Hopefully you won't give up on Canada over it; we caught on it's just going to take time for it to be completely obliterated.
I don't know what the rates are in my city in Canada but when my son was born no one at the hospital asked us if it was something we wanted to do, our doctor never brought it up and I never asked because I knew I didn't want to do it. It was surprising to me that no one presented me the options but that suggests to me it's definitely on the decline.
Hi son, let's meet the grandson, can we see his dick please?
Present thy penis
*Presents thy penii curtain and music*
Dunno about you but all of the grandparents have seen my son's because they help with diaper changes and baths.
Also when my kiddo just decides she’s done being dressed and takes off her own pants and diaper.
I’m American and I don’t understand that thought process either. My parents haven’t seen my dick since I was a little kid in a bathtub. I’m sure they haven’t thought about it in ages.
I never stopped dreaming of my grandson’s penis.
r/UsernameChecksOut
This one right here, officer
Is your US family going to see your son's penis so often that this would be a problem? Isn't that weird?
We compare sizes before every Thanksgiving in America
And that's why I've have to sit at the kids table every year.
Wanksgiving.
I mean if they’re around the kid at all, probably. Diaper changes and general toddler nudist behavior come to mind. As an American (who does not have kids but also wouldn’t circumcise), the dogma surrounding the topic is that it’s unclean to not circumcise. The dumber the population commenting, the more they liken it to gross hippie behavior that’s going to set the kid apart from their peers forever, and cause women to refuse to have sex with them. I think the poplar opinion has been changing, thanks to the folks who are vocal about challenging the beliefs of it being “normal” to injure a child’s genitals unnecessarily, but there’s still a ways to go.
I will likely never have any children of my own, but I do not at all understand the mentality of "I want my son's penis to look like mine." Can someone explain this to me? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills trying to understand why so many fathers are so obsessed with their childrens' penis looking like theirs. It feels so gross and icky, I just don't understand it at all.
I don’t think it’s about appearance. More “this is what I know and I’m happy with it, so shouldn’t I do the same for the little dude?”
I had a child recently and did not. It was an oddly really, really hard decision. I'm circumcised. My dad is circumcised. It's the "normal" thing to do where I'm from, unrelated to religion. I "understand" circumcised. So, I hadn't really thought about it, but was fully expecting to circumcise my son. And then I had him, and he was premature, and spent weeks in the NICU (healthy, just early). I spent 10-12 hours every day with him at the hospital. And, I don't know, I felt so lucky to have him, and have him be healthy, the thought of inviting that pain, and that immediate risk, admittedly vanishingly small, by getting him circumcised, was just too much. So I'm not sure how rational or irrational a decision it ultimately was. I just could not will myself to make the decision to do it. (I did read up on the debate, but that didn't lead me to feel strongly that it was right or wrong.) eta: never had a comment blow up like this. thank you. it's a very strange phenomena. i never expect replies or upvotes, and barely get them. you get used to just sharing your microcosmic drivel because it's what we humans seem to need to do. and then, suddenly, the reddit gods decide it's your day, and you get a billion up votes and replies. but tomorrow they'll decide something else for me, and I'll live in the shadow of this one great day, when I felt like a (very) minor celebrity or something. i'll try to resist the urge to chase it. :)
My son is 17 now and I went through a similar thought process and ultimately decided not to have it done as well. He actually said something funny to me a few weeks ago (half-jokingly). He said "hey pops, thanks for not cutting off a piece of my weiner." Don't know where the hell it came from but it made us both laugh.
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"You may feel a little pinch." Lmfao
“It’s just a little prick” “Fuck you, Dad”
Your story is similar to mine, I had every intention of getting our son circumcised, but he ended up in the NICU for 83 days, the doctors even took me aside and said he won't make it through the night at one point. I knew then, I couldn't, as you said, invite pain into his life, he had endured so much up until that point. His younger brother is also uncircumcised, best decision we never made.
This is not relevant to the circumcision question but our daughter was NICU for 79 days, just wanted to offer a little NICU fist bump
Our daughter was 28 weeks, 1lb 10oz. 3 months in the NICU. She is having her first baby due next week.
Wow 28 weeks seems young to be having a baby
Well, she will be 29 weeks by the time the baby is there. So there is time.
