can I avoid circumcision for ds aged 5??

[ernest]

My ds2 is (almost) 5 & has had several infections & the doctor has recommended circumcision (He suggested/ mentioned it a while ago & things obviously getting worse).

Ds1 has already been circumcised & I found the operation & recovery pretty awful - as did he of course!.

So is there really any way to avoid it? Will bathing him every day make a difference - currently just a couple of times a week unless filthy due to excema. Would it be better to just get it over & done with? His foreskin is very tight is there really any way of loosening it? Was told to encoourage him to play with it but he just doesn't. Has anyone had any success in these areas?

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I think they can do a few 'snips' in the forskin to loosen it or they can take off just the tip of the foreskin leaving the rest intact. Now someone here DS has had that 2nd op but I can't remember who?

ds had balanitis (inflammation of foreskin) earlier this year and they said if it recurred he might eventually need a circumcision.

my homeopath said that we should gently pull it back a little every night in the bath. at first this seemed to hurt him a bit (nothing major, but he didn't like it much ) and i was worried as the usual medical consensus is to leave the foreskin alone until it naturally comes back of it's own accord much later in life (ds was 20 months). however, it is now loose, doens't bother ds when we pull it gently back to get a little water under it in the bath (no soap or rubbing of course) and he hasn't had a twinge of an infection since.

my homeopath was v frustrated as she said that tight foreskins need to be slowly and gently loosened in order to avoid these problems but that doctors never give this advice in case over zealous parents cause more problems than they prevent.

you need to do it v v gently, every night so that gradually the foreskin loosens a little.

i hope this helps a bit.

in terms of repeated infections....ds's foreskin had been swollen several times before (not to balantis levels just a tiny bit) but since we've done this: nothing.

I am in a quandry, cod doc was saying the infections can cause scar tissue & loads of other problems . He's had 3 infections in the last 3 months, so don't want to delay & cause probs but don't want to rush into op either, given bad experoience with ds1's op (which was just removing end of foreskin not whole thing)

Unfortunately my son had to be circumcised in June at the age of 8 due to recurrent infections (balanitis obliterans) and he ended up with scar tissue around his foreskin. I was very upset (as was he) at the thought of having to have this operation but I have to say that everything is so much better now. I asked for a second opinion as I did not want my son to have this unless it was absolutely necessary. He healed very quickly, has no scar tissue and overall he is very happy with it as he no longer gets any infections.

An article in the Observer colour suplpement a couple of weeks ago mentioned less drastic measures than circumcision for repeated balanitis.
Perhaps you need to stress to the Dr that you very much want to avoid circumcision, and what alternatives might there be?