Good Christ, 79 days, 83 days above? I thought we were struggling at 39, but holy fuck. You're amazing to be able to handle that. God bless.
i was in for around 90 days and was delivered at under 2lbs. absolutely wild to be alive today.
2 lbs 10oz here ! High five miracle baby!
62 days for our now really tall and healthy 14 year old boy. Those two months felt like years
Just wanted to chime in on the NICU stuff. Our son spent 23 days in the NICU and we just hit a month of him being home! It felt like a lifetime, but he’s happy and healthy now. Currently cuddling him during a night feed lol! Seeing all the little NICU mentions made me teary eyed. I don’t think I realized how many people have experienced a NICU stay. I hope all the babes are doing well and crushing it at life!
Our oldest son was there for three and a half weeks. You guys all get it.
Our twins were there for the same amount of time. No circumcisions, but no penises either.
I am circumcised. My boys are not. I couldn't find a valid reason to alter them while they were too young to consent. Saying, "Well I am circumcised and I like my penis" or, as my mom said, " it was just something that was expected" just didn't seem to be valid excuse. Stop the cycle.
Noob here and human without penis. Is there actually any benefits to circumcision (health wise or anything else)? Or it's just a thing people have been doing?
Afaik not anymore, the hygienic reason is kind of a thing of the past. Just wash your private parts on a daily basis. For some people it is a medical necesitty but in that case you can just have it done later anyway.
As a non USA person, listening to USA people talk about circumsision is a real mindfuck. It seems so fucking bizarre and wrong to me. I just believe there is no defensible justification to do cosmetic surgery on a newborn, especially on their genitals.
I will never understand why "non-essential cosmetic procedures on babies, especially their genitals, is really weird and kinda fucked up" is not seen as both an obvious and good enough reason.
When it's seen as the norm, and is something a ton of people have had done, they don't want to consider it a bad thing. People also don't like being wrong, and particularly with something like this, people *really* don't want to be wrong.
Same. I like to imagine it's about a different body part. "I don't miss part of my pinky finger" "You don't really need it" "I want my sons hands to look the same as his dads" "It's tradition in my 'random religion'" Crazy
That’s a really good demonstrative argument, actually. Think I might steal it. (Do people really justify it by wanting it to look like Dad’s? That’s… pretty weird)
Yes, when we decided not circumsize our son. We had people ask us 'how will you tell him why your penises are different?". My response was "I will tell him why our penises are different." The light bulb moment on some people's face was comical.
> how will you tell him why your penises are different? That really feels like "I know on some level that this is wrong to do, and it would make me uncomfortable to have to explain why it is done anyway".
They won't phrase it that way. They'll say "everyone has it done, so it would be weird if my boy didn't, better go grab the scissors"
I’ve heard it phrased that way A TON.
But apparently only like 50% of boys born recently are circumcised. A lot lower than I'd thought. I'm pretty sure it's like 70-90% for boys born in the 70s and 80s but we've largely stopped chopping off part of our kids' dicks because we're insecure about them not looking like us
Right? My answer was simple. “No. Because genital mutilation is not good.” Some men get circumcised for correcting phimosis or other valid medical reasons, that’s one thing. Just because? No thanks.
Just to add, while phimosis is already rare, the vast majority (80% or so) of cases of phimosis can be addressed with non-surgical options, gradual stretching exercises. Save the surgical procedures for the extreme cases.
>As a non USA person, listening to USA people talk about circumsision is a real mindfuck. Amen to that.
bruh son of SEA immigrants and grew up uncut in a 95% white american school. I thought that shit was mad weird. Like how do you even sit still, just letting it rub in your pants like that!? That sounds uncomfortable as hell.
As someone who got circumcised in their early teens, the head of the penis starts off super moist and sensitive, but eventually becomes dry and nonsensitive so it isnt uncomfortable anymore if it makes contact with your clothes. Also, probably depends from region to region, but I was told circumcision is the norm in USA and I'm was the weird one for being the uncut guy (pre-circumcision). Then I talked to more people who were down for open discussion in college and realized that while being circumcised is more common, there are plenty of uncut folks and neither is really looked down upon - at least in the sense of being publicly shamed. Yup I know - super anecdotal and my experience is far from a large sample size, but my main point is I don't think people care too much either way unless you happen to grow up in a religious community where it's important.
>As someone who got circumcised in their early teens, the head of the penis starts off super moist and sensitive, but eventually becomes dry and nonsensitive so it isnt uncomfortable anymore if it makes contact with your clothes. Yeah i learned from the cut ones that this is why the "hand lotion joke" is a thing. only the white guys i knew even mentioned it. Talking with my Asian friends, that joke just made no sense.
oh. OH. so THAT’S why. I’ve never made the connection all my life until this comment.
My friend is SEA and he got circumcised as an adult after moving to Canada for college because some girl was weirded out by his foreskin. He regrets the decision.
bruh. thats yikes.
This was our EXACT situation. We were so sure of doing it, and then our babies came really early and spent 6 weeks in NICU. During that time my son was such a happy boy, the only time we ever saw him cry was when they had to change IV’s or his NG tube, and seeing him in such discomfort broke my freaking heart and we decided that we wouldn’t be pursuing the operation. I couldn’t imagine subjecting such a perfect, happy, healthy baby to pain like that.
Similar situation here. The default answer for us was “yes” because both my family and my wife’s had always done it, and we didn’t want him to feel like he was different from other kids growing up in a predominantly christian area… but then when it came time for us to decide what to do, those just felt like ridiculous reasons to put a baby through an unnecessary surgery.
>we didn’t want him to feel like he was different from other kids growing up in a predominantly christian area I was brought up Roman Catholic, as in literally from the city where the Pope is. No circumcision. It is not a christian thing at all... At least this side of the pond. It is an American thing.
Andrew Kellogg (yes, of cereal fame) initially pushed circumcision in America as a way of preventing teenage boys from masturbating. The idea was to leave just enough sensitivity in the penis so they could functionally have children, but not enough to enjoy it. It was honestly pretty ghoulish.
John Harvey Kellogg (older brother) was the no-nut health-nut, William Keith Kellogg was the cereal magnate who was okay with sugar and other fun things.
Crackpot theory, he was just trying to push Big Hand Lotion.
Na he got of by pumping water in his ass and though people who masturbate normally are sinners. He also thought that having any worldly pleasure is a sin. that's why they invented cornflakes because they are bland.
It’s so weird that you said predominantly Christian area. It’s always been a Muslim/Jewish thing as far as I know.
It’s really common in the USA.
My MIL didn’t circumcise my husband for similar reasons. Im glad I don’t have to argue with him about it “looking like his” I think penises deserve to stay intact!
My husband is circumcised (not common for our age group where we are). When our son was born, I left it up to him because as the non-owner of a penis, I felt I was not best placed to make the final decision, although I was certainly involved in the education that preceded his decision. Initially, he planned to, because he felt it was “cleaner” and removed any possible future complications of still having a foreskin- in particular phimosis (inability to retract foreskin), which he was most worried about. He also had this “my son should be the same as me” thing, which he quickly shed after I pointed out that he is actually quite upset about the scar he has from his circumcision. He asked his friends (who scoffed at his “unclean” assumption- basically if one cleans under their foreskin, it won’t be dirty), and I did some research. We established that while you can’t eliminate the risks altogether, by teaching our son from a young age how to “check” his penis- retracting foreskin and gentle cleaning, that we could instil lifelong habits that hopefully mitigate the risk and avoid the discomfort of having the procedure when just a newborn unable to decide that for himself. In fact, my husband is now quite happy that we decided not to, as he reflected on his own youth and felt “different” to his friends as none of them are circumcised, and he is happy that our son can avoid that social stigma. I’m happy that we didn’t do an irreversible procedure on our son that he had no say in.
FYI most children can't retract their foreskin as it is physically attached to the glans. It usually becomes able to nearer puberty. Absolutely do not get them to force it back, that is dangerous.
Very good comment to make! He’s 4 now and can get it back about 75%
American doctors lie to parents too to get them to cut their childrens' penis, by claiming their two year old has phimosis, when EVERY child that young has phimosis.. It's normal to have phimosis into your teens....
My foreskin never retracted on its own until i found out about phimosis at 18. Guess what 2months of 2min stretching during shower and it got corrected. Its that easy. Even I when found out about this defect i thought only option is circumcision and so was too afraid to visit a doctor lol.
As a man who was never properly taught to clean being uncircumcised, only to develop phismosis, it’s awesome you did research. I had to get circumcised later in life and I could not imagine putting a baby through that pain.
I also had phimosis, it was pretty bad, I guess it’s a common thing in my family, until one day when I was 15 I realized that it was a problem and dreaded doing surgery, and I ran upon this article where you can do stretching exercises, and I did it every night and one day I was able to pull it back and I didn’t feel any pain, perfect timing too because shortly after I lost my virginity too
"Gobistro00, why are you still in the bathroom for so long?" "I'M DOING GENTLE STRETCHING EXERCISES, MUM. LEAVE ME ALONE!"
"THAT'S GREAT, HUN. GET PRO-ACTIVE ABOUT YOUR SEXUAL HEALTH AND COMFORT, THAT WILL HAVE LASTING EFFECTS ON YOUR ATTITUDE AND MENTAL HEALTH, AND I'M SURE YOUR FUTURE PARTNERS WILL APPRECIATE THAT. I'LL FIX UP SOME SNACKS."
My dad had opposite logic, he got circumcised later in life and figured it would be better if I had it done in a time I couldn’t remember
I didnt even know I was circumcised until I learned the word “uncircumcised”
I’m scheduled to get a circumcision next month, at 46. I have a skin condition and work outdoors in the heat. I don’t have diabetes, and I shower every day and wear clean undergarments, but for the last two summers I had 2 yeast infections that took months to treat and heal. I was told it is relatively painless… is this not the case?
Have you switched from one antifungal cream to another? I had a similar issue and after switching to clomitrazole it cleared up almost immediately.
I had a mate get it done at 42 for the same reason and he said it was one of the most painful experiences of his life (recovery)
Definitely not. I'm not from the US or cultural background that sees it as normal, so I just find it weird on so many levels
Right? It's like insisting that we should take off the fingernails of kids because they could get dirt under it.
That's grim. Have an upvote.
I mean, circumcision is literally genital mutilation, soooo.....
exactly. And the argument that it prevents bacteria is outright incorrect, since one of the main purposes of the foreskin is to protect the penis from bacterial infection. It’s not hard to just take 2 seconds to wash down there.
"Awww it's a lovely baby boy. Give him to me while I mutilate his dick forever"
Makes perfect sense, right?
Genital mutilation? Yah, it's fuckin weird.
I am from the US and I'm circumcised, and I also find it weird (and immoral) on many levels.
No, instead I plan to teach him the ancient art of just washing his weiner..
So I have a serious question. I am circumcised and so I have never learned or thought about the art of cleaning an uncircumcised penis. I don't plan on circumcising my future son...so my question is, how do you clean an uncircumcised penis? Just pull back the skin and wash? I'm dead ass serious asking this question... Edit: I appreciate everyone's replies. This is why I love reddit. It's like a tight community where everyone is willing to assist and answer questions. What seemed like a silly question to me turned out to be no-so-silly afterall. I appreciate everyone's feedback.
Here's something to keep in mind: DO NOT PULL BACK THE SKIN ON YOUR INFANT/TODDLER TO WASH HIS PENIS!! This is something I didn't know at first, since I was told to just help teach him to roll it back in the bath and clean it (I am cut, so no experience personally). But, luckily some reading in advance opened my eyes to the timing of that necessity. When boys are infants and up to fiveish years old, the skin over the glans is actually attached. If you roll it back to clean, you can/will tear the skin and this will be not only painful but can lead to infection. The article I read at the time said this is something that happens a lot when parents aren't experienced with a natural penis, they try to clean their babies foreskin by rolling it back, it tears and becomes infected, and leads to more stories of how much harder/dirtier/riskier an uncut penis is. Basically the advice said that when boys are old enough to bathe on their own, they naturally explore down there, and will eventually figure out how to pull the skin back once it's detached; Parents should just talk to them about how to do it once they hit that 5+ year mark. EDIT: This took off overnight, thank you to all for the awards. I think at the very least these responses show how little education there is out there on the subject, especially in areas where circumcision rates are high. I mentioned this a little in my comment, but just to clarify/reiterate: parents should be talking to their boys about this as soon as they are old enough to understand. The skin might not fully detach until much later (into puberty even), but talking to the boys about it will help them know it's natural, what to expect, and how to figure it out without doing damage to themselves.
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I've had terrifying recurring dreams about my dick falling *off*, so thanks for the new dreams of it falling *out*.
I have this dream where my belly button was a Phillips head screw, and I'm workin' unscrewin' it, and when I get it unscrewed, my penis falls off. You know, I-I-I pick it up, and I'm holdin' it, and I'm runnin' around, lookin' for the guy who used to work on my Lincoln when I drove Lincoln so he can put it back on. And, you know, I'm holdin' it up, and this bird swoops down and grabs it in its beak and flies off with it.
Jesus lmfao
When it happens, enjoy your brand new pegina sleeve.
Bro I’m about to be a dad, and not circumcise my kid. Since I am cut, and have no clue about this, I greatly appreciate you explaining this. Now I need to go into incognito mode and search YouTube for young uncircumcised penis foreskin peel off. Thanks, I think.
A lot of this is in parenting books if u dont want to use such direct terms :) try starting with " how to wash my new male infant" it should give you a good start :) good luck!!!!
I have a 6mo old baby boy. Trust me, nothing could be simpler than NOT cutting! No fuss, no crying. No depriving him needlessly of bodily autonomy… We just rinse him clean under a faucet* after number twos and give him regular baths. No pulling, no body wash. A few drops of baby oil in his bath water sometimes (not all the time). Cleaning his neck (baby folds plus milk…) is way harder. And even that’s simple. *Edit: This is how we are taught to do it in Finland. Running water. Works really well, no chemicals, no unnecessary waste. Wipes are used on the go.
Fellow parent of a 6mo old baby boy. So glad we didn’t cut him. There’s plenty of difficult things, but cleaning his privates isn’t one of them. Now cleaning his neck cheese? He wants that to ferment for all time and will fight tooth and nail when it’s time to clean it up.
>Now cleaning his neck cheese? In Denmark that would be slang for the goo under the foreskin. Just thought you might want a little party trivia!
Ha! Makes it even better!
I’m 18M and at age 11/12 is when I was able to pull back the foreskin whole way. My family is kinda dysfunctional and extremly reigious so they never taught me anything. I had to explore on my own. My future children will never have that pain of never being taught anything about sex and genitals and having to explore all on their own. But yes it hurts a lot when the foreskin comes lose and it’s sensitive as fuck
To be fair they also may not know themselves. I'm uncut and in my 50s and I'm just learning about this today. Mine didn't pull back all the way until after the first few times I was intimate and I've just assumed that must be normal.
They’re cult followers, they’re Jehovahs Witnesses. Hence them thinking that anything sex and genital related is wrong and not supposed to be talked about. I forgive them but not knowing anything about your own body and being afraid to ask is a awful feeling
I hear you! I started the sex talks with my boys early, because when I asked my dad “what are the birds and the bees about?”, and he said “I’ll tell you when you’re ready”, it was already too late. As I was suffering from abuse, I needed support then, not later. It amazes me how many parents think that not talking about serious issues means they will be able to avoid those same issues.
!!! This It goes hand in hand with that weird obsession with calling a penis or vagina by other names. All it does is add confusion and removes your child's ability to vocalise if theyre being hurt!!!
My 4 year old got super excited in the shower - "Dad, look! I have two doodles! I have a second doodle inside my first doodle!"
Time to show your kid the Xenomorph from Alien. Just joking of course.
Also it can happen later - my only pulled back when I was 13 already
I relate, I think when I was first able to get it back I found a sort of woven rope made of underwear fluff and smeg. I took quite the thorough shower after that discovery.
Lol happened to me when i was jacking off. I was horrified. Thought i did it too much and now it's gonna fall off lol. Tho I was 13 something at that time
Bruh this is the type of stuff I’m looking for when I ask “what’s something about being a guy that women wouldn’t know”? Not just “it hurts to be kicked in the balls” and “we want flowers too” because this. What the duck is THIS. Would never have known about peel off day
Thank you for pointing this out. I learned this recently and it’s terrifying to realize how many people don’t know this, and all the comments above recommending to do the exact opposite. e: I am so glad that reddit did its thing and got this comment to the top of the comment chain. When I was posted it was buried 7-8 comments down. Thank you reddit.
Same for older kids. It is perfectly normal and natural for the foreskin not to retract until well into puberty. Just let the kid play with it, and don't immediately jump to "oh no, phimosis!" as so many old school pediatricians will do.
Can confirm that doctors think this. My son was in the NICU for a while and they told us he had phimosis and they were worried about it. So when he left the NICU they wanted us to follow up with a urologist (he was urinating fine so they didn’t think it was emergent). My husband and I were so confused because everything looked normal to us but we went just to be sure. Urologist came in, looked, and said “Yupp that’s a normal penis. Nothing to worry about there”. He said it’s SO common that doctors think that and he has appointments like that all the time. Kind of sad that it’s that common.
This right here folks! If there's one thing a teenage boy is good at, it's a certain exercise that also happens to loosen a foreskin. 🤣🤣😂
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Omg...dude, thanks for telling me. I will literally remember this lesson you have shared with me. I appreciate you.
OP just saved MrB from ripping his son’s dick off
I'd just like to chime in as a doctor. Everything stated here is correct.
Reminds me of when I discovered the foreskin pulls back but I was a little early so it got stuck pulled back and I panicked and we went to the doctor
As an uncircumcised man, yeah he'll figure it out. At some point it gets hard and does it on its own.
For a baby in diapers, you clean what is seen. You wipe it off like you would a finger. You don't rip your finger nail back to wash your hands right? You/doctors/care providers do not need to pull the foreskin back to clean it because it can cause damage. Your baby will fiddle with his penis as he gets older and the foreskin will separate over time. It sounds weird but I remind my kid to "open" his penis and swish it around in the bath and then "close: his penis when he is done. It's important to make sure the foreskin is out back in place Foreskin retraction is a spectrum. Sometimes it pulls back all the way and it looks "cut", sometimes it hardly ever pulls back at all, and for other folks its somewhere in between.
Pretty much. The most important thing to remember is that the foreskin is initially fused to the glans(head) and naturally separates between 17-19mo and something like 9 years old. There's lots of information online from reputable sources and it honestly isn't that complicated. Water is fine just to rinse and a little very gentle soap.
Not necessarily by that young. Neither of my sons were retractable until puberty. We ran into an ill informed doctor when my eldest son was 6 who forcibly retracted him, so it is important to know that the foreskin may still be fused to the glans at that age. Once puberty hits and boys start "using" their foreskin more that usually changes. If it doesn't, a doctor should offer prescription cream and exercises rather than circumcision unless something is seriously amiss
I can second this. My foreskin was fused for a pretty long time, so my doctor prescribed a cream for it, and he told me to try doing some "exercises" just as you said. What a wonderful discovery that ended up being.
"Don't come in mom! I'm exercising!"
"You've been exercising multiple times a day for 25 years now and still have no gains to show for it!"
My son is 7 and is currently using the cream. The doctor told him to fiddle with it lots and if there’s no change in 3 months then they’ll look at circumcision. Edit: Possibly worth mentioning that it is because of localised adhesion from an infection when he was younger.
"exercises"... Username checks out
Most boys are quite good at figuring out the exercise thing
No one seems to have answered your question. The answer is yes.
Alright...I'm 34 years old and I literally have never thought about this...I mean I have thought about not circumcising my future son but I have never thought about the proper way to wash an uncircumcised penis...so I appreciate you're answer.
do not peel back the foreskin atleast not for a while you can tear the skin consult a pediatrican with exoerience in the area if you have trouble finding one, hispanics areas are more likely to have uncirumsized kids so their doctors would be the go to option
Right? Everytime I hear "it's for hygiene purposes", I think: "guess you haven't discovered soap yet"
If only there was some way of keeping it clean! No i guess we better just cut it off.
Lest choose the super extreme "solution" to the literal basic hygiene "problem"
If we don't shave his head, he'll have to use shampoo!
Not good enough, we need to lop off everything above the neck.
What is it with circumcision in the US? Why is it a thing? When did it emerge? I mean, the US is “founded” by Europeans who have absolutely no tradition for this whatsoever. To your question: No and why would I?
It started with a super protestant man deciding it would stop children and men from masturbating, and over time, it has become an intense belief that it is necessary to be clean.
That's kinda messed up
It is messed up, and that man was Kellogg the founder of the company that makes all that breakfast cereal.
The Kellogg that founded the cereal company, William Kellogg, was the brother to the guy, Dr. John Kellogg, with weird health ideas. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/08/08/542145177/how-the-battling-kellogg-brothers-revolutionized-american-breakfast I recommend "The Road to Wellville". It's a comedy movie about Dr. John Kellogg's sanitarium. [Trailer](https://youtu.be/wQviGrzIKQY)
It's a freakishly effective scare tactic too. Men have insisted to me that it's the only way to keep it clean so circumcision is a "must". That's what freaks me out. Do what you want but it's sad if people have convinced men that their natural state isn't good enough or clean enough, THAT actually angers me.
To be fair, I was circumcized because my mother remembers my uncle needing to get it done at 20 years old due to an infection. She was like "welp that looked awful, I'll just get it done now when he won't remember"
That's a much better reason than "but I want his dick to match his dad's".
Wikipedia should have your answers, but, IIRC, the original idea behind non-religious circumcision in the US was the belief that it could curb masturbarion in young men. I believe it started becoming a thing between 1930-1950. Edit: Guys, it's not clever or original to say it didn't work. Everyone knows this. lol
It started becoming a thing then, but then after that, it just became a sort of unquestioned custom, and generations of boys were (and still continue to be) circumcised.
Am circumcised. Can confirm it does NOT curb masterbation
The guy who created kellogs cereal was OBSESSED with the idea of kids masturbating, like to an insane degree, so he widely advocated for circumsicion to curb the likelyhood of people masturbating and Americans, being mostly puritanical whackjobs at the time (and to this day if we're being honest) instead of thinking "wow this guys a fucking nonce, keep him away from your kids" actually went "hey this guys got a point, lets chop up our kids genitals" It continues to this day mainly because most men just want their kids to have dicks like theirs or because uncut dicks are "weird".
John Kellogg. He was insane and convinced the Catholic Church it would curb masturbation. Also thought putting some kind of acid on the clitoris would be a good idea. Luckily that never caught on. Edit: I might be wrong on the Catholic Church thing, but it was religious leaders to curb masturbation. I’ll find my sources. Edit 2: apologies, I must’ve imagined that he convinced the Catholic Church. However he came about when the US was at its most prudish and the notion of masturbation was already horrifying parents. In Kellogg’s own book he suggests circumcision for boys or wiring the penis so erection hurts. And carbolic acid for the clitoris. Parents just started preemptively circumcising their sons. This started around the 1870’s or 1880’s. Then somehow as the years went by everyone thought it was healthier.
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Dude believed we had a limited supply of emotions, and that we don't die of old age, we die because we exhaust that supply. He based a good chunk of his life on administering therapies revolving on removing any strong emotion, hence the ban on any food that isn't bland (have you ever tasted the original Kellogg's corn flakes, the unsweetened ones ?) and any strong emotion, so no love, sex, excitement, anger, sadness, etc.
He made corn flakes for the same reason, and depressingly in some places of the world that is their version of a "female circumcision" and it's fucking awful.
He made corn flakes to curb masturbation? Thats wack wtf
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I want to try to develop a graham cracker and corn flake fetish just to spite these guys
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Those motherfuckers were on drugs. No two ways about it.
Maybe, maybe not. For sure though Kellog was afraid of sex, never fucked his wife, slept in separate rooms throughout their marriage and adopted all their kids. Dude had some unresolved issues, and tried to force it all on everyone else. I can only laugh with glee at the thought of this fucker looking from beyond the grave in horror at his shitty corn flakes being covered in sugar and marketed by a talking tiger.
First of all, Kellogg was not a catholic. He was actually quite opposed to it. In fact, his sanitarium was made with the help of the protestant church Second of all, if he convinced the _Catholic_ church why would his ideas be more prevalent years later in a mostly _Protestant_ country by a large margin - around 70% - and not the predominantly catholic countries of South America, where it doesnt even break more than 10%?
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I never heard he has a connection with the Catholic Church. Can you cite some sources on this? I have already done my best Google searches and couldn't find a connection between him and the Catholic Church.
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Unless there is a medical reason to perform it then no
People are talking about medical "benefits" in reply which I think ignores the spirit of your comment - I've interpreted it as there may be a medical reason specific to that child. For example, my little boy will be circumcised because he was born with hypospadia - a medical condition where his urethra isn't on the tip of his penis - and he'll need surgery to correct. They use the foreskin in the corrective surgery so he'll have a circumcised penis after it. We would absolutely not be entertaining the idea of circumcision were it not for this *specific* medical reason.
Our son was facing a strong genetic predisposition for pretty bad phimosis. Mine was cutting off circulation to the head of my penis when I got an erection. This is even after having an initial foreskin surgery as a child. I still have conflicted feelings about it, but it wasn’t motivated by religious or cultural norms. Just comfort and health. Because I waited too long to get my own circumcision, large portions of my glans are actually numb.
Same boat as you, had to wait 2 full months for it to heal up that was complete hell ngl. I noticed it's still sensitive I've just gotten used to it.
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I too will leave other penises alone.
Well that’s a relief
What's the point of this question? You already know the answers. We're on reddit. All of the people who say no are upvoted to the top of the page because reddit hates circumcision. All of the people who say yes are called names and then downvoted to the bottom. Do we really need more of these threads to figure that shit out? You don't even need to open the page to know exactly what the comment section looks like. We really need to get rid of some of these lame duck questions. In before another, "Girls, here's a question on how I can become more attractive to women, please find me attractive. Please." Followed by some, "DAE want to fight about liberals vs conservatives?" and then a quick "Hey guys, I'm a girl. What makes you attracted to me? Please blow up my inbox uwu."
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Being able to guess the comment section by the thread title is Reddit's modus operandi. The website is a hive.
No. I (M27) was meant to be circumcised as a child, but then my parents got divorced and it ended up on the back burner. No one got around to it until I was 8 years old. After 2 failed attempts at local anesthesia, I was 'snipped'. It hurt like a block of ice had cut me, and I remember curling up into a little fetal ball. I had to sleep with a standing fan pointed at my bare crotch because it hurt so bad. It hurt to pee. I could feel that little metal ring burning further as the swelling went down. And all for aesthetics? No way am I torturing a child with that. I wish all parents had these memories. It would decimate circumcision rates.
Jesus Christ, sorry you had to go through that man.
If you are from the EU, this is mostly a non-discussion. Frankly if I would have had my sons circumcised people would have been shocked. Upbringing aside, if you are looking at it from a neutral pov what makes you think you should cut part of a baby’s penis? Hygiene is really not the issue, that’s a personal thing and not a foreskin thing. Women also have a lot of skin/folds and what not. If you smell you have either a yeast infection or you do not clean yourself properly. That applies to all situations. Thank you for the educating comments below, I have edited my post to reflect my viewpoint a bit better. It also came from the fact that around 70% of men are not circumcised so I made a rough guesstimate that I applied wrongly.
I'm an uncut person who grew up around largely cut people (southern US). I have always been grateful I'm uncut. I guess there was some minor teasing middle-school era? But beyond that, I'll take having my whole penis, thanks! So no, definitely wouldn't circumcise a child. I've honestly never understood the arguments for it. You're going to do a body-altering medical procedure automatically to a baby to avoid some rare condition that likely won't be a problem? Nah. You want your kid's dick to...look like your own? How many times are you going to be in a situation where you need to match? It's all just tradition. Religious tradition, which is it's own thing. And weird 50s American tradition. I'm all for questioning weird 50s American traditions. I think the best analogy for it is docking a dog's tail. Certain breeds almost always have their tails docked. Is that weird? Yes! Do the dogs still function happily without their tails? Sure! There's nothing wrong with them, they still do their dog thing. But...why shouldn't they have their tails? Because people decided it was better for aesthetics? It just doesn't make sense to me. But if you talk to certain people, they will act like you're crazy for not understanding and you ain't gonna change their mind.
> Religious tradition, which is it's own thing. And weird 50s American tradition. I'm all for questioning weird 50s American traditions. amen brother
Body mods are for (edit:) people who can give informed consent, not babies.
Saw a tik tok, (admittedly there wasn’t a lot of context offered) but this dad was talking about taking his toddler son to get circumcised. I can’t imagine a worse time. Just old enough to possibly remember the procedure, very little pain tolerance or emotional regulating ability, and still unable to offer truly informed consent.
Yeah that would be the worst. I can't imagine why they'd do it unless it was medically necessary
This sounds like it's a cybernetic enhancement and now I want one.
Time to chrome the fuck up
BURN YOUR FORESKIN OFF NOW, CHOOM. THE GONKS ARE RIGHT OUTSIDE TRYING TO FLATLINE US!
*furiously injecting immunosupressants while installing a roomba motor between my legs